Diaz: Hurricanes embracing standards for player accountability, competition
Following the win at Pittsburgh last Saturday, Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz said the team could’ve gone one of two ways, and it could’ve easily been the wrong one instead of the way players came together.
After the team overcame that adversity coming off a bad loss to a Georgia Tech team that entered with one win on Oct. 19 and it led to a 16-12 victory against the Panthers, Diaz sees a glimpse of the bigger picture coming to fruition.
“I think our guys finally started to get it,” said Diaz at his Monday afternoon press conference, offering some insight into the moment players had together. “There were some things said. Players did speak. There were some hard truths mentioned, and I think the biggest concept our guys understood is we are all tied to one another. Anyone’s individual success is tied to our collective success. If somebody is not pulling their weight, it is hurting their fellow teammates.”
That kind of accountability among players inside the locker room is, according to Diaz, the No. 1 key for the Hurricanes to return to a standard established when the program was winning national championships.
“I’ve been preaching — and we’ve been preaching as a coaching staff — what it means to play for the Miami Hurricanes and that standard set by those that came before us,” Diaz said. “And one of the key things is player accountability. Every former player that has come and spoken to our football team has talked about controlling the locker room and guys were accountable to one another, and some guys back in the day weren’t fit to be a Miami Hurricane because they couldn’t hold up to that standard.”
Diaz feels the lack of player accountability has been a problem that has persisted for too long in Miami.
“This is not something that popped up in 2019,” he said. “This has been the cycle that’s been going on here for a while, and that could be the reason why the winloss record has been the way it’s been. That could be the reason why guys sometimes get drafted where they shouldn’t have been. There’s that different type of peer accountability that, really, you have to have to take us to the next level.”
With a standard established at certain positions, senior leaders can pass along what they know to younger players — take, for example, linebacker.
“[Freshman] Sam Brooks can look at [senior] Shaq Quarterman and say, ‘I want to be that when I grow up,’” Diaz said. “That’s what the big-time programs have. They have the older guys that set the standard that the younger guys want to be them.”
Diaz added that Quarterman, Michael Pinckney and Zach McCloud, who all had to start as freshmen in 2016, didn’t have older players to bring them along before they had to endure the pressure of being needed to perform on the field.
Then, it’s about bringing that type of atmosphere into the position groups that lack it.
“That’s all been a process of what we’ve been trying to put together in the quarterback room,” said Diaz, who did not name a starter between Jarren Williams and N’Kosi Perry for this Saturday’s game at Florida State on Monday.
“One of the tasks [offensive coordinator] Dan Enos was put in charge of when he came here was to change the culture of our quarterback room. The way that they prepared, the way that they worked, the way that they carried themselves around campus, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is part of building a program in Year 1.”
While the Hurricanes are working toward establishing that level of accountability at quarterback, Diaz likes where the position is in another respect.
“The second element to Miami Hurricane success — one is player accountability — two is competition,” Diaz said. “The great thing we have in the quarterback room is competition. We have two guys that we know that we can win with.”
He added that recruiting will ultimately be a key component, both in bringing in talent and bringing in players with the right attitude, in determining how far along Miami can come with regard to building competition.
Diaz emphasized the change over the past week has been player-driven.
“I’m not going to pretend I snapped my fingers,” Diaz said. “It wasn’t me saying it. It wasn’t the coaches saying it. It was the players saying it, and that’s what had to happen. They had to set what it means to be a ‘Cane, and you’re either being a ‘Cane or you’re not being a ‘Cane. That was really cool for us to see a week ago.
“What we know now, at least, is we know the road map, and I think our guys understand what works and what doesn’t work.”