Manny Diaz concerned about Miami football players conditioning

The return of the Miami football players to their homes has created an inequity of conditioning. Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz acknowledged that his players have different accesses to how they work out.

Offseason conditioning has improved for the Miami football program since Manny Diaz hired David Feeley from Temple to be the strength and conditioning coordinator in January 2019. Diaz spoke about the level of conditioning for the Hurricanes since they have been quarantined from school since March.

Miami football players have had to improvise their workouts from home instead of being able to workout on campus. Some have used water jugs as weights. The inequities will begin to show whenever all of the Hurricanes are back on campus. The injured players who are rehabbing in the offseason arrived on Monday.

The conditioning for Miami takes on added significance for the offense this season. The Hurricanes are expected to average about 15 more plays in the up-tempo, spread offense being run by new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee than they did in the past pro-style offenses that past coordinators ran.

The Miami defense had to adjust during the four spring practices than the Hurricanes ran. Getting in shape for the 2020 season has taken on a new tone than it did in past years. There will not be nearly the amount of time between plays on offense for Miami than there used to be. Eventually, that will help the Hurricanes offense.

"“You’ll have very different levels of conditioning. Some players have access to weights, some players don’t have access to weights. Some players have access to cardiovascular conditioning than others.The sooner we can get everybody back together again and assess what their conditioning level is … when that happens – maybe – it’s only six weeks before the first game, but whatever it is, we’re going to make it work.As long as everybody’s somewhat on the same page with what we get practice time, I think we’ll feel the spirit of competition will be intact for the football season.”"

Miami has been able to keep their players somewhat on track and on the same page through daily Zoom meetings with position groups. Diaz was referring to the 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams on the same page in regards to the number of practices and time training camp will be. That is going to be difficult.

Diaz also spoke about each city, state and in some cases counties having different rules regarding when they are allowed to open. Florida was one of the first states to do so with Governor Ron DeSantis declaring sports teams an essential business in April. The NCAA has not made a uniform decision on how college football will proceed.