Manny Diaz will evaluate Miami football staff after season

Head coach Manny Diaz told reporters during his weekly Zoom meeting that the Miami football staff will not be evaluated until after the season.

During his weekly Zoom meeting on Monday with beat reporters head coach Manny Diaz stated the Miami football staff will not be evaluated until after the season. The question was mostly in relation to the beating the Miami defense took in 62-36 loss to North Carolina and the future of defensive coordinator Blake Baker.

Baker oversaw a top 25 defense nationally in 2019. Miami has not been able to replace four-year starting linebackers Shaq Quarterman and Michael Pinckney who played their last games for the Hurricanes in 2019. Miami is 46th in scoring defense in 2020 after ranking 23rd and 67th  in 2020 from 13th in total defense.

Miami has developed as a team in 2020 but needs far more consistency. The defense and offense need to take their play to a higher level for Miami to compete with the best teams in college football. Miami allowed 52 points per game in its two losses in 2020, 19.5 PPG in its wins. Miami averages 37.1 PPG in wins 21.5 PPG in losses.

Rhett Lashlee is secure as offensive coordinator. Diaz mentioned in his press conference the importance of being in the second year of a system. Blake Baker is in his second year as defensive coordinator. Diaz discussed the long history he has with his defensive staff. Diaz said he will wait until after the season to make evaluations.

"“I’ll answer the question about staff the same way I did a year ago…My feeling is you wait for a season to end, you evaluate the season in its entirety and then you do what’s best to improve the football team. It obviously worked for us a year ago.My job is to get away from the emotion of results either in the super positive or in the super negative. We had a really bad result last weekend and it doesn’t hurt anybody more than it hurts Blake. And really it’s not just Blake it’s really the entire defensive staff.It hurts me because defense is something I’ve always taken pride in and I’ve never seen a day like this past Saturday….We all (defensive coaches) game plan together throughout the course of the week. I’m in every defensive meeting. Blake as defensive coordinator organizes all the practices and I’m on the defensive field the entire time during practices. And Blake calls the defenses on game day.That’s been our MO for a couple years…There’s no excuse for how we played defensively. But is it ideal to have coaches missing (from COVID) from the game, coaches not being around our players? Nothing can point to a performance like what we did Saturday. Everybody including myself has to take full ownership of it.What matters really is what happens going forward. We have a chance to go fix it and take a look at where we are at the end of the year, which is ultimately my job."

Diaz is improving the talent on the Miami football roster. The Hurricanes first freshman class with Diaz as head coach ranked 27th nationally. That class signed in December less than two weeks before Mark Richt resigned as head coach. The 2020 class ranked 16th and the 2021 class is poised for a top 20 finish.

Diaz will have some difficult decisions to make after the season. After an 8-2 season Miami imrpoved greatly over their 6-7 finish in 2020. Diaz stated on Monday the Hurricanes have a lot of improving to do. How much that improvement relates to the coaching staff Diaz will decide after the bowl game at the end of December.