Diaz: UM needs to show ‘resilience’
Defensive coordinator upset over ‘feeling of entitlement.’
CORAL GABLES — Manny Diaz is calling out his defense after Miami’s season-opening loss to LSU.
The Hurricanes were embarrassed 33-17 Sunday night in a game that was much more lopsided than the score indicates. LSU scored 30 consecutive points (one TD coming on an interception return) after UM tied the score at 3.
The Hurricanes, who dropped 14 spots to No. 22 in The Associated Press poll, shuttled defensive players in and out of the game, using 15 defensive reserves in all, including three true freshmen.
When Diaz was asked if he planned to tighten the rotation, he used the opportunity to express his frustration.
“It might be the opposite,” the defensive coordinator said. “How many guys do you have that have proven they can play at a high level? If anything, we need to reduce the feeling of entitlement. We need a good old competition to find out who our best guys are, now that the games are here and we’re not reading about ourselves, to find out who’s really serious about this.”
The numbers, like the final score, were misleading as LSU gained 296 yards and converted just 3 of 16 third downs. But the performance was disappointing considering the Hurricanes’ experience at linebacker and in the
defensive backfield.
The most glaring play — the one that got the most attention and started LSU’s run — was the 50-yard touchdown run by Nick in which he found a huge gap on the right side of the UM front and went the rest of the way untouched.
Miami allowed just one play of at least 50 yards last season.
“I guess for any play that broke down, it was the same story: There were a lot of us doing our job and there were a few guys that didn’t,” defensive end Jon Garvin said. “Sometimes there’s a breakdown. We under- stand that it’s not accept- able to have those breakdowns, especially in a bigtime game like that.”
Diaz was most upset with the way the entire team responded after that run.
“We made a mistake on a long run and we didn’t resp o nd to it,” he said. “The whole football team, we dropped our gloves in the second quarter. Offense, defense, special teams, and that to me was the most disappointing part. We didn’t look like we were very mentally tough.
“For us to accomplish anything, we’ve got to show some resilience. And not the resilience to not surrender.”
Diaz’s mood filtered down to his players, who gathered for what junior linebacker Shaq Quarterman called “a lot of forthcomings” and “people getting stuff off their chest.”
Quarterman spoke of the importance of players speaking up. “It’s very important,” he said, adding that players always have had a voice at Miami.
“It can’t be the coaches. A coach-led team cannot win a championship. It has to be a player-led team. It has to be people on the team will- ing to step out front and be the one to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ We have a lot of those guys on the team.”
There were some bright spots, led by lineman Gerald Willis, who was named the ACC’s defensive lineman of the week for his eight tackles, four for loss, including a sack. The last Miami player with four tackles for loss in a game was Marcus Robinson in 2008.
And Diaz found time to praise a couple of true freshmen, Al Blades Jr. and D J Ivey, who saw more playing time after starting cornerback Trajan Bandy was ejected early for targeting.
“Al came in there and did not blink,” Diaz said. “It was not too big for him. I mean, he covered maybe their best guy foot-for-foot. Al was very encouraging the way he played in there.
“And then D J Ivey played the majority of the last third of the game and you had the same feeling with D J, it didn’t seem too big for D J. Did a nice job. Wasn’t challenged with a pass, but kind of did his job and looked like he knew what he was doing.”