Hurricanes
he was too angry to get much out of it. A few more times through it, he fifinally began studying all that went wrong.
Meanwhile, in coaches’ meeting rooms, Diaz was taking stock of what needed fifixing. The 38 points were the most UM has conceded all season, although ample blame goes to the holes the defense had been put in by UM’s off ff ff ff ff ff en se. Still, when the opposing quarterback can go 23 of 29, it’s not what this defense is used to.
“We saw it on the sideline,” Diaz said. “We were just — we had a look in our eye that we had not seen from our guys.”
The moment of playing against Clemson, in the ACC title game, had caught up to UM. Wednesday, the Hurricanes reflflected on thee ff ff ff ff ff ffec ts of a bye week blown away by Hurricane Irma, eventually leaving the team physically worn down. They also reflflected on the mental toll of playing so many close games during the middle of the season. And, of course, the desire to push the losses to Pittsburgh and Clemson out of their heads.
“When you’re 18 to 22, you’re probably more resilient than the fans and the coaches even are,” Diaz said. “They’re certainly aware that we didn’t play our best, so I do think there’s a sense to right a wrong and to try to feel like a defense in particular that did so many great things over the course of the year. That this is our last opportunity for this group to play together and to go out and have a good performance. And to show everybody what this version of the Miami Hurricanes is all about.”
Diaz also hopes the experience of being on the big stage can be a long-term benefifit when the program enters Year 3 under Richt.
“We had an amazing year and we had a chance to get into the dance this year but we still look at this as a longterm deal,” Diaz said. So does Quarterman.
“There’ s just another level we have to get to,” he said. “We went from 9-4 to this great season so far and we’ve done great things, but there’s still another level of that college playoffs, those top four teams. To be one of those you have to be a welloiled machine. The margin of error is so small.”
In short, you can’t do some of the things the Hurricanes did early against Clemson.
“The fifirst third down of the game, there’s one guy they’re going to throw the ball to,” Diaz said. “They’re going to throw the ball to No. 13 (Hunter Renfrow). If we make a mistake, we should have had 11 guys covering No. 13. We had no one covering No. 13. So when you see guys making that type of error, and then in the huddle in between series, you just had this look — the expressions on their faces, that we were not yet in it ...” Quarterman saw it, too. “A couple of people,” he said.
The challenge Saturday night revolves around a Badgers team led by freshman running back Jonathan Taylor, who fifinished fourth in the nation with 1,847 yards. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry and scored 13 TDs.
Quarterman takes comfort knowing Diaz has had weeks to watch game tape over and over himself, conjuring ways to slow Taylor.
“A lot of bad stuff,” Quarterman said. “When he gets the time to really sit down and just roll it back as many times as he wants to, not worrying about classes that we have, it’s really good for us. The guy’s a genius.”