Diaz keeps his hopes up about season
Hurricanes coach working to be prepared for the start
Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz believes the college football season can proceed in the fall after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the
NCAA’s winter and spring championships.
“I do think there will be college football,” Diaz said in a web conference with reporters Friday afternoon. “I think that’s been pretty consistent. The optimism [is there] from our leaders on campus and the conference, throughout the country.”
Diaz’s remarks come after ACC Commissioner John Swofford voiced similar confidence Thursday. Both agree developments in the coming months will dictate whether the notion will become reality.
In the meantime, Diaz and his coaching staff are working to be best prepared for the moment the team is allowed to reconvene.
“I think we’re all trying to confirm a universal start date for practice, that every school has the same opportunity to get their team ready,” said Diaz, after the
outbreak of COVID-19’s halt to all college athletic activities in March included spring football practice.
“We feel like a six-week time period would be the minimum it would take to get our guys ready. We have worked on contingencies if somehow it were less.”
Diaz noted that different players have different circumstances at home in terms of what’s available to them to stay in shape. Coaches and trainers would have to focus in on conditioning when the team first gets back together.
“The sooner we get everybody together again and assess what their conditioning level is — when that happens, and maybe that’s only six weeks before the first game, but whatever it is we’re going to make it work,” Diaz said. “As long as everyone is somewhat on the same page of what we get practice-wise, I think the spirit of competition will be intact for the football season.”
In the SEC, a vote is being held on whether the conference’s schools can begin to allow players back on campus in June. Diaz was uncertain if any similar timeline could be followed for the ACC’s schools.
“We’ll see,” Diaz said. “Who decides who gets back on campus is a government decision. That’s not something that leagues decide. It’s a decision of what’s going on in your city versus your city, your state versus your state.
“I think we all have to follow our elected leadership, and when they give us a green light, then we go from there.”
Players recently completed the spring semester at UM, the last two months of which was completed in an online setting. This is a week students had off before those participating in summer courses restart their academics remotely. Diaz said in addition to distributing home workouts to players and meeting regularly online, the team has watched film on 2020 opponents and had guest speakers among the football alumni talk to players.
Diaz said Miami players who are recovering from surgeries will be able to check in to UM medical facilities for treatment beginning next week. He said no injured players have had setbacks since they were all sent home in March.