Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Boss has things he would like to say
Diaz becoming more involved with defense to get things on track
CORAL GABLES — Miami Hurricanes defenders have now gotten to see a little bit of what’s different on their side of the ball since coach Manny Diaz announced he would become more involved with the defense.
Wednesday’s practice ahead of UM’s Friday night game against No. 20 Virginia marked the third since Miami’s 42-35 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday, which led Diaz to decide to dive deeper into the team’s defensive issues.
“He’s definitely on us [and] practice is really intense for sure,” redshirt freshman defensive end Gregory Rousseau said. “It was really all about the details, little things, and we’re really just trying to fine-tune our craft and get ready for Friday — just make sure everything’s in check and everything that we used to do, we’re still doing and just keep building.
“It’s different for every position, but it’s just the little stuff.”
Junior safety Amari Carter, however, hasn’t noticed much of a change, instead praising the consistent work of defensive coordinator Blake Baker.
“Nothing [is different]; everything is still the same,” Carter said. “Coach Baker does a great job doing his job. When Coach Baker came, he picked up what Coach Diaz was doing as D-coordinator.”
Diaz led Miami’s defense as coordinator for the previous three seasons and was set to take the head coaching position at Temple following the season before he quickly U-turned to accept the lead role at Miami following previous coach Mark Richt’s abrupt retirement.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Carter of having Diaz keep a closer eye, “but Coach Baker is still the Dcoordinator. It’s a little bit more communication, but there’s no falloff with him being here or when he was more with the offense. It’s pretty much the same thing. … We’re comfortable with whoever’s coaching us.”
Sophomore defensive tackle Nesta Silvera alluded to a “Miami standard” the coaches are demanding, like he used to identify what he hopes to get out of his play since returning from training camp foot surgery.
“Whether it’s Coach Diaz is with us more, if it’s Coach Baker, it’s a standard that the coaches are held to, that we’re held to, the trainers are held to,” Silvera said.
Diaz said his heightened oversight on the Miami defense was about bringing another voice to the unit and holding players accountable.
“I think it’s been good,” Diaz said Wednesday. “They’re unhappy with the performance on Saturday, so they want to be coached hard. They want to be held to an extraordinarily high standard, and that’s what I’ve been able to do.
“It’s been just getting back on that field and running around, chasing guys and getting after them. I expect we’ll play much better Friday than we did Saturday.”
On Monday, Diaz and Baker both noted that play-calling has not been the issue, and no change has been made concerning Baker’s play-calling duties on game days.
Pressed again about it on Wednesday, Diaz said, “That’s not something that we’ll be talking about publicly.”
Diaz did, however, get a little more specific Wednesday in revealing what he’s looking for by being around the defense more.
“I’m living in the gray areas, and what that means is that if there’s anything where there’s a young man who’s got any confusion for whatever reason or isn’t entirely sure of the reason why we do something, that’s where I strike,” Diaz said. “I’m starting to hear, ‘Well, what’s this?’ And here comes the gospel in terms of the ‘why we do it’ and ‘how we do it.’
“All of that was coming from our coaches. I’ve mentioned over and over again: I don’t think this was a coaching issue, but I think sometimes if you just don’t have the right combination of guys defensively where you have great leadership internally, which for whatever reason this year we just haven’t. And you don’t ever know that until you get in the season, just until the guys play their roles and you see the way that the guys connect with each other and the leadership that they have.
“There’s been a gap there for that this year that didn’t exist really in the last three years. I’ve got to jump into that gap and that’s really what I’ve done in the last couple days.”