Mark D’Onofrio was the Defensive Coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes during all five seasons of Al Golden’s tenure. He preferred a more read and react style of defense. That made the fans at Miami restless.
The Miami football teams that have been successful and won championships have been aggressive in all three phases of the game. Last season’s success was due in large part to the defense’s ability to make big plays.
CBSSports.Com writer Tom Fornelli compiled the list titled “Ranking the top college football coaching candidates on the rise in 2018”. It was posted on June 8. Fornelli had a similar list in May of 2017.
The 2017 list had Alabama Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, Appalachian State Head Coach Scott Satterfield, LSU Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda, Penn State Offensive Coordinator Joe Morehead and then Oklahoma Offensive Coordinator Lincoln Riley.
Three of the five on Fornelli’s 2017 list got Head Coaching jobs. Riley was hired at the Sooners Head Coach shortly after Fornelli’s list came out when former OU Head Coach Bob Stoops retired. Moorhead was hired to replace Dan Mullen at Mississippi State and Pruitt is the new Head Coach at Tennessee.
Before coming to Miami, Diaz was on Mullen’s staff as the Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers coach in 2015.
Satterfield is still at Appalachian State. Aranada who was already the highest paid Assistant Coach in College Football received a new contract paying him $10 million over four seasons. That contract is more than 80 of the 130 Head Coaches in FBS receive and $800,000 more than the next highest paid assistant in 2017.