Manny Diaz pushing Miami football to find toughness

When training camp began for the Miami football team on Friday night, head coach Manny Diaz talked about being concerned with the Hurricanes toughness. Diaz is pushing his team to find out who will fight to improve every day.

The Miami football team was on the fourth day of practice of training camp on Monday morning. The Hurricanes began at 8:30 AM and welcomed the fans back after their ability to observe practice on Friday was cut short due to lightning. Manny Diaz has made it a point of finding out who is and is not tough.

The new Miami football head coach has said he will push his team to see who wants to be a Miami Hurricane and who doesn’t want to be. Eight new players are on the 2019 Miami football roster as transfers. Several players left the Hurricanes to attend other schools. As expected for late July, the heat was a factor Monday.

The high temperature on Monday in Coral Gables was 91 degrees. It is not likely to be much different when Miami kicks off their season against Florida on August 24 in Orlando. Diaz made it a point to tell the media on Monday that it is hot everywhere. If a player cannot handle the heat in July he’s not cut out to be a Hurricane.

Getting the Hurricanes conditioned in the summer heat of South Florida will help them as the season progresses. It has often been an advantage for the Miami football team late in the fourth quarter against ACC teams from the North. Diaz spoke about how his team handled the heat on Monday.

"“Not bad, OK. Honestly, it doesn’t matter yet because it’s just one deal and it’s hot in Gainesville and it’s hot everywhere else now. Where we’re going is that we need this every day. We have to take this team to a place where we really find out what we have.If we pat everybody on the back and say, ‘Hey, here’s a sticker on your forehead, you survived one day,’ then that’s not getting us anywhere. It’s the idea of making it hard every day and finding out who really wants to fight to improve themselves every day.We won’t have an answer to that and that’s why you can’t evaluate any position on our team until we find out really who they are when we get into the dog days of camp.”"

Training camp is progressing. Diaz also discussed where they are at in evaluating the QBs and who could start. he said that doesn’t see any way that they would consider going to a two QB system. Diaz is also pleased with the level of knowledge that N’Kosi Perry, Tate Martell and Jarren Williams have shown of the offense.

With less than four weeks remaining until Miami plays Florida, all three QBs in contention to start for the Hurricanes are showing a sense of urgency. It is still early in camp. With several positions open for competition it will be a couple of weeks until the Miami depth chart begins to solidify.