How cool would it be if Miami plays in the Orange Bowl? Diaz gave his take
It’s Miami-FIU week at a strange yet eerily familiar venue at 7 p.m. Saturday, when the visiting Hurricanes take on the home-team Panthers at Marlins Park, site of the old, beloved Orange Bowl Stadium.
After that, the Canes (6-4, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) end their regular season Nov. 30 in Durham, North Carolina, against the Coastal Division’s Duke (4-6, 2-4).
But Coastal doesn’t matter at this point, as the Canes were eliminated this past weekend from ACC title-game contention.
Last week it was revealed that the Hurricanes could potentially end up in the Capital One Orange Bowl game if they win out and Clemson goes to the College Football Playoff while no other ACC team is ranked in the CFP’s top 25.
WQAM’s Joe Rose pointed out to coach Manny Diaz on Monday that the Canes only need two more wins to have a chance to play in their hometown bowl. “Have you guys thought about that?”
Diaz was too smart to take the bait.
“We talk about that right now we have basically 12 days left of our regular season and we’ve got to just win each day,’’ Diaz said. “We are really not a very good football team if we think about anything other than what’s right at our hand. We’ve kind of displayed that this year. So, right now, we’re really, really locked in.
“I know this: We weren’t thinking about any bowl game when we were sitting there at 3-4. No one was. We didn’t get to this point by thinking about that so it would be foolish to start doing about that now. We know the little things — the accountability, the players being connected to each other— is what has gotten us back on track. We’ll just sort of stick with that.
“And at the end of the year, wherever they send us we’ll be happy to go.”
Joked Diaz: “At least we don’t have to go to North Dade with this cold weather.”
As for Marlins Park, where baseball is played, Diaz said “it’s going to be amazing.’’
“I think it’s going to be special for us,’’ Diaz told WQAM. “I think it’s going to be special for all football fans in South Florida. Just setting the GPS on the car and turning down there, parking in somebody’s front yard and walking into Marlins Park and just seeing a football game.
“It’s obviously a little disorienting. The field goes north-south instead of east-west like it used to back in the OB, but it will be great to be back in Little Havana. It should be a great atmosphere in there.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 10:07 AM.
