Manny Diaz says playing on Miami football team like leaving area

During an appearance on South Florida High School Gridiron report Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz said that playing for the Miami football program can be like leaving South Florida for college.

During his appearance, Manny Diaz discussed with host Larry Blustein, who is also the pre-game host of Miami football with Alex Donno, what rival programs are using against the Hurricanes in an attempt to gain an edge in recruiting. There is not a more fertile backyard to recruit in than the Miami football program has.

The Hurricanes currently have 25 players from the South Florida tri-county area on its roster. The godfather of Miami football Howard Schnellenberger coined the phrase the State of Miami. It was the idea that if the Miami football program wins South Florida they could build a National Championship football program.

The Hurricanes have to be able to recruit beyond the Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties nearly 40 years later. If they can build that base at home it will go a long way towards re-establishing the Miami football program as one of the nation’s elite.

The Hurricanes Surge ’19 recruiting class slumped to 28th nationally after finishing eighth in 2018, As a result, Diaz fired the majority of the Hurricanes recruiting staff. Diaz also replaced Miami’s entire offensive staff and the strength and conditioning coach.

In two months on the job, Diaz has proven his top loyalty is to the Miami football program. Diaz spoke with Blustein about the importance of establishing South Florida as a recruiting base. He additionally touched on how players matriculating in Coral Gables can be like heading out of the area for college.

"“You can grow up in South Dade County and never step foot in Coral Gables; you would never…People recruit against us all the time, ‘Don’t you want to experience something different?’I tell kids, ‘coming to Coral Gables is as different as whatever Podunk college town a school is trying to sell you on. Don’t think this is 13th grade.’”If you didn’t grow up in South Florida or haven’t been here a long time, you look at a map and see the Greater Miami area. But if you’re from here, you really realize we’re a community of neighborhoods. I tell everybody, Dade and Broward are two different states. [Growing up here], Palm Beach felt a hundred hours away.”"

Diaz should know. It took him 24 years to get back to Dade County after graduating from Miami Country Day in 1992. After graduating from Florida State Diaz spent time in Storrs, Connecticut working for ESPN. He then led the

transient life

of a college football coach beginning as a graduate assistant at North Carolina State.

Diaz doubled down on Schnellenberger’s theory about the importance of winning the “State of Miami. He also told Blustein that South Florida players are undervalued.

"“Whoever wins Dade, Broward and Palm Beach wins the state…. You’ve got to get on the right guys. Down here that’s paramount because there are a lot of good players.There’s guys in the district they’re playing, if they were playing in some other district in the country, they would be a freakin’ seven star recruit. If we cut the crap, there might be four of the top teams in the country playing within five miles of each other.We say in our office all the time, imagine this guy playing in this league. If he was playing in the Dallas Metroplex area or wherever, he would have 78 offers.We have to sign the best recruiting class for Miami. I told my coaches we have to be the recruiters of the year for Miami, not for Rivals and 247…nothing against those people. It’s just different down here. The way players are evaluated down here is different.”"

Winning those battles in South Florida is essential. Miami signed only five players from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in the Surge ’19 Class. That’s the lowest since RIvals and the other recruiting websites began keeping track in 2002.

Diaz and his staff know that has to change going forward. The Hurricanes have already eclipsed that with six commitments for 2020 from the tri-county South Florida Metro area. They have to be able to sign those players nine and 11 months from now. The Surge ’19 Class infamously had more de-commitments than signees.