Diaz discusses first scrimmage, injuries

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Stefan Adams

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The Miami Hurricanes held their first spring scrimmage on Saturday and when asked about the performance of the QB’s, head coach Manny Diaz didn’t tip much of his hand when talking to the media after Tuesday’s practice.

“I don’t know that there was a best, I think they all know they have to play a lot better for us to win games,” Diaz said.

Diaz pointed out that all three contenders for the starting QB role are still learning the playbook and haven’t yet mastered where to go on every play just yet.

“When we have that, we’ll be able to evaluate what we really have,” Diaz said. “We want to be an offense that’s difficult to defend, force the defense into a lot of decision-making. In the passing game there’s going to be an answer for the quarterback.”

WR Jeff Thomas has had a standout spring after returning to the team and Diaz feels Thomas now understands what is expected from him day in and day out at Miami.

“Without getting into the details of how we do things he understands there’s a consistent structure, he knows exactly where the lines are drawn and any crossing of the line results in this and if you walk the line it’s this,” Diaz said.

Sophomore LB Waynmon Steed is undergoing surgery after sustaining a knee injury in Saturday’s scrimmage, but Diaz says sophomore LB BJ Jennings has been stepping up this play this entire spring and is ready to handle a larger role after taking a redshirt year in 2018.

“Jennings is doing great, will be able to play the role that Mike Smith did a year ago, train at MIKE and WILL, push him on the field more,” Diaz said. “We think he has a great future. Beyond that, we’ll be counting on some young guys (at LB).”

Sophomore center Corey Gaynor was also held out today with an undisclosed injury.

“He’s a day-to-day type thing,” Diaz said. “He’s a guy we can count on along the offensive line.”

Diaz also mentioned sophomore RB Robert Burns would miss the rest of spring with a knee injury, but would be fine for fall camp.

With Miami showing a lot of I-formation and off-balance sets, redshirt freshman FB Realus George looks like he will play a role in OC Dan Enos’ offense this season after sitting out his rookie year in 2018.

“He has made a jump, he really has,” Diaz said. “He’s come out here and been a physical presence in our downhill running game.”
 
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Did anyone ever really expect to get production out of Burns? I figured anything he was able to give us would be a bonus.
 
Diaz also mentioned sophomore RB Robert Burns would miss the rest of spring with a knee injury, but would be fine for fall camp.
What a surprise.
Obviously he's probably the most frustraded with his injuries, but somebody told me one time we should only take 2 RBs in 2020 because we have Burns on the roster and that is ridiculuous, guy can't stay healthy, he doesn't have the body to be a FB player let alone RB
 
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What a surprise.
Obviously he's probably the most frustraded with his injuries, but somebody told me one time we should only take 2 RBs in 2020 because we have Burns on the roster and that is ridiculuous, guy can't stay healthy, he doesn't have the body to be a FB player let alone RB

It's more frustrating that we didn't take one last cycle. I'm not worried about 20 as much as this year. We will have 3 guys coming in next year with Chaney, Martin, and one more. There's no more bodies this fall coming at RB. Right now we only have 2 RBs for practice.
 
It's more frustrating that we didn't take one last cycle. I'm not worried about 20 as much as this year. We will have 3 guys coming in next year with Chaney, Martin, and one more. There's no more bodies this fall coming at RB. Right now we only have 2 RBs for practice.

You've had 2 guys get hurt this spring (Martin & now Burns), plus Lingard is still out. You can't plan for that.

In the fall, you've got 5 scholarship backs to practice with, 4 who can play in games. That's fine. And you don't lose anyone for 2020, so you'll have 5 scholarship backs, plus Chaney and whoever they pair him with. It's fine. Having only Deejay and Cam right now for the spring isn't ideal, but there wasn't a need to reach at RB in the 2019 class when you were already getting Martin.
 
You've had 2 guys get hurt this spring (Martin & now Burns), plus Lingard is still out. You can't plan for that.

In the fall, you've got 5 scholarship backs to practice with, 4 who can play in games. That's fine. And you don't lose anyone for 2020, so you'll have 5 scholarship backs, plus Chaney and whoever they pair him with. It's fine. Having only Deejay and Cam right now for the spring isn't ideal, but there wasn't a need to reach at RB in the 2019 class when you were already getting Martin.
I disagree. 4 backs is an issue when one is coming off a knee injury. Jalen Mitchell wasn’t a reach. We could always push out Burns if numbers become an issue.
 
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What a surprise.
Obviously he's probably the most frustraded with his injuries, but somebody told me one time we should only take 2 RBs in 2020 because we have Burns on the roster and that is ridiculuous, guy can't stay healthy, he doesn't have the body to be a FB player let alone RB

Guarantee it was brock
 
I disagree. 4 backs is an issue when one is coming off a knee injury. Jalen Mitchell wasn’t a reach. We could always push out Burns if numbers become an issue.

4 backs is not an issue at all. Especially when you really have 5, and the 5th one can take practice reps.

I really don't see how you can think this is a problem, and the solution to it would've been Jalen Mitchell. There aren't many P5 teams who have more than 5 scholarship RBs. FSU has 3. UF has 5.

We have much bigger problems than a practice rotation in the fall of Deejay, Cam, Lingard, Burns, and Martin.
 
I hope some of the dog-piling on QB performance by staff during spring is just for motivation.

I don't know if it's for motivation as much as it is the bar was raised. I truly believe all three guys have taken a next step and are much improved from last year, but the bar has been set higher than last year. So while they've improved, they still haven't met expectations. Sounds great to me.
 
Burns smh.

It’s like, I knew it was coming. But I didn’t because you never know. But really I knew.

From reports, Burns is getting his knee scoped as a precautionary measure before the season begins. Let’s see if he can recover, rehab, and come back to play a role this year at the tailback position. If he can, he will add very good depth for us behind Lo, DJ, and Cam.
 
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