Fresh off the Miami Hurricanes rout of Duke over the weekend, head coach Manny Diaz again emphasized the importance of finishing off Miami’s 8-1 season strong in their final two regular season contests.
“We’ve had success this year by focusing on the task at hand,” Diaz said. “We don’t want to sit around and beat our chest because we had a great performance at Duke and we’re ranked (#10). We have to rebuild the castle every week. We’re trying to rebuild the foundation of the program, it’s not there yet… We want players to not be satisfied.”
With CB Al Blades out with COVID issues, Miami’s young freshman cornerbacks were pressed into their first meaningful action against Duke, and Diaz felt Marcus Clarke (3 tackles, INT) and Isaiah Dunson (2 tackles) acquitted themselves well.
“We’ve improved at our pass defense throughout the year,” Diaz said. “But I don’t think we’ve had a challenge like we’ll have this week.”
Of course, the Canes will be going up against a UNC offense this week that is ranked 16th in the country with 315.9 passing ypg led by QB Sam Howell, and the Tar Heels are also 12th in scoring with 41.1 ppg.
“We put Duke to bed. It’s a team in North Carolina we have a lot of respect for, one of the best offenses in the entire country, a big challenge for our guys,” Diaz said. “There will be two great quarterbacks (playing) on Saturday.
“Their wideouts will be the best wideouts we play this year, the running backs the best 1-2 punch of running backs we play all year. The ability of them to put you in stress because of great backs, the RPO game - they can beat you with one on ones down the field.”
In addition to Blades, freshman QB Tyler Van Dyke missed an opportunity to get some action in the Duke game due to COVID issues; Blades and Van Dyke were among 15 players UM had out with COVID issues, the team’s largest number yet.
“We expect to get him back very soon,” Diaz said of Van Dyke. “We’re hoping the list will be much shorter this week. We have more tests to go. If everything goes good with the testing, it’ll be much smaller than last weekend.”
RB Jaylan “Rooster” Knighton and OL Jakai Clark both left the Duke game with injuries, but Diaz did not update their status.
“Rooster and Jakai are both still being evaluated,” Diaz said. “We’ll find out some more things about them hopefully through this evening.”
Diaz also praised the play of OL Navaughn Donaldson in his first game coming off injury, as well as LB Waynmon Steed in his first career start.
“I was really proud of both guys, mentioned them in team meetings,” Diaz said.
In recruiting, without any news on initial counter changes coming from the NCAA, Diaz is still operating under the usual rule of 25 counters per cycle, including transfers.
“There’s still no clarity in terms of will anybody be able to go above the 25 initials for a year,” Diaz said. “There’s going to be more players in the portal than spots available. When we find out what the rules are, we’ll find out if there’s ways to improve our football team and get the right fit. We like our high school class, want to be built with high school talent. If you have to fill in the cracks with a player that’s older, that opportunity is always there.”
Diaz did mention that he expects the NCAA to vote in January on how transfer numbers will be counted against the initial counter limit.
“It’ll be fascinating to watch, we’re living in real time history,” Diaz said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
The early signing period begins Wednesday, December 16th, but for the first time, the Canes will still be in their regular season with the finale against Georgia Tech the weekend afterward.
“It’s very unusual… You really have to trust the film, trust the football performance,” Diaz said. “Sometimes there are some other things that can sway your opinion one way or the other. I think one weird thing about this recruiting process - consistency over time is what builds trust. `Hey here’s a big shiny something to distract you with a weekend visit.’ (Now), it’s more who you are, how your relationships comes through over the phone, Zoom, FaceTime call.
“The downside, you miss being out there, talking to people in the schools, insight. You miss seeing practice, things you can’t see on film - body language, leadership-type skills. There’ll be some give and take, there’ll be some volatility in this class when they get to college. But on the flip size maybe people have made decisions for the right decision, not for a 48-hour weekend.”
“We’ve had success this year by focusing on the task at hand,” Diaz said. “We don’t want to sit around and beat our chest because we had a great performance at Duke and we’re ranked (#10). We have to rebuild the castle every week. We’re trying to rebuild the foundation of the program, it’s not there yet… We want players to not be satisfied.”
With CB Al Blades out with COVID issues, Miami’s young freshman cornerbacks were pressed into their first meaningful action against Duke, and Diaz felt Marcus Clarke (3 tackles, INT) and Isaiah Dunson (2 tackles) acquitted themselves well.
“We’ve improved at our pass defense throughout the year,” Diaz said. “But I don’t think we’ve had a challenge like we’ll have this week.”
Of course, the Canes will be going up against a UNC offense this week that is ranked 16th in the country with 315.9 passing ypg led by QB Sam Howell, and the Tar Heels are also 12th in scoring with 41.1 ppg.
“We put Duke to bed. It’s a team in North Carolina we have a lot of respect for, one of the best offenses in the entire country, a big challenge for our guys,” Diaz said. “There will be two great quarterbacks (playing) on Saturday.
“Their wideouts will be the best wideouts we play this year, the running backs the best 1-2 punch of running backs we play all year. The ability of them to put you in stress because of great backs, the RPO game - they can beat you with one on ones down the field.”
In addition to Blades, freshman QB Tyler Van Dyke missed an opportunity to get some action in the Duke game due to COVID issues; Blades and Van Dyke were among 15 players UM had out with COVID issues, the team’s largest number yet.
“We expect to get him back very soon,” Diaz said of Van Dyke. “We’re hoping the list will be much shorter this week. We have more tests to go. If everything goes good with the testing, it’ll be much smaller than last weekend.”
RB Jaylan “Rooster” Knighton and OL Jakai Clark both left the Duke game with injuries, but Diaz did not update their status.
“Rooster and Jakai are both still being evaluated,” Diaz said. “We’ll find out some more things about them hopefully through this evening.”
Diaz also praised the play of OL Navaughn Donaldson in his first game coming off injury, as well as LB Waynmon Steed in his first career start.
“I was really proud of both guys, mentioned them in team meetings,” Diaz said.
In recruiting, without any news on initial counter changes coming from the NCAA, Diaz is still operating under the usual rule of 25 counters per cycle, including transfers.
“There’s still no clarity in terms of will anybody be able to go above the 25 initials for a year,” Diaz said. “There’s going to be more players in the portal than spots available. When we find out what the rules are, we’ll find out if there’s ways to improve our football team and get the right fit. We like our high school class, want to be built with high school talent. If you have to fill in the cracks with a player that’s older, that opportunity is always there.”
Diaz did mention that he expects the NCAA to vote in January on how transfer numbers will be counted against the initial counter limit.
“It’ll be fascinating to watch, we’re living in real time history,” Diaz said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
The early signing period begins Wednesday, December 16th, but for the first time, the Canes will still be in their regular season with the finale against Georgia Tech the weekend afterward.
“It’s very unusual… You really have to trust the film, trust the football performance,” Diaz said. “Sometimes there are some other things that can sway your opinion one way or the other. I think one weird thing about this recruiting process - consistency over time is what builds trust. `Hey here’s a big shiny something to distract you with a weekend visit.’ (Now), it’s more who you are, how your relationships comes through over the phone, Zoom, FaceTime call.
“The downside, you miss being out there, talking to people in the schools, insight. You miss seeing practice, things you can’t see on film - body language, leadership-type skills. There’ll be some give and take, there’ll be some volatility in this class when they get to college. But on the flip size maybe people have made decisions for the right decision, not for a 48-hour weekend.”
