Diaz announces hires, promotions

Changes affect player personnel and recruiting

CORAL GABLES – As the Hurricanes move closer to the start of spring practice, new coach Manny Diaz continues putting his imprint all over the Miami program.

On Thursday, Diaz announced several hires and promotions on the Hurricanes’ support staff, including the hire of Andy Vaughn as the director of player personnel and the promotions of staffers David Cooney and DeMarcus Van Dyke.

Cooney, who worked as an offensive quality control assistant for Miami the past two seasons, will now be the Hurricanes’ director of recruiting, and Van Dyke will serve as the assistant director of recruiting. In addition to those moves, former player personnel assistant and on-campus recruiting coordinator Tyler Stevens has been named UM’s new coordinator of player personnel.

“We are thrilled to have our football staff in place as we approach the start of spring football,” Diaz said in a statement announcing the hires and promotions. “This is a group that firmly believes in our vision and culture and will help us achieve excellence in all facets of the program going forward.”

Last month after the Hurricanes’ wrapped up the 2019 recruiting cycle with a class that lacked the star power of past Miami classes, Diaz made sweeping changes to the Hurricanes’ recruiting department, firing former director of player personnel Matt Doherty, along with fellow recruiting staffers Chip Francoforte and Jarrod Kilburn.

Now, that department will be led by Vaughn — who worked previously with Diaz at Middle Tennessee State while both were there in 2008, Diaz as the defensive coordinator, Vaughn in football operations. A former tight end at North Greenville University, Vaughn spent last season as the senior director of recruiting and high school relations at Arizona. Before that, he was the director of football and recruiting operations at Nebraska for three years. He also spent time at Clemson.

Cooney and Van Dyke, meanwhile, will transition from coaching to recruiting.

“We are excited to welcome Andy to the UM family,” Diaz’s statement continued. “He has an extensive background in evaluating players and coordinating recruiting efforts, and will provide experienced leadership to the overall structure of our recruiting operation.

“The transition from coaching to recruiting has been seamless for David and DeMarcus. They both bring a tremendous amount of energy to talent acquisition and building those critical relationships with recruits, family members and high school coaches. Tyler will continue to be a great asset to our recruiting department.”

Diaz also announced several moves in Miami’s quality control and player development departments, with former Hurricanes offensive lineman Joel Rodriguez taking over as Miami’s senior quality control analyst on offense, while Mike Zuckerman has been named the senior quality control analyst on defense.

Both were previously with the Hurricanes, Rodriguez serving as the director of player development and Zuckerman was a quality control analyst and graduate assistant.

Miami has also hired three new quality control coaches, with Jesse Stone and David Parker working with the offense and Jesse Byrd working with the defense.

Stone, who spent the last three seasons as a graduate assistant at Georgia, previously worked as a student assistant at Arkansas under Hurricanes offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Dan Enos.

Meanwhile, Jorge Baez will now serve as Miami’s director of player development, while former graduate assistant Alex Devine is the Hurricanes’ new assistant director of player development.

Thursday’s moves at Miami come just two days after the school announced a significant on-field coaching change, with Todd Stroud taking over as the Hurricanes’ defensive line coach after Jess Simpson left the program to take the same job with the Atlanta Falcons.