Manny Diaz told the Joe Rose Show on Monday morning that he doesn’t expect a full Miami football roster for their game against Duke on Saturday.
The Miami football team will have a game on Saturday after the ACC scheduled the Hurricanes against Duke following Wake Forest canceling because of a COVID-19 outbreak. Miami was scheduled to play Wake Forest this weekend after the game was pushed back a week from November 28.
Miami and Wake Forest both had COVID-19 outbreaks following their November 14 games. Duke was matched with Miami for this weekend after their game against Florida State with reports that the Seminoles had only 44 players healthy enough to play. Miami has lost two straight games to the Blue Devils.
During an appearance on the Joe Rose Show on WQAM on Monday morning, Diaz stated he does not expect to have a full roster. Miami was missing 11 players for its November 6 game at North Carolina State and 13 for its November 14 victory at Virginia Tech. That Miami was able to play against the Hokies was amazing.
Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald transcribed
some of the interview that Diaz did with Rose and Zach Krantz. Diaz expects Miami to have enough players to be able to travel to Durham to play Duke. The Hurricanes will await their tests this week to confirm they will be able to play Saturday.
"“Obviously we’re always waiting. We still have [coronavirus] tests. So you’re always waiting on the tests and we never take those for granted…We know we won’t have everybody back just through some of the counts of what we’re waiting on.But as things go well, like we knew when we planned talking to the league we felt like we should have certainly enough to go play the game…The way we practice will be a little bit modified this week in terms of our ability to get guys back on certain days during the week but we got enough to go play Saturday.If we continue to do the right thing and keep the virus out of our building we should be ready to go.”"
There is no indication which players could be missing for Miami. The ACC requires players who test positive for COVID to isolate themselves for 10 days. Players who are determined to be out through contact tracing have to be in quarantine for 14 days. Miami was missing four full or part-time starters against Virginia Tech.
Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jared Harrison-Hunte, redshirt sophomore offensive tackle John Campbell, guard Jakai Clark and redshirt senior linebacker Zach McCloud were the full or part-time starters for Miami who missed the Virginia Tech game. Getting them back healthy will be a boost to the Miami football program,
Harrison-Hunte has had a breakout season for Miami. Campbell and Clark are part-time starters who provide depth on a thin offensive line and McCloud is the leader for the Miami defense. Duke is a lower-tier ACC team who Miami cannot take lightly after losses to the Blue Devils the last two seasons.
Duke is 2-7 this season with wins against 1-8 Syracuse and Charlotte. Miami has to continue to stay focused. If the Hurricanes win out they will likely receive their second Orange Bowl berth in the last four seasons. The Florida Gators could be waiting.