Diaz: ‘They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ It happened to Canes
No way to make the 42-17 trouncing at the hands of the Clemson Tigers easy to digest.
University of Miami coach Manny Diaz went on WQAM radio and was faced with more questions Monday about the now-No. 13 Hurricanes’ loss to No. 1 Clemson.
When asked about how he graded the offensive line, which was clearly deficient against the Tigers, who amassed five sacks (Four against Canes starter D’Eriq King and one in garbage time against backup quarterback N’Kosi Perry) and 11 tackles for loss, the coach said this:
“Most of our problems as an entire team wasn’t just, ‘Oh, gosh, I’m physically getting dominated.’ What showed up in that setting was guys trying to do more than their job. When we watched the film, they’re bringing pressure and ‘I’ve got this defensive lineman but here comes this linebacker’ and ‘You know what, maybe I want to go block this linebacker, too.’
“The running back has got the linebacker. We’ve got it picked up.
“Sometimes, you know, they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? I think that’s what showed up a little more often than anything.
“We tried to explain to them, and I think just coming on the other side of the game, is in games like that, you want to simplify your thought process not make it more complicated. Because a game is a game. They understood everything that was at stake there at every position, but certainly at offensive line, you could point out on film, ‘This is not something that you’ve done through these first three games and you have not done this in practice.’
“Then, all of a sudden, why are we all trying to turn into heroes now and trying to do two jobs? Just seeing that and seeing our ability to trust ourselves, just trust the play. Just do your job on the play and we’ll be fine. So I think that’s a lesson, but in terms of guys just getting whipped, they did not appear to be our issue.”
The Hurricanes (3-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) next meet Pittsburgh (3-2, 2-2) at noon Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium (ACC Network). The Canes opened as 11-point favorites, but it appears that spread has narrowed a bit.
“Pitt can play,’’ Diaz said. “They have a very old team. Their quarterback is a senior. These guys are good... Pitt has two one-point losses the past two weeks in almost freak-type games [30-29 at home against NC State and 31-30 in overtime Saturday at Boston College]. Pitt has got a lot of guys on their defense, and this is not coach talk, that would start for Clemson.’’
Last year, UM won at Pitt when former quarterback Jarren Williams replaced starter N’Kosi Perry midway through the fourth quarter and led UM to a game-winning drive, culminated by a 32-yard touchdown catch by former wideout K.J. Osborn
Substandard wide receivers play
WQAM’s Joe Rose asked about UM’s wide receiver play, which again this season appears to be frustratingly substandard. Against Clemson, freshman Keyshawn Smith had one catch for 42 yards, followed by three catches for 17 yards by senior slot receiver Michael Harley and one catch for 24 yards by Dee Wiggins. The leading UM receiver is a tight end. Junior Brevin Jordan had three catches for 31 yards Saturday.
“I thought they played OK,’’ Diaz said. “There were some balls to be had there. There were some times when the ball wasn’t thrown kind of exactly where we wanted it but I don’t think anybody on our football team feels they played good enough to win that game. I think any position group would say the same thing. I think they played hard, I think they competed. But to do the little things it takes to execute and win on that level, I don’t think anybody would cover themselves in glory on that. And that comes back to us as coaches. We gotta help our guys out and put them in better position to succeed.”
Diaz said that “it wasn’t a surprise going in” that Clemson would put plenty of pressure on King and “played really well on the perimeter.”
“Pretty much all the 50-50s down the field they won,’’ Diaz said. “And that had not been the case throughout the course of the year. I think they played very well in the secondary and there are some things we know we can continue to do better, some things we can do to help our guys out a little better on the outside. It was tough on D’Eriq because there were no easy throws to be had.’’
What to tell Amari Carter (targeting)
Safety and senior team captain Amari Carter has had multiple targeting penalties in his career, and it just keeps happening. Saturday he was flagged for targeting in the first quarter on what appeared to be a late hit that he was once again trying to stop at the last second.
“Look, Amari has got a reputation,’’ Diaz said. “Everybody knows he’s a big hitter. If a quarterback is running toward Amari Carter, the quarterback is going to slide. Trevor Lawrence loves his career and he loves his health and he’s not going to run over Amari Carter. It’s going to be a bad deal for him. So Amari just needs to know and needs to anticipate that guy is going to slide.
“It’s unfair, and we all know this, what it looks like in slow motion as to what it is in real life. That is happening so fast. You see Amari getting off a block and getting pushed in the back and then all of a sudden.. If Amari wanted to hit him, he would have hit ‘em, and it would have been a bad down. And so he’s trying to pull out of it but there’s still contact, and by the letter of the law, that’s a flag. And I’ve said this before: I wish we had a Flagrant I, Flagrant II type system, you know, Targeting I, Targeting II.
“We’ve taken the intent, you know, of that real nasty hit across the middle of the field. We’ve taken that out of the game in a good way. Amari is not trying to do that. But it’s not the officials on the field that call that. That goes upstairs, and by the rules that they’ve been given by whoever makes the rules they’ve got to [go] from that.”
Also, striker Keontra Smith was flagged for targeting when he hit Clemson quarterback hard in the stomach area in the second half. That means Smith will have to sit out the first half against Pittsburgh.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 9:58 AM.
