Diaz hopes to see changes with targeting foul calls

Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz has already drawn inspiration early this season from the Miami Heat’s surprising run to the NBA Finals, which ended Sunday night in a Game6 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now, he’d also like tosee a college football rule adjusted to be modeled after something the NBA does.

After No. 13 Miami was called for two targeting penalties in Saturday night’s 42-17 loss at No. 1 Clemson, Diaz made the suggestion of splitting targeting calls into two categories, judging intent, similar to what NBA does with flagrant fouls.

“I wish we had a Flagrant-1, Flagrant-2 type system — Targeting-1, Targeting-2,” Diaz told 560-A Mon Monday morning in a sentiment echoed from his Saturday night postgame comments at Clemson. “We’ve taken the intent of that real nasty hit across themiddle of the field — I think we’ve taken that out of the game in a goodway.”

The NBA define sits Flagrant-1 as “unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent.” It adds “excessive” into its definition for a Flagrant-2, which is the foul that results in an ejection.

Diaz said there was nomal-intent when senior safety Amari Carter hit Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence as he slid at the end of a scramble in the first half Saturday or when striker Keontra Smith delivered a blow to Lawrence’s body on a second-half throw from the pocket.

The Hurricanes also had targeting called against safety Gurvan Hall in the second half of their previous game against Florida State. Still disqualified for the first half Saturday, UM had to play freshman Brian Balom after Carter’s ejection and before Hall’s return. Smith will now miss thefirst half of Saturday’s home game against Pittsburgh.

“It’s unfair what it looks like in slow motion as to what it is in real life,” Diaz said. “That is happening so fast. You see Amari’s getting off a block — is he getting pushed in the back? If Amari wanted to hit him, he would’ve hit him, and it would’ve been a bad down for [Lawrence]. He’s trying to pull out of it, but there’s still contact, and by the letter of the law, that’s a flag.

“It’s not the officials on the field that call that. That comes from the officials upstairs, and by the rules that they’ ve been given by whoever makes the rules, they’ve got to [enforce] that.”

Diaz says, nonetheless, Carter has to be disciplined and hold up when looking for those bigger hits.

“Amari’s got a reputation now,” Diaz said. “Everybody knows he’s a big hitter, and if a quarterback is running toward Amari Carter, the quarterback’s going to slide. He’s just going to slide. … Trevor Lawrence loves his career. He loves his health. He’s not going to run overAmari Carter. It’s going to be a bad deal for him, so Amari just needs to know and anticipate that that guy’s going to slide.”

As the Hurricanes now transition from playing No. 1 Clemson in prime time to hosting Pittsburgh in a noon kickoff, Diaz said the team needs to “get over this Miami arrogance that we should always beat these teams. We say that, but these are the things that haven’t happened over the past decade. … ‘We should always — well, guess what. We haven’t always.’

“Our next two weeks, we play the two teams that have won our division the last two years [Virginia to follow]. … Just like before Clemson or FSU, Louisville or any other game, we have to rebuild the process of what it takes to win a football game. Obviously, when you win, you don’t get to carry the win into the followingweek’s game, but the same thing is true when you lose. We don’t start the game down, 7-0 to Pitt. It’s a new week, and our work and our preparation when we get back together on Tuesday will say a lot about howwe play on Saturday.”

Diaz added perspective to his morning comments in an afternoon web conference with reporters.

“What we just talked about in here is just having a respect, thatwe can’t just think ‘We’re Miami, so we should be more talented than Pitt or Virginia,’ “Diaz said. “Because we’ve been saying that for many years. Our players have been hearing

that for many years, regardless of who the head coach is, and it’s not been serving them well.

“We have to understand that our chance of victory comesto our level of preparation, our level of work, our level of staying together and believing in the team.”