Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz defended the university’s commitment to football after criticism of the program by former players.
Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz defended the administration’s commitment to football after criticism from former players and their families.
After accusations that the university’s dedication to football was insufficient, Miami coach Manny Diaz defended his team and the school administration on Monday.
On College GameDay on Saturday, Kirk Herbstreit questioned that commitment, making remarks that went viral and found their way to Diaz. Herbstreit questioned if the athletic administration was ready to make adjustments in order to promote football, adding that there are still issues that have prevented Miami from being a national force in the past decade.
Diaz responded to those remarks in his Zoom news conference, saying that university President Julio Frenk spearheaded the fight for the season to go ahead amid the coronavirus epidemic last year. “For someone who didn’t appear very engaged in sports, it would be a big take,” Diaz said.
Diaz also mentioned the Hurricanes’ recent facility upgrades, which include the construction of a new indoor practice facility and new dormitories, as well as a plan to rebuild the locker room. He did, however, recognize the unequal playing field in college sports in terms of money and resources.
“Someone with greater resources will always exist,” Diaz added. “That isn’t a Miami issue.” That’s a major issue in college football that no one wants to discuss. Our greatest asset at the University of Miami, however, has always been our people.
“If you want to improve your company, you must hire better individuals. Our personnel has improved year after year thanks to a supportive administration, our support and recruitment staff has grown and improved year after year, and our locker has improved year after year “Diaz said. “It isn’t quite where we need to be. However, recruiting is the only path ahead at the University of Miami, and we can’t turn around and drive our prospects away because of anything that occurs in the near term.”
After a 38-17 loss to Michigan State in Week 3, Hurricanes fans panicked and began to doubt if Diaz was the proper coach to lead the team forward. Miami is 2-2 heading into a critical game against Virginia on Thursday night, but the majority of the questions on Monday were about the program’s condition.
Diaz has said many times that the Hurricanes need time to stack recruiting classes together in order to help improve the program, citing Clemson’s strategy of building itself up to a title contender every year as an example. However, he also said that Miami must improve immediately, accepting full responsibility for the Hurricanes’ performances against Alabama and Michigan State.
“You can compete in the ACC, which is still our benchmark,” Diaz said, “but you still have to have a long-term vision of what it takes to develop a team.” “This year, I’m in charge of our results. But I still believe that the way ahead is to be able to stack classes. When Clemson was building, they couldn’t get past Jimbo (Fisher) and the Seminoles.
“They continued recruiting until they found a game-changing quarterback, then another, then another, and so on, and that’s how they got to where they are now. There’s a pattern to how these things happen, but I don’t believe they were sitting there thinking, “We’ll be OK until Trevor Lawrence arrives.” At the time, they were still attempting to compete.”
Diaz, who is in his third season with Miami, is well aware of the stakes for the rest of the season. Despite its slow start, Miami has the whole of the ACC season ahead of them, and Diaz recognizes that his squad must improve going forward.
Diaz said, “Our expectation is to go perform.” “We’re well aware of the stakes for the next eight weeks. And we believe we have as strong a chance as anybody.”
