Manny Diaz heads into 20th game as Miami head coach. Here’s some of what he has learned
To some, the time seems to have flown in a flash.
To others, it has crawled.
Either way, tonight’s 7:30 Miami showdown with fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member North Carolina State will be Manny Diaz’s 20th game as the Hurricanes head coach.
Diaz is 11-8 since replacing Mark Richt last season as Hurricanes coach, his first anywhere as the main man. The No. 11 Canes (5-1, 4-1 ACC) are playing an unranked Wolfpack team (4-2, 4-2).
This week Diaz was asked what he has learned about himself during these two seasons that he believes has made him a better coach.
“It’s probably not the time when you’re really self-evaluating,’’ Diaz said, “but what I will say for our program, and you’ve heard me say this before: I think [I have] a better understanding of the challenges of winning at Miami in particular.
“Every job is a little bit different, and I don’t think you really know what it means to be the head coach until you sort of sit in that seat. And what has been our message all year of just respecting every opponent, respecting every week because there are a lot of assumptions that go on with what this program should and shouldn’t do that for whatever reason haven’t been met.
“So, just looking at ourselves in the mirror, looking at myself in the mirror and making sure [of] how I message the team and how I talk and all those types of things [and] that the team understands the challenge week in and week out because it’s got to be harder to win than it seems, because obviously we have not been doing it in large quantities for quite a while.
“Understanding that challenge and trying to play that out week in and week out because every week you win and you’re excited about it, you start back at zero the following week. And in our league you’ve see some of the teams that we’ve defeated that are allegedly not held in high acclaim and then turn around and they have really big wins the next week. So all we can do is go 1-0 every week. I know that sounds like a coaching cliché, but we’ve devoted a lot of attention and energy this year to make that a reality.”
