Manny Diaz states Miami football program adapting like everyone else

The Miami football program like everyone else has had to adapt to the times in quarantine. Head coach Manny Diaz joined the Joe Rose Show on Monday to discuss how he, his staff and players are doing while stuck at home.

Head coach Manny Diaz joined the Joe Rose Show on WQAM Monday morning to discuss how the Miami football program is adapting to global quarantine during the Coronavirus pandemic. Diaz, his staff and players like everyone else have had to adapt their routine in times that have never been seen before.

Miami got in a week of spring practice the first week of March and were on spring break when the sports world was put on hiatus when most college basketball conference had just started conference tournaments. The Miami basketball team was eliminated a day before the ACC Tournament was canceled.

The Miami football team was scheduled to resume spring practice just four days after the ACC Basketball Tournament was canceled. The baseball team which began the season 12-4 won their final game over Central Florida the same day the Hurricanes basketball team was eliminated from the ACC Tournament by Clemson.

The focus with Rose was clearly on the Miami football team. Diaz and his staff kept in touch with their players via Zoom video and web conferencing software. Diaz spoke about a variety of subjects relating to how everyone in the Miami football program is doing, how they are all adapting the importance of sports.

"“When something is taken away you realize how important it is,’’ a wise man once said. “We do see how important sports is to our culture. Look, we’re not special. We get to coach football, but everybody is in the same boat. Everybody is trying to live their lives through these crazy, trying times.’No one has ever done this. For all of us obviously it’s been an adjustment. Certainly being around the family a lot more than we normally are has been a blessing. What we’ve tried to do as much as possible is create a structure for our football team…and tried to create a structure for our staff and get some sort of routine to the day.We all live and thrive off of routine and then to have that taken away and everyday have this sort of formless groundhog day that we wake up every day.”"

The 2020 Miami football season is a day less than five months away. Miami athletic director Blake James has spoken out about the current way of life is uncharted territory and no one really knows if and when the season will begin. Diaz reiterated what his boss said about what he might know about the status of the 2020 season.

"“When something is taken away you realize how important it is,’’ a wise man once said. “We do see how important sports is to our culture. Look, we’re not special. We get to coach football, but everybody is in the same boat. Everybody is trying to live their lives through these crazy, trying times.’“No one has ever done this. For all of us obviously it’s been an adjustment. Certainly being around the family a lot more than we normally are has been a blessing. What we’ve tried to do as much as possible is create a structure for our football team…and tried to create a structure for our staff and get some sort of routine to the day.“We all live and thrive off of routine and then to have that taken away and everyday have this sort of formless groundhog day that we wake up every day.”"

The 2020 Miami football season is a day less than five months away. Miami athletic director Blake James has spoken out about the current way of life is uncharted territory and no one really knows if and when the season will begin. Diaz reiterated what his boss said about what he might know about the status of the 2020 season.

"“It is so far off…Today is April 6. We play on Sept. 5. That’s in five months. One month ago was March 6. That was our last spring practice. How has your guys’ world changed since March 6? So, trying to figure out what’s going to happen on May 6, let alone Sept. 6, we don’t have any idea what the world is going to look like in May.We do know to some point we can control it. What we do today will have a lot to say with what May 6 looks like. What we’re dealing with today has a lot to do with what we did, all of us as a society, two weeks ago. That’s kind of the trick to this…When people start poking their heads up and looking to September and to the fall, we’re taking our eye off the ball. All we can control right now is staying apart, staying healthy and staying safe.’’"

Keeping the players focused on the task at hand is the job of every head coach. It’s a players’ job to focus on what is in front of them. The Miami football players need to be concerned with staying in shape and focusing on their studies. The potential of what will happen with the football season is out of their control.

The message Diaz reiterated was important beyond sports and related perfectly to sports. Getting society to work together as a team to flatten the curve on the coronavirus is critical to society getting back to normal. Diaz has a lot to worry about with the Miami football team but clearly has an excellent grasp on the larger picture.