Diaz: Canes a bit ‘out of our minds’ Friday. But ‘Pride of Grove’ snapped them back
▪ Leave it to striker Gilbert Frierson, the ‘pride of the Grove,’ as a Miami spokesman introduced him Friday after the Canes’ 44-41 win over North Carolina State, to deliver the halftime speech that got UM back in the groove.
“Gilbert, like I mentioned after the game,’’ coach Manny Diaz said Monday, “did an amazing job at halftime. I kind of walked in and just walked by the players. I wanted to see who was going to say what and Gilbert got right in front of the defense and said, ‘This is not us.’
‘’It had nothing to do with technique, playing, whatever. It was just we had lost our connection.
“The effort wasn’t an issue, but like I said, we were almost like a car and it was driving on Redline and we were steering off the tracks and just out of our minds a little bit. And he refocused everybody and I was able to go in there and say a couple things that I thought needed to be said and it just felt different from that point on.”
The now-No. 9 Canes (6-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) were losing 24-21 at halftime, fought back to tie the score at 31 late in the third quarter, got down 41-31 early in the fourth quarter and reeled off 13 consecutive points for the victory.
Frierson, a redshirt sophomore striker whose cousin is UM/NFL great Frank Gore, was a consensus four-star Coral Gables High prospect who chose UM over Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU. On Friday, his UM cap tipped to one side, Frierson “got the guys going,’’ said quarterback D’Eriq King, whose historic performance lifted the Canes to the win.
King said Frierson’s message was to “trust each other.’’
“He told everybody that he loved us and we’re going to go out there and have a better performance in the second half and try to find a way to win. That really changed the game, the whole momentum, the whole mood.’’
‘Be great as a team’
Frierson said he told his teammates, “Just stay positive.”
“We’re going to have ups and downs throughout the game but the first half is the first half,’’ Frierson said of his message. “Whatever mistakes you made, whatever happened, you can only fix it by the next play. Play the next play.
“Let’s be great as a team. Let’s all work together... Special teams, offense, defense, we all gotta combine as one to finish this game. However we gotta do it, let’s just get it done and leave with a win.”
Frierson finished tied with defensive end Quincy Roche with six tackles Friday, including a tackle for loss. For the season, he’s third on the team with 32 tackles and second behind Roche with seven tackles for loss. He also has three pass breakups and a recovered fumble.
“It was great,’’ King said of the team unity. “This was one of the best feelings I’ve had playing college football. It just shows you how well-bonded this team is. ...We don’t care if we win by one point, two points— whatever. We just want to get a win. We have a strong, strong brotherhood on this team, man. I’m excited to be a part of it.’’
Easy to get negative
Diaz said Monday that the Hurricanes have had the “conversation all year’’ about “connection’’ since “the madness in March/April.’’
“I mentioned earlier in the fall when you saw the Heat’s run in the playoffs,’’ the coach said. “You could see that the teams that have a little bit better connection might just be better poised because of all the divisiveness and all the negativity. Look, it’s so easy to play the game and get caught up in the negativity whether you win or you lose. ...We try to really focus on what we value and then enjoy the wins, because these wins are hard to come by and these games are not guaranteed to us.”
Diaz acknowledged that the Canes “were divisive in the second quarter.’’
“We got a little different, and to see us come together and see the positive — I know this sounds crazy, but it was real and the players experienced it. To see the energy our play had in the fourth quarter in between drives and for each other, I think that had a lot to do with how we won the game.
“I think that has always mattered. In 2020 it matters even more.”
‘Be the change’
Diaz concluded that UM’s third-year players who “went 13-13 their first two years... saw a lot of the things that the upper classmen did that maybe didn’t contribute to us having the best of seasons, especially as the year went on.
“In all of our conversations during the offseason they wanted to be the change. They wanted to make things different than the way that they had seen it in the past and role model better things for our younger guys.”
More news
▪ Tim Burns Jr., a three-star cornerback from Miami Northwestern, decommitted Monday from the Hurricanes’ Class of 2021. He was the only true cornerback committed to that class.
▪ The ACC announced kickoff time as 8 p.m. for the Nov. 21 Georgia Tech at UM game, with the ACC Network broadcasting the game.
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 6:17 PM.
