Will Miami QB King be back for Alabama? Diaz’s take on those vowing to ‘run it back’
Miami football coach Manny Diaz can finally breathe.
He has made his coaching hires, watched as one Hurricane after another pledged to “run it back’’ and play for UM in 2021 (including both starting defensive tackles, quarterback D’Eriq King and seventh-year tackle Jarrid Williams to complete the return of the entire offensive line) and seen three high-level college players transfer to Miami in positions of dire need.
On Monday, Diaz spoke to WQAM host Joe Rose, and was clearly excited about UM’s returners, new transfers and the 2021 season, which begins Sept. 4 with Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in Atlanta.
Regarding starting quarterback King, who announced Dec. 26 — three days before tearing the ACL of his right knee in the Cheez-It Bowl — that he would return for a sixth season, Diaz was asked by Rose his expectations for his recovery by the start of the season.
“Is that what doctors are telling you?” Rose asked.
“Yeah, yeah,’’ Diaz replied. “His rehab, the way he attacks that is like he attacks anything. He’s doing a great job and barring setbacks, that is the plan.’’
Eight months
The “barring setbacks’’ part is of course the reality, and a full recovery in eight months with enough time to practice again and prepare for Alabama for a quarterback who runs as part of his arsenal, is a lot for which to hope. King’s physical progress and rehabilitation will obviously be closely monitored in the coming months.
Diaz is thrilled about the onslaught of seniors and others returning for 2021, including senior leading receiver Mike Harley and juniors Bubba Bolden, Lou Hedley and Cam’Ron Harris. Rose asked more than once about how it affects development of the younger players and if they’re going to worry about not getting playing time.
“It’s a great thing because players are staying,’’ Diaz said. “No. 1, let’s not forget about education. They’ve got a chance to finish their degree if they have not done that yet. They have a chance to get themselves better. And then the third thing more than anything is they want to play for one another and with one another.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like it. We basically have our entire football team with the exception of maybe four or five guys that are going to bring it back for this year, and that’s special. And for the way we ended our season with two difficult losses where it would be much easier for guys to say, ‘Hey I’m out of here.’
“That’s pretty much proof positive we have a chance to run it back with this team we had a year ago... I’m pretty fired up. I’m fired up because people are choosing Miami. For a while they hadn’t been choosing Miami. We’ve got a great recruiting class, we’ve got big-time transfers and we’ve got the guys on our campus that say, ‘I want to be a part of this,’ and that’s exciting.”
Diaz reiterated that it’s always open competition.
“I hope the entire freshman class comes to compete,’’ the coach told WQAM. “We want to play our best players. We want to give those guys a chance... Yes, we want those guys to come in but also what we finally have got going on at Miami is we have an older team with older guys that can teach the young guys, ‘Here’s how you work, here’s out you watch film, here’s how you do anything.’ It’s been a while since we’ve had that.’’
Diaz said the Canes “were so thin at so many spots’’ in 2020 that “we would travel to games with seven offensive linemen or in the secondary we’d have four corners. It was ridiculous.’’
Transfer portal
Enter the three most recent transfers: defensive end DeAndre Johnson from Tennessee; cornerback Tyriq Stevenson from Georgia; and receiver Charleston Rambo from Oklahoma.
How did that transpire?
“In Rambo’s instance,’’ Diaz said, “we felt like we had to have a receiver that could really blow the top off the coverage and help us vertically. We were hit and miss and when we were hit we were hard to stop on offense — but a little bit too inconsistent down the field with the deep ball. And the same thing with the additions we had on defense. ...We felt like we need an older [defensive end] to come challenge our young ones that we think are going to be really good.
“And with Tyriq in the secondary, we needed more competition at corner. Our numbers were below where they should have been. What we do is we have an idea of need. It’s like fishing: You troll the portal, you set your bait out and you troll it and you see who jumps in.’’
▪ The NCAA, which is allowing all players to maintain their previous eligibility in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, has not yet announced how it will deal with the number of initial scholarships allowed to be given (usually 25) and total number of scholarships allowed for each team (usually 85 limit). Diaz said UM has reached its cap on new scholarships. National Signing Day is Feb. 3.
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 1:17 PM.
