The recent hiring of Manny Diaz as Head Coach of the Miami Football team has been met with some critical of his lack of experience as a Head Coach. Diaz is not alone becoming the Head Coach for the first time with a Power Five program.
The general consensus is that to lead a Power Five football program you have to work your way up as a Head Coach with a Group of Five program before taking over as a Power Five Head Coach. Manny Diaz was on that track when he was hired at Temple on December 13. No one could have foreseen what would happen17 days later.
In the span of about 10 hours, Mark Richt retired as the Miami Football Head Coach and Diaz was announced as returning to Coral Gables less than three weeks after he resigned to take over as the Head Coach at Temple.
Manny Diaz is not alone in recently starting his career as a Head Football Coach at a Power Five Conference. Even at Miami Butch Davis and Larry Coker had not been college Head Coaches before being hired and promoted with the Hurricanes. Coker and Diaz’s ascents have many similarities.
Kirby Smart just finished his third season at Georgia after succeeding Richt, Jeremy Pruitt just finished his first season at Tennessee after succeeding Smart as the Defensive Coordinator at Alabama.
The Ryan Day era at Ohio State commenced after Urban Meyer retired following the Buckeyes victory in the Rose Bowl over Washington. Diaz has by far the most experience of the Head Coaches listed above. He has been a Defensive Coordinator since 2006.
Diaz was the Defensive Coordinator at Middle Tennessee State from 2006-09, Mississippi State in 2010 and ’15, Texas in 2011-13, Louisiana Tech in 2014 and Miami 2016-18. If not for a bump in the road with Texas, Diaz likely would have already been a Head Coach.
Things for Diaz seemed to work out how he dreamed of, if not in a predictable fashion. The midseason firing at Texas in 2013 and then less than a three-week stint as the Temple Head Coach landed Diaz in charge of the Miami Football program in a very weird fashion.
When Richt hired Diaz to run the defense at Miami he was given complete control of what he wanted to do. Diaz switched the defense under Mark D’Onofrio from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and said he wants his defense to play “fast and violent.” The Miami players took that to heart immediately.
The Miami defense bought into what Diaz was saying nearly immediately. In the fourth game of the 2016, Miami scored two defensive touchdowns in three plays in a 35-21 victory at Georgia Tech.
There is every reason to believe that Diaz will elevate the style and culture of Miami football. In succeeding Richt, Smart led Georgia to the College Football National Championship Game. An overtime loss to Alabama prevented the Bulldogs from their first National Championship in 37 seasons.
Diaz is going to create the same attitude on offense that he did on defense. In his introductory press conference as Head Coach Diaz mentioned he wants to modernize the offense. He also said that “culturally what we have on defense we can now spread throughout the whole football team.”
He mentioned he has three Offensive Coordinators he is considering and that the fourth would have been great. Diaz will likely learn on the job, but his culture and aggressive nature should endear him to Miami fans. An offseason that was going to be full of vim and vigor will now be full of hope.