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On Monday, Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz addressed some of the rumors regarding the interest in OC Rhett Lashlee from other programs to fill their head coaching positions next season.
“What we have now is a system that we want to build on,” Diaz said. “Look, that’s a compliment to our program. I know from being caught up in those rumors myself, a lot were just rumors. We think we can create a great standard of living here for our coaches you can’t find other places.”
If Lashlee were to leave UM, Diaz was asked if wide receivers coach Rob Likens, who has prior offensive coordinator experience, would be a candidate to fill that vacancy.
“We love our coaches we have on our staff and it’s great we have multiple coaches with coordinator experience, but it’s unfair (to speculate with hypotheticals),” Diaz said.
After winning their fourth straight game on Saturday and defeating Virginia Tech, Diaz commented on the close victory that saw UM overcome a double-digit second half deficit in Blacksburg.
“A great team effort, faced a lot of adversity,” Diaz said. “It was our drive, passion, resilience in the fourth quarter. Our best ball is still out there, which is exciting.”
Despite Diaz’s hope that the worst was behind them, Miami’s issues with COVID-19 continued this weekend, and the program saw the number of unavailable players (13 vs. VT) increase for the third straight week. It got to the point where the game was in jeopardy, according to Diaz. (UPDATE: The ACC later postponed Miami’s next two games for COVID related issues following this news conference).
“I remember in the summer all the predictions, we wouldn’t get the thing off and running,” Diaz said. “There was a lot of `No way this will work.’ What I took away from that is don’t try to predict the future.”
“It was a hard week, as the week went on we kept losing players. The players come to work, but they have eyes, can see. They didn’t talk about this, we got this from them yesterday, but they weren’t sure midweek last week how it was going to go. I think when we got there on Friday and got through our last round of testing here and were on the edge, but there was a big release of excitement like `Oh, this is happening!’”
Miami’s OL continued their struggles vs. VT, surrendering 6 sacks and 8 TFL to the Hokies.
“I felt like Virginia Tech’s defense, for pretty much three quarters, just competed harder than our offense,” Diaz said. “We are fast and physical on offense, and more than any other game, we were neither fast nor physical. We didn’t have our normal bite like we’re used to. Our offensive line, we were disappointed with how they played. But they hung together.”
On defense, DE Jaelan Phillips had his best game as a Hurricane in accounting for 4.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks vs. VT, while Diaz also praised the play of DT Jon Ford, and LB’s BJ Jennings and Sam Brooks.
“(Phillips) plays so hard,” Diaz said. “Jon played really well. That last game might have been Jon’s best game, very active. We had him on 11 tackles between solo and assists. I thought Jennings played really, really well. Just trusting himself, making quicker decisions, getting to the hold quicker. And Sam Brooks, it was good to get Sam back in the game. Sam had been dealing with some injury things throughout the year. Proud of those players.”
While UM’s offense did not reach the heights of their 600+ yard effort vs. NC State last week and struggled early on vs. VT, the Canes were able to put together two key TD drives late in the game to pull off the win against the Hokies this week.
“What the offense has done and our defense along with it, how our program has changed - we’re going to go really fast for four quarters,” Diaz said. “You’ll try to keep up, sooner or later the other guy loses his will. We just did a better job executing in the fourth than they did.
“This tempo, it’s death by a lot of body blows. Short runs, snapping the ball - we’ve had long drives on offense the last few weeks, those things take their toll and wear down a defense, especially when you start playing the backups. Some of that is a factor in it as well.”
Punter Lou Hedley helped UM win the field position battle by having the best game of his career, finishing the day with a career-high 52.4 ypp on seven punts.
“Hedley pinning them deep throughout the game - everyone had a hand in (the win),” Diaz said.
With the Canes heading into their last three games at 7-1, Diaz has overall been pleased with the season his Hurricanes have put together thus far.
“It’s been sad we haven’t had the ability to share it with our fans throughout the year, which is what we’d love to have happen,” Diaz said. “It was just a coming together of these guys when we were apart, some of the adversity we dealt with really brought our guys together - close teams win. It’s a ‘They’re playing for each other’ type vibe with our team.”
Diaz mentioned that medical issues have prevented freshman OL Issiah Walker from seeing the field this year.
“He’s medically not ready to play yet, getting ready and we think he has a really bright future here,” Diaz said.
Diaz also indicated he plans to add at least one other cornerback commitment to the 2021 class; UM currently has one pledge in the form of ATH Malik Curtis and plan to start him out at CB.
