Manny Diaz gives his take on Bubba Bolden’s injury-causing celebration and on FSU firing
Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz touched on several subjects Monday during his usual time slot with WQAM radio.
Among his discussion with hosts Joe Rose and Zach Krantz, Diaz spoke about UM safety Bubba Bolden and the unfortunate incident after he got his first career interception as a Cane on Saturday in UM’s victory at Florida State. In celebrating the pick, Bolden and fellow UM safety Gurvan Hall had a chest bump that finished awkwardly and left Bolden with what appeared to be a badly injured ankle.
Bolden is the former USC Trojan and first-team Parade All-American who transferred to UM this season. He’s a redshirt sophomore.
Rose: “The Bubba Bolden celebration was about as strong and powerful a chest pump as I’ve ever seen? Is he going to be OK? He couldn’t enjoy the celebration, man.’’
Diaz: “I know. That was definitely unfortunate. You hate to see things like that happen. It’s just unlucky. But guys are enthusiastic. You want guys to be excited for their teammate. Gurvan and Bubba in essence play the same position. At times they’re battling for playing time on the field and to see the two of them celebrate together like that is really what you want to see as a coach. You don’t want to see a guy limping off after that.
“We’ll see what that means for Bubba’s prognosis long term later today.
“Bubba has really been coming along. He has been a really important part of our defense the last few weeks. And a really great interception… where one guy breaks up a pass and another guy gets it. This is what I love about football — last week it was Bubba breaking up a pass or forcing the fumble that led to Gurvan getting the ball. This week it was DJ Ivey with the great pass breakup to let Bubba get the ball. And that’s what great secondaries do. “
ROSE: “What also came with that big win for you, Willie Taggart ends up getting fired yesterday. Just wondered about your thoughts of watching him go through this. Were you surprised at all after this game that his job could be in jeopardy?”
Diaz: “You are. It’s unfortuate. As coaches we all know expectations are high. And Willie has had success, so we know he’s a good coach.
“Sometimes things don’t work out and they don’t work out even for good coaches. I wish him and his staff, that’s difficult for all of them. We wish them the best. That’s all a part that we know that we get into.“
Diaz will have updates at his weekly news conference later this afternoon.
This story was originally published November 4, 2019 at 11:06 AM.
