Manny Diaz liked how MIami Hurricanes QB Jarren Williams faced adversity

One of the most impressive things that came out of the Miami Hurricanes 24-20 loss on Saturday night was how well quarterback Jarren Williams continued to battle despite being sacked ten times.

The pass rush that Jarren Williams faced all night against Florida would have made most quarterbacks flinch. Williams was sacked 10 times in his first start. Several of those sacks were because Williams held on to the ball too long. Williams came out hot. He completed his first six passes as the Miami Hurricanes scored on their first drive.

His numbers were good for the first start of his career, but most of his success came in the first half. Williams was 12-14 for 158 yards a touchdown and no interceptions before halftime. In the second half, Williams was 7-15 for 56 yards without a TD or interception. He was under constant duress in the fourth quarter.

Not many freshmen or even upperclassmen would have stood in there and continued to be hit and gotten up and tried to lead their team back. Diaz was proud of what Williams accomplished on Saturday night and noted in the post-game that it would have been difficult for Williams to face a more adverse situation.

"“I mean, you probably can’t put a guy in a more adverse situation than in this stadium. The amazing atmosphere from both sets of fans, you know, their defensive front, which we knew was really good. Jarren never really blinked.A lot of time he didn’t have a lot of time and I thought he just played a little of courage, you know, made some plays with his feet, scrambled the throw to keep this some things alive. I think you can see why we picked him to be our guy.”"

Offensive coordinator Dan Enos did a great job getting Williams off to a good start on the first drive of the game. The Miami Hurricanes went with short passes early to get Williams in a good rhythm. Williams completed his first six attempts. Miami marched down the field on the opening possession but had to settle for a field goal.

Diaz discussed in the post-game what Williams learned from Saturday night’s game and the room he and his teammates have to grow.

"“There’s no doubt. Everybody on the offense. I mean, everybody on both sides of the ball has a lot of room for growth. The key is we just can’t stop.If anything, now we’ve got to keep going and be more motivated to improve because we could say, well, we played pretty good and then all of a sudden we’ll relax and we’ll end up in this exact same position in two weeks’ time. So if anything, I think we know that our guys find out that we can play.We can go toe to toe with a top ten opponent but now that should kind of hurt us a little bit to really get in there and study the game and find a way to get better.”"

Diaz followed his thoughts from Saturday’s post-game

during his weekly Monday appearance on the Joe Rose Show. Once the players watched the game film they were able to view what they missed during the course of the game. He mentioned that Jeff Thomas was opened a few times and missed.

These are the types of things that fans don’t see from just watching the game on television. Canes Warning stated during the game why wasn’t Thomas more involved in the offense. The truth was that opportunities were there but missed.

"“When they watched the film yesterday they were like, ‘Holy Cow!… They see there was so much stuff available. “[The] other thing from Jeff’s standpoint, the first 12 plays of the game he’s running wide open for big-time explosive plays where one time we don’t pull the trigger, one time the tight end didn’t block his guy.Those type things. So he has encouragement from understanding that."

Williams will grow with his receivers. He and Brevin Jordan had a rapport. That was not surprising. Jordan played in high school with Tate Martell but calls Williams his best friend. They connected five times for 88 yards and that one passing touchdown. No other Miami Hurricanes receiver topped 45 yards. It will be a growth process for everyone.

It was also getting used to entirely new staff on the offensive side of the football, a new defensive and special teams coordinators. Diaz and his staff now have two weeks to look at film and prepare for North Carolina. This week will probably be spent on fixing the mistakes against Florida. Next week Miami will prepare for the Tar Heels.