There were some growing pains in Diaz’s first season. The promised new-look offense under Enos was maddeningly inconsistent. Realizing that the Miami football team needed to change direction, Diaz to his credit made the necessary staff changes on offense. Rose asked Diaz what he has done to change after his first season.
"“Some things are internal, that we know inside the program. we’ve got a real good sense of what wins and a real good sense of what gets you beat…surrounding ourselves with the behaviors and people who want to win and removing ourselves from the ones who don’t.”"
The return of Rousseau and the addition of Roche from Temple should give the Miami football team the best tandem of pass-rushing defensive ends in the country in 2020. Rousseau leads all returnees for 2020 with 15.5 sacks in 2019. Roche was seventh nationally with 13 sacks in 2019.
Miami finished seventh in the nation with 46 sacks in 2019. Getting up the field into opposing backfields and after the quarterback has been a signature of the Diaz defense at Miami. Rose stated to Diaz that the tandem of Rousseau and Roche is being talked about nationally and if he is excited to watch them play.
It’s a new day. A day in which another chapter begins to unfold. Starting right now, you leave it out on Greentree during every rep.
— Miami Hurricanes Football (@CanesFootball) March 2, 2020
Spring practice 2020 is here. pic.twitter.com/KKB24pBW8z
"“The idea of that is definitely exciting…having Watched our film from a year ago we better earn the right to rush the passer and that gets back to stopping the run. we’ve got to be more firm of attack in the run game.”"
Diaz admitted the numbers for Miami were good stopping the run. The Hurricanes finished 17th in the nation in 2019 allowing 114.62 rushing yards per game. Those numbers were drastically different in wins and losses. Miami allowed 90.17 rushing yards per game in wins and 135.57 in losses.
Miami needs to be more consistent against the run in 2020. The Hurricanes lost four-year starting linebackers, Shaq Quarterman and Michael Pinckney. After taking a redshirt season in 2019, Zach McCloud returns for his fourth year as a starter in 2020. McCloud will be a leader on the Miami defense in 2020.