Manny Diaz thoroughly examined what makes Miami football successful

The changes in the Miami football program since the end of the 2019 season have been very calculated by Manny Diaz. Diaz examined the direction of the Hurricanes over the last ten years, what has been successful and what has not.

The mediocrity that has befallen the Miami football program for the majority of the last 14 seasons was examined by head coach Manny Diaz during the offseason. Diaz created a chart to get a sense of what Miami has to fix to improve on and off the field. The Miami head coach discussed it with Andy Staples of The Athletic.

The lack of success for the Miami football program is not as simple as overturning the coaching staff frequently. Diaz is the Hurricanes sixth head coach in the last 10 seasons counting interim coaches. Four full-time head coaches in the last 10 seasons for Miami has created a lot of instability.

On the opposite end, stubbornness from Diaz’s predecessors Al Golden and Mark Richt to retain assistant coaches who were clearly not getting the results needed ultimately led to their firing as the coach of the Miami football program. The metrics of success did not always translate to the final score.

The Miami Hurricanes were 85-53 from 2010-19. Miami had 52 losses in the previous 13 seasons. During the glory years of winning their first four national championships between 1980-96, Miami lost only 34 games. It’s more than just hiring a coach and installing the right offense and defense.

"“I put a chart together that spanned back the past decade. How many wins a year we had. You have to get a real sense what you are trying to fix. Issues that have been there a number of years sometimes don’t get fixed overnight.What’s Miami won every year, where are we ranked in terms of scoring offense, where are we ranked in terms of yard per run, yards per pass, yards per play, do the same thing and turn it around defensively…every number in the top 25 I made it green, every number below 60 I made it red.Twenty-six to 59 was black just average and just looking for trends. Recruiting rankings, who the coach was during those years, who the starting QB was because there has been a lot of turnover. Miami hasn’t ranked in the top 30 in scoring offense in a decade.”"

Diaz thoroughly examined what works for the Miami football program. After a season that the offense greatly underachieved with a lot of promise during the 2019 offseason, Diaz was not afraid to make changes. Miami went back to the transfer portal to sign a QB for the second straight offseason.

Tate Martell was not good enough to receive significant playing time in 2020 other than one series in the Independence Bowl loss to Louisiana Tech. The Hurricanes added graduate transfer quarterback D’Eriq King from Houston and former FIU kicker Jose Borreagles to help the offense.

Defensive end Quincy Roche will boost an already elite Miami pass rush. The Hurricanes did not go to the portal with the frequency they did during the 2019 offseason. King, Borreagales and Roche should have a bigger impact on the nine or so players added through the portal in 2019. Diaz spoke about transfers with Staples.

"“See what the portal does both good and bad in college ball.”"

The addition of King and Borregales to the Miami football program led to the departures of quarterback Jarren Williams and kicker Bubba Baxa. Williams’ inconsistency led to the collapse of the Miami offense at the end of the season. After making 9-12 field goals as a freshman in 2018, Baxa slumped to 5-10 in 2019.

The next step for Diaz and his staff is to take the numbers accrued, taken them into account with who they occurred under and apply them to the present. An audit of the Miami football program was exactly what was needed. Now Diaz has to apply, in his words, the sense of what needs to be fixed throughout the program.