Miami Hurricanes Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz is rebuilding the State of Miami on the Defensive Side of the ball. Diaz spoke about the importance of building the UM defenses with players from South Florida on the South Florida High School Sports.Com radio show on WQAM on Monday night.
Diaz and his boss Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt have reestablished the State of Miami. Legendary Miami Head coined the phrases by declaring a fence around Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. There is no way that Richt and Diaz will completely able to duplicate that in this era, but they have kept many of the stars home.
Diaz told Bluestein they will look beyond South Florida to get the best players possible. Richt is also starting to cultivate a Miami pipeline in his former home state of Georgia. None of those players have translated to the defensive side of the ball yet.
Under Diaz, Miami is getting back to the traditional attack defense. Signing players from South Florida help with that mentality. Diaz told Bluestein as quoted in the Sun Sentinel:
"“I think that idea of understanding our identity as a defense, that’s completely based on what we can recruit out of these counties,…If we continue to make sure we find the best defensive tackle in South Florida this year, which we did this year; the best defensive end in South Florida, which we did this year;"