Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Diaz excited about defensive staff tweaks
Head coach to call plays, Van Dyke promoted, Simpson returns to staff
Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz touched on his team’s offseason developments Monday morning, including his decision to take on defensive play-calling duties, the promotion of DeMarcus Van Dyke to cornerbacks coach and the return of Jess Simpson as defensive line coach.
Diaz, who is heading into his third year at the helm for UM after spending the previous three as defensive coordinator under Mark Richt, announced he would call plays on defense over coordinator Blake Baker, who will be retained but with less game-day responsibility. Baker is also inside linebackers coach.
“When we don’t play defense to the standard of what we expect at Miami, it’s not just so much about the play calling, in particular, as if there’s a special secret to that,” Diaz told 560-AM. “It’s just about accountability. The accountability goes right to me for us to play great defense at UM. By putting myself in that role, what we are able to do as a staff is we can put the accountability then on the players because, then with the head coach calling the show on defense, there’s nowhere to hide now for our team.”
Van Dyke, a former Miami cornerback who played in the NFL, is now on the coaching staff after he was assistant director of recruiting the past two seasons.
“He’s been in our defensive room. He understands our corner
play,” Diaz said. “He’s been in our building, has done a phenomenal job while working our recruiting department. That’s a lot what it came down to. We felt like our recruiting presence needed a boost. What he can do on the field is what we want.”
Van Dyke remains with his alma mater with the promotion after, according to a source, he was set to take on the same role at Utah State where former UM safeties coach Ephraim Banda is now defensive coordinator. Former cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph also remains with the team but in a role in the recruiting department.
Going back and forth between Miami and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons over the past handful of seasons, Simpson is now back in Coral Gables, where he was also defensive line coach in 2018.
“Jess did a phenomenal job when he was here the first time,” Diaz said. “Our front play, our defensive line play, especially the way we played the run, was just phenomenal that year. That was lacking for us a year ago — not that it’s just all about front play. He’s so detailed. He brings NFL experience. Great guy to work for.”
Former defensive line coach Todd Stroud, 57, who has had health concerns, will now serve as senior football advisor.
In addition to the changes to the defensive staff and getting a slew of key upperclassmen to return for the 2021 season, Miami has been able to lock in a series of quality transfers that are immediately eligible to play.
Quarterback D’Eriq King, whom Diaz said Monday still has the same recovery timeline from his ACL tear to return in time for fall camp in August, will have a new weapon at wide receiver in Oklahoma transfer Charleston Rambo. Defensively, the Hurricanes plucked a pair of Miami Southridge grads from SEC schools in former Georgia cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and ex-Tennessee edge rusher Deandre Johnson.
“In Rambo’s instance, we felt like we had to have a receiver that could really blow the top off of a coverage and help us vertically,” Diaz said. “We were hit and miss, and when we were hit, we were hard to stop on offense — but a little bit too inconsistent down the field with the deep ball.”
Johnson heightens the competition at a position where Miami is losing its two starters in Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche to the NFL draft — that after Gregory Rousseau already opted out from the start of the past season to prepare for the same draft.
“Obviously, losing the two defensive ends we did a year ago, we felt like we needed an older guy to come in and challenge our young ones that we think are going to be really good,” Diaz said.
Stevenson’s addition solidifies a cornerback group that was looking thin for 2021 as junior Al Blades Jr. recovers from myocarditis and, after junior DJ Ivey and sophomore Te’Cory Couch, only returns freshmen Isaiah Dunson and Marcus Clarke while bringing in one incoming recruit in Fort Myers Bishop Verot’s Malik Curtis.
“With Tyrique in the secondary, we needed help there,” Diaz said. “We needed more competition at corner. Our numbers were below where they should’ve been, so [we were] able to add a guy.”