Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Diaz provides some clarity on roster
Coach updates physical status of a few pivotal players
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With their season opener against Florida a little more than a month away, the Hurricanes are set to report for football training camp July 25 before taking the field the next morning for their first practice.
At Thursday’s ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte, coach Manny Diaz said he expects most of the players who dealt with injuries during spring drills earlier this year — including tight end Brevin Jordan, striker Zach McCloud and center Corey Gaynor, to name a few — to be ready to take the field.
Miami’s injury-plagued linebacking corps, though, will continue having to fight through its depth issues.
Diaz said that neither Waynmon Steed (knee) nor Bradley Jennings (groin) will participate early in camp, with the coach describing both of their ailments as “long-term injuries.” Meanwhile, Patrick Joyner — who moved from defensive end to linebacker during the spring in an effort to try and add depth that stricken position group — will be limited after suffering a “lower leg injury” while running during an offseason workout.
Joyner has not been ruled out of playing in the opener on Aug. 24, Diaz said. And while depth is still thin at the position, the coach is confident at least one newcomer, former Miami Northwestern standout Samuel Brooks, will be able to provide help.
“There’s certainly different guys we feel can fill in right there,” Diaz said. “The guy we’re really excited about, that is on campus right now, is Sam Brooks. He’s picking things up really easily … But obviously, in early days, I would imagine we’ll have a very, very similar posture to what we had a year ago when Shaq [Quarterman] and [Mike] Pinckney and those are guys are already on the field … We’ve got to get Zach on the field and again, I think we have the three best inside linebackers, as good as anybody in the country.
“I don’t feel badly about that spot, and I feel really good about the future of that spot with what we have and what we’ve been recruiting.”
Diaz also shared that several of Miami’s incoming players may also miss the start of camp, though he expects they will resolve their eligibility issues in the near future.
Graduate transfer Bubba Bolden, a former safety at USC, is still finishing a class that will delay his arrival in Miami until some point during camp. Meanwhile, Diaz noted former St. Thomas Aquinas standout Avery Huff and former Virginia Tech defensive end Trevon Hill have both finished all the necessary classwork to enroll at Miami, though both are still waiting for final eligibility issues to be resolved.
Hill, who had shoulder surgery in January, should be ready to participate in practice once those issues are resolved and Diaz said he expects the defensive end to be available against Florida.
Diaz reiterated that linebacker Jaelan Phillips, a UCLA transfer, will sit out the season. He, too, is working on completing his enrollment at Miami.
ACC Kickoff rookie
Diaz, who as Miami’s new coach was making his first appearance at ACC Kickoff, joked Thursday that he sought out one of his veteran leaders, Quarterman, to give him some guidance on how to handle the barrage of questions he’d likely face.
Quarterman made his second appearance at the event on Thursday after representing Miami in Charlotte in 2017.
“I’m probably the first head coach to stand up here who has been to less of these than the defensive representative,” Diaz joked. “This is Shaq’s second [time], my first. Luckily I could lean on him for some veteran advice.”
Quarterman, meanwhile, couldn’t keep from raving about his former defensive coordinator-turned-coach.
“I love that guy. It takes nothing for me to want to play for him as hard as I can. He earns it. He’s never lied to me. Everything he tells us to do, he does it in his own way,” Quarterman said. “Play to the end of the whistle? He coaches to the end of the whistle. He does everything that we do, and for that, I respect him. You can’t do anything but respect him. When he got the job and he called me the next morning, I was ecstatic. I was ecstatic.”
Getting social
Diaz has, since being named Miami’s coach back in December, been quite active on social media, his posts on Twitter often sending Hurricanes fans into a frenzy, whether he’s subtly acknowledging a prospect’s commitment or hinting about another transfer heading to Coral Gables.
While he admitted Thursday he enjoys having fun on social media and that his using Twitter and Instagram may have given Miami a much-needed boost after the way the season ended, Diaz made it clear none of what happens online will have any bearing on what happens on the field.
“For us, it gets real a week sooner than anybody else. I walk up and down these hallways, see these coaches who are like, I just got back from vacation. Well, we’re on. We report one week from today. We practice in eight days. So it’s here for the Miami Hurricanes,” Diaz said, referring to UM’s opener being moved a week earlier this year. “As much fun as we’ve had on social media, that has helped alleviate some of the clouds that were on top of our program. [But] what has been happening on the inside is real.
“That’s been what these guys have been doing with David Feeley, our strength and conditioning coach, while no one has been watching,” Diaz continued. “There’s no hashtag for what is going on on that field, in that weight room. I promise you, that will have a lot more to do with our success than the fun we’re having on Twitter. But we’ll still have fun on Twitter.”