Diaz: ‘It shouldn’t have gotten this far.’ He discusses Miami and facing ‘harsh’ lessons.
Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz spoke Monday morning about assumptions and learning the same lesson “over and over again’’ until it actually absorbs.
Diaz couldn’t have been looking forward to his usual radio chat with WQAM host Joe Rose, but he was ready for it.
Here’s much of the conversation, with Diaz doing most of the talking. His Hurricanes (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) lost to FIU 30-24 on Saturday and are now getting ready for their regular-season finale at Duke (4-7, 2-5) in Durham, North Carolina.
Rose: “Were they ready to go or do you feel like your team was flat to start?”
“Obviously we weren’t,’’ Diaz said. “When you look at the performance, when you watched the way that we played on film and you start to look at trends, what you see, really if you step back and look at the season we’re already 11 games into this deal, and what you see is you start to see this game materializing before... If you point to the bye week, obviously we have not played well coming off the bye, but I think it goes beyond that because we analyzed and changed things what we did a week ago coming off the bye.
“North Carolina, a team we blew out a year ago, very poor start in that game. Ultimately it cost us the game.
“Central Michigan, which was not off the bye, against a supposedly lesser opponent, [we] played very poorly.
“Virginia Tech, which was off of the bye, coming off a game where they got blown out by Duke before that game, again a very poor start which cost us the game.
“Georgia Tech, not coming off a bye, where again the week before you’re watching them getting blown out by Duke as well. [We] played very poorly in that game.
“And then FIU on Saturday... Five occurrences... And this is what I own, because this comes down to myself making sure [of] the little things on those weeks when you’re playing a team who you are perceived to be better than. And that’s keeping an extra eye on the little things on the practice field and not getting fooled by your team during the week.
“As you know, I’m a very confident and optimistic coach, and I always have been. I think that’s served me well. But there [is] especially by a young team, [something] that can be perceived as an arrogance, and I think there’s a natural arrogance that comes with our guys here when things are going well.
“Because when things are going well there’s always an assumption that, you know, we’re right there and we’re right back on track to being ‘Miami.’ And that’s the battle that I’ve got to fight with these guys every day, and I’ve got to do a much better job of that every day.
“And that’s why I own what happened on Saturday. It’s especially embarrassing that it happened to FIU. In life, until you learn a lesson you are going to face the same lesson over and over again. I think this was obviously the most harsh lesson we could learn.
“However, and what we talked about with the team last night, is that if we do learn from this, if you can step back and if you can look at this season, there are a lot of good things that have occurred from the season… And if we can understand how to be the same team every week and give our opponents the respect they deserve and prepare in a manner that suggests we’re giving our opponents the respect that [they] deserve, if we can solve this obstacle then we have a chance to be a pretty damned good football team.
“It shouldn’t have gotten this far. It’s something I should have solved a lot sooner than last night, but I think when you look back at the film, the answer is obvious.”
Rose: “I don’t know if I’ve seen a team with two different personalities from the way you played against Florida State and Louisville to the Georgia Tech and FIU games — not necessarily just those games. But where you just look so different. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team that could come out so ready and you go, ‘My God. That team today could beat just about anybody,’ to a team that gets shut out in the first half against FIU.”
“I think you’ve hit the nail on the head,’’ Diaz said. “And that’s the worst part and that as a coach is your nightmare. What you want to be is the same team every week, especially this time of the year. Do we have young guys? Yeah, we have young guys but come on, we’re Game 11, we’re past that. That’s not an excuse.
“That’s the urgency, that’s the understanding of what it means to play at this school, what it means to coach at this school. That’s why the good is still there. The team that played against Louisville is still there, and that’s the team that’s worth fighting for and our players understand that.
“But we have got to solve this riddle of the team that showed up. And I’m not trying to take any credit away from FIU. Obviously they played a lot harder than they have been. But we’ve got to get that off our resume because that is obviously sabotaging our efforts to build this program.”
Rose: Did Butch and his coaching staff throw in any wrinkles you and your coaching staff weren’t ready for?
“I think the biggest thing they did is they just played with outstanding effort. Our guys fell in the trap… You watch these guys against FAU, which is a big game for them, and they look listless and they’re just kind of out there. And you preach to your guys, ‘We’re Miami. This is not the way that they’re going to play against us.’ And then of course we played them last year and beat them handily a year ago, so… That’s why the finger points directly at me, because in my ability to get the team to understand the intensity that would be required to perform on that day is ultimately what cost us.”
Rose: “What have you learned here in Year 1 as the head coach at The U. What is the biggest thing that you’ve learned?”
“Trust me, I’m fired up as well,’’ Diaz said. “It doesn’t hurt anybody any more than it hurts me. What you learn is the challenge of getting your team to be the best version of themselves every week. That is the most important thing. I’ve said this before, that greatness is being consistently good and fighting human nature to relax. I think that’s been the thing. So how you approach a walk through, how you approach practice, how you approach a film room, how you approach anything dictates the way you show up on Saturday.
“We tell our team everyday the gravity of mediocrity is relentless. It’s relentless. Every day it is a fight. You cannot just float down the river on the way to greatness, because the river is pulling you in the other direction. The current is relentless.
“And getting the guys to understand how hard they have to fight in that direction is the challenge of building any type of program. But that is the inherent challenge and that is what it takes and that’s part of, and I know everybody shrugs their shoulders, but that’s the idea of building a culture. And that’s the idea of getting guys to understand that certain guys, certain competitors are the ones that understand that.
“And sometimes, young players have to learn a lesson: ‘Holy cow, what did I do last week? How did I prepare and how did I let my team down?’
“And that’s part of what it takes to finally get it to click. And when it clicks, then all of a sudden, bang, you start to get it rolling.
“There have been all kinds of stories of programs where it has taken a minute but all of a sudden when they get the idea of it then off they go.’’
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 11:21 AM.