“We’re not going to finish the recruiting class with one cornerback commit,” Diaz said.
“What we have now is a system that we want to build on,” Diaz said. “Look, that’s a compliment to our program. I know from being caught up in those rumors myself, a lot were just rumors. We think we can create a great standard of living here for our coaches you can’t find other places.”
If Lashlee were to leave UM, Diaz was asked if wide receivers coach Rob Likens, who has prior offensive coordinator experience, would be a candidate to fill that vacancy.
“We love our coaches we have on our staff and it’s great we have multiple coaches with coordinator experience, but it’s unfair (to speculate with hypotheticals),” Diaz said.
After winning their fourth straight game on Saturday and defeating Virginia Tech, Diaz commented on the close victory that saw UM overcome a double-digit second half deficit in Blacksburg.
“A great team effort, faced a lot of adversity,” Diaz said. “It was our drive, passion, resilience in the fourth quarter. Our best ball is still out there, which is exciting.”
Despite Diaz’s hope that the worst was behind them, Miami’s issues with COVID-19 continued this weekend, and the program saw the number of unavailable players (13 vs. VT) increase for the third straight week. It got to the point where the game was in jeopardy, according to Diaz. (UPDATE: The ACC later postponed Miami’s next two games for COVID related issues following this news conference).
“I remember in the summer all the predictions, we wouldn’t get the thing off and running,” Diaz said. “There was a lot of `No way this will work.’ What I took away from that is don’t try to predict the future.”
“It was a hard week, as the week went on we kept losing players. The players come to work, but they have eyes, can see. They didn’t talk about this, we got this from them yesterday, but they weren’t sure midweek last week how it was going to go. I think when we got there on Friday and got through our last round of testing here and were on the edge, but there was a big release of excitement like `Oh, this is happening!’”
Miami’s OL continued their struggles vs. VT, surrendering 6 sacks and 8 TFL to the Hokies.
“I felt like Virginia Tech’s defense, for pretty much three quarters, just competed harder than our offense,” Diaz said. “We are fast and physical on offense, and more than any other game, we were neither fast nor physical. We didn’t have our normal bite like we’re used to. Our offensive line, we were disappointed with how they played. But they hung together.”
On defense, DE Jaelan Phillips had his best game as a Hurricane in accounting for 4.5 TFL and 2.5 sacks vs. VT, while Diaz also praised the play of DT Jon Ford, and LB’s BJ Jennings and Sam Brooks.
“(Phillips) plays so hard,” Diaz said. “Jon played really well. That last game might have been Jon’s best game, very active. We had him on 11 tackles between solo and assists. I thought Jennings played really, really well. Just trusting himself, making quicker decisions, getting to the hold quicker. And Sam Brooks, it was good to get Sam back in the game. Sam had been dealing with some injury things throughout the year. Proud of those players.”
While UM’s offense did not reach the heights of their 600+ yard effort vs. NC State last week and struggled early on vs. VT, the Canes were able to put together two key TD drives late in the game to pull off the win against the Hokies this week.
“What the offense has done and our defense along with it, how our program has changed - we’re going to go really fast for four quarters,” Diaz said. “You’ll try to keep up, sooner or later the other guy loses his will. We just did a better job executing in the fourth than they did.
“This tempo, it’s death by a lot of body blows. Short runs, snapping the ball - we’ve had long drives on offense the last few weeks, those things take their toll and wear down a defense, especially when you start playing the backups. Some of that is a factor in it as well.”
Punter Lou Hedley helped UM win the field position battle by having the best game of his career, finishing the day with a career-high 52.4 ypp on seven punts.
“Hedley pinning them deep throughout the game - everyone had a hand in (the win),” Diaz said.
With the Canes heading into their last three games at 7-1, Diaz has overall been pleased with the season his Hurricanes have put together thus far.
“It’s been sad we haven’t had the ability to share it with our fans throughout the year, which is what we’d love to have happen,” Diaz said. “It was just a coming together of these guys when we were apart, some of the adversity we dealt with really brought our guys together - close teams win. It’s a ‘They’re playing for each other’ type vibe with our team.”
Diaz mentioned that medical issues have prevented freshman OL Issiah Walker from seeing the field this year.
“He’s medically not ready to play yet, getting ready and we think he has a really bright future here,” Diaz said.
Diaz also indicated he plans to add at least one other cornerback commitment to the 2021 class; UM currently has one pledge in the form of ATH Malik Curtis and plan to start him out at CB.
“We’re not going to finish the recruiting class with one cornerback commit,” Diaz said.
