Canes hope bye brings health
Diaz on getting players back: ‘The challenge is not getting easier’
The No. 11 Miami Hurricanes prepare for a Friday night game at N.C. State hopeful they can get some players back that were unavailable against Virginia on Oct. 24, the last time UM played before the byeweek.
Junior tight end Brevin Jordan has had extra time to recover froma shoulder/neck injury that kept him out the last two games and was described as “healthy, like we expected for this game” by Miami coach Manny Diaz on Monday.
Diaz declined to address the potential return of the six apparent coronavirus-related scratches from that Saturday night against Virginia when he spoke with reporters after Monday’s practice, but earlier in the morning, he touched on the situation in general in an intervieww ith 560-AM.
“We still got three more tests between now and the game,” Diaz said, without identifying which players may have an update in their status .“You take every day’s news as it comes.”
It was six freshmen that were surprisingly unavailable for the 19-14 victory over the Cavaliers: Wide receivers Michael Red ding III and Xavier Restrepo, linebacker Corey Flagg, safety Brian Balom, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke and defensive lineman Elijah Roberts. Of those, Redding, Restrepo, Flagg and Balom would’ve figured to factor into the game in some capacity.
One of them, it turns out, was not unavailable due to a positive COVID-19 test or contact tracing but, rather, showed symptoms and was held out due to another illness.
“The other added piece—this is kind of common this time of year — is people just get sick this time of year, just normal illnesses, and you have to hold guys out,” Diaz said. “We held a guy out for the Virginia game that just was sick because you have symptoms and you’ re not sure. It’s 2020. This is what we’re all dealing with.”
Miami will also test on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of the Friday night game after Monday’s round of testing.
“We’re going to try like heck to have a football team that we can stick on an airplane and fly to Raleigh on Thursday to go play on Friday,” Diaz said. “The challenge is not getting easier. It’s getting harder as the year goes on.”
The combination of the Friday game, the idle week preceding it and Election Day on Tuesday being a mandatory day off for NCAA athletes had the Hurricanes approaching Monday’s practice like they normally would a Wednesday. After Tuesday, Wednesday would be like a Thursday in a usual week, and the team travels on Thursday.
Getting players healthy is one advantage of UM’s final bye, which precedes a five-week home stretch of ACC games to finish the regular season. The Hurricanes also had time to analyze players from the scope of how opponents would view them and want to attack them.
“We had the coaches make point-of-attack tapes for all their players,” Diaz said, “where they could really analyze ‘look, halfway through the season this is what opponents see out of you; here are some things that are giving you trouble; here are some things you’re doing well, and let’s really focus on our weaknesses.’”
Two areas where Miami could use a midseason boost are on the offensive line, only paving theway for 2.8 yards per rush the past three games, and in its linebacker play.
“I see a line that’s getting better,” Diaz said. “We’re trying to figure out what the issues are in terms of more consistent run game or protection. I think we act, at times, like the offensive line operates in a vacuum.”
Diaz noted that Virginia’s same defense that collected 11 tackles for loss against Miami also had a good showing stopping the run in an upset win over previously ranked North Carolina on Saturday.
“Our guys are getting better,” he said. “It’s good to have all of our guys back in the lineup, and certain guys are going to have a better performance week in and week out.”
Diaz feels starting linebackers
Bradley Jennings Jr. and Zach Mc Cloud can benefit from reviewing the film.
“We can certainly play better there,” Diaz said. “I think putting those tapes together and showing the plays that have given those guys issues, I think has helped see some things that have been good for them.
“We’ ve got to keep pushing some of the competition behind them, as well. We’ve got to get some of the young guys healthy and back onthe field because that’s madeus better. I think it’s been a good week for those guys, and we expect all of them to play better the second half of the season than they did the first half.”