Head coach Manny Diaz had a presser Monday afternoon to address some of the team issues stemming from the Duke game and beyond, beginning with the QB situation; N’Kosi Perry replaced Jarren Williams in the 4th quarter in UM’s previous game against the Blue Devils, but Diaz said the QB decision is still up in the air for the bowl game vs. Louisiana Tech.
“We’re going to come back and see what happens in practice,” Diaz said. “It’ll be a performance of everything in the month of December - academic performance in terms of dependability of doing the right things off the field and all those things. We’ll get a sense as we get through this week, as we practice, put our best plan forward.”
Defensive ends Jonathan Garvin and Trevon Hill won’t play vs. Louisiana Tech to prepare for the NFL Draft, but Diaz doesn’t expect anybody else to miss the bowl.
“There’s no one else that’s said that, but that’s the new normal now,” Diaz said. “We’ll have a better sense I would imagine by the end of next weekend. We have had some guys that are going to play, but I don’t want to get into who is in, who is out… Every case is unique because every guy is a at a different spot in terms of (A) their career, (B) what their expectation is going forward, what their status is at the next level.”
Without the pair, Diaz is expecting some of the younger defensive ends, as well as the roster’s younger players in general, to see more of a role vs. the Bulldogs.
“We look at this as a bridge to 2020, work in next year’s team this year… we want to push those (younger) players into the game,” Diaz said. “Jahfari Harvey, this is why we kept him with one game left (to retain his redshirt) - he’s got an opportunity to go out there because he’s been a problem in practice to block. He’s got a chance to factor in at defensive end next year with Jaelan Phillips, Cameron Williams back next year (too).”
Over the past week, the Miami staff has turned much of their focus to the 2020 recruiting class to lock up certain available targets and retain the current commitments.
“I’ve had the opportunity to home visit over half of (the commits) - they are not just solid, they are committed. They want to be part of the solution. And they want that to happen right away,” Diaz said. “Their energy, excitement, the way they look you in the eye… They see it, see a bond. And sometimes that’s what it takes, a class that has a special something about it. That starts with leadership, we have some great leaders in that class that guys want to rally around and guys want to play together. That actually helps attract a few more guys into that class because there’s something about it.
“We’ve seen there’s talent, seen there’s mentality - your mentality is what carries you through college football - talent takes you only so far. The mentality of this class is what separates them and some can come in midyear and get immediately into our offseason program, something we’re excited about.”
What does Diaz consider to be a “win” on Signing Day?
“If we can finish on these last few targets - the last steps to make our 2020 team as good as it can be,” Diaz said. “We had a great weekend this past weekend.”
Miami’s offense finished near the bottom of most major categories in 2019 during the regular season. Asked about how the offense can improve on their performance next season, Diaz said the team is still focusing on finishing out recruiting and beating Louisiana Tech before turning the page to next year.
“What I’ll tell you is what we looked at with offense, the same as defense - what are the reasons for our inconsistency and let’s evaluate those things and make sure we put ourselves in the best position to win this bowl game,” Diaz said. “That’s it. Right now, we are focusing on recruiting and when recruiting ends, it’s what do we need to do to get our guys in the best position to play our best in Shreveport. And then we’ll go on from there. And that’s not offense, that’s an entire (team) issue. We have a body of work now - why when it was good was it good, and why when it was bad was it bad? And make sure we put on a great performance against Louisiana Tech.”
Will there be staff changes heading into the 2020 season?
“What I’m saying right now is our season is not over,” Diaz said. “Let’s finish the season. Let’s get a plan together to play our best in the bowl game and let’s see what we like and didn’t like and what we need to improve from there. That’s what we owe our players and the program.”
Both Diaz and defensive coordinator Blake Baker formerly coached at La. Tech, with Baker coming over to UM just last season after spending 5 straight years with the Bulldogs, and Diaz still has good memories of his time there.
“They have a great fan base there, a lot of tradition at that school,” Diaz said. “It’ll make for a great environment, there’s no doubt. They’ll have a ton of fans there - that’s okay, a good challenge for our guys; we understand we’ll have some adversity. That will focus our attention for this game. Skip Holtz has done a fantastic job, they had a great season. They lost a couple of games toward the end without their starting quarterback. I have a lot of respect for Skip, a lot of fond memories of my time.”
With the Canes failing to provide much pushback against struggling programs like FIU and Duke in recent weeks, some have questioned whether UM will really get up for a lower-tier bowl game against a Group of 5 opponent.
“That comes down to your habits, the way you work, the way guys are working now with coach (David) Feeley in workouts while we’re out recruiting,” Diaz said. “And getting to define what our consistency of performance is. That’s what we’re trying to establish as a program. When we begin to realize the opponent is always ourselves - that’s a big step forward for this program.”
How has the team’s attitude been during this 2-game losing streak and heading into the bowl game?
“It’s too early to declare and say `here’s how they are.’ When we went out there Saturday, being back on the field and getting back in that practice habit, that was good for us. But we have to find out. It’s just (about) how we work,” Diaz said. “There are opportunities for next year’s leadership to start to establish themselves on the team instead of waiting till the offseason program in January and February. Some of those guys we think do have an opportunity to step up currently in our sophomore and junior class - (they) can take the reins of the team and start to fill in that void which maybe they felt they were too young to do either because of their status or age.”
Diaz also mentioned that OL Navaughn Donaldson will miss the bowl game due to injury, but that RB Cam’Ron Harris and OL John Campbell are expected back in action; all three left the Duke game with injuries.
