It was a pivotal week for Miami. The Hurricanes ended it with another indefensible loss
Boos rained down at Hard Rock Stadium while the Miami Hurricanes cleared the field for halftime of their game against the Virginia Cavaliers on Thursday.
The present was not inspiring. The past, at Miami, always is. Soon, the family of Howard Schnellenberger was on the field as the Hurricanes unveiled the name of the late, great coach as part of their Ring of Honor in Miami Gardens. There were cheers for the memory of the championship-winning coach and his widow. When the public address announcer introduced athletic director Blake James, the boos returned.
The Hurricanes were on their way to a 30-28 loss — their fifth in a row against a Power 5 Conference opponent. The crowd of 37,269 was Miami’s smallest for a home game since 2012, not including last season when capacity was reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frustrations from the Hurricanes faithful had already boiled over even before an abysmal first half set the stage for another devastating loss as a home favorite, sending Miami into its bye week with the external criticism louder than ever for coach Manny Diaz’s program.
“As a team, we all are pretty clear on understanding that we have a lot to fight for, the main thing being each other,” defensive lineman Zach McCloud said Thursday. “Everything else on the outside — we can’t really focus too much on that.”
In the past two weeks, though, the outside noise has been amplified and acknowledged from the inside.
Last week, two members of the Board of Trustees, a university official, a former assistant coach and a former All-American player all opened up to the Miami Herald about the state of the program, its structural issues, the job security of Diaz and James and president Julio Frenk’s relative disinterest in athletics. On Saturday, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit, citing the Herald’s article, went on a rant on “College GameDay” about his dismay at the Hurricanes’ descent into mediocrity.
The nationally televised critique went viral and became impossible for Miami to ignore.
On Monday, Diaz responded to Herbstreit’s criticism by defending the university and Frenk’s commitment to the football program. It was the coach’s most public acknowledgment of external criticism and an increasingly fed-up fan base. On Thursday, Frenk even issued a statement in response to the Herald and Herbstreit, saying he “will augment my own direct engagement with the athletics director by facilitating seamless alignment between the Board of Trustees, my entire administration and the athletics department.”
The Hurricanes (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) lost to Virginia a few hours later when kicker Andres Borregales hit a potential game-winning 33-yard field goal off the left upright as time expired.
“It was a game of missed opportunities,” said Diaz said Thursday.
It has often been the story of his tenure.
In Diaz’s first year, Miami closed the season on a three-game losing streak, including a pair of losses to Conference USA opponents. Last year, the Hurricanes entered the final week of the regular season with a chance to win and likely make the Orange Bowl and instead got blown out by the North Carolina Tar Heels, giving up the most yards in a single game in program history. Already this year, Miami has lost twice as a home favorite and is missing quarterback D’Eriq King, who remains sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder injury.
Reasonable preseason expectations — nine regular-season wins and a trip to the 2021 ACC Championship Game — are still attainable, only the Hurricanes haven’t shown many signs of a team capable of ACC’s Coastal Division, even as Diaz and Co. run through lineup changes by turning to some of its highly touted freshmen.
Safeties James Williams and Kamren Kinchens have both played well, but Kinchens dropped an interception in the end zone in the first quarter and Williams got caught out of position on a touchdown run in the second. Wide receiver Romello Brinson has cracked the rotation, but even he had a crushing drop on third-and-9 in the third quarter. Defensive tackle Leonard Taylor had a half sack and 1 1/2 tackles for loss, but he missed tackles, too, just like the players he was replacing.
Their mistakes are all typical of freshmen and the future is bright for all four. The upperclassmen, however, have so thoroughly failed to play up to expectations that Diaz had to turn to a youth movement as a potential salve for this season and, unsurprisingly, a cavalcade of 18- and 19-year-olds couldn’t single-handedly fix what ails Miami.
Even on the final play of the game, the Hurricanes asked an 18-year-old to bail them out of an underwhelming performance. Miami needed freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, making his first career start against FBS competition, to lead a game-winning drive from his own 16-yard line with 5:36 remaining and he got the Hurricanes into the red zone with more than two minutes left. The Hurricanes, who had run for 6.9 yards per carry on the drive, ran twice to force the Cavaliers to burn their last two timeouts, then centered the ball on third-and-10 with 45 seconds left instead of trying to pick up a first down and score a game-winning touchdown.
Borregales, 18, missed at the buzzer. The freshman also missed from 27 yards earlier in September against the Michigan State Spartans.
“We’ve got to put him in a better situation,” running back Cam’Ron Harris said Thursday. “Offense has got to score, so we shouldn’t have put him in that situation.”
The loss dropped Miami to 16-13 in Diaz’s tenure. Throw out two games against FCS opponents, and the Hurricanes are 14-13 and only outscoring teams 728-725. Throw out five more against non-Power 5 foes, and Miami is 11-11 and has actually been outscored 632-631.
The fans have stopped showing up at games. Former players are explicitly calling for Diaz’s job on social media. The Hurricanes are on pace for a second losing season in Diaz’s three years.
It all started, perhaps, with a missed opportunity. When former coach Mark Richt abruptly retired in 2019, James hired Diaz within 24 hours, eschewing an extensive coaching search to make sure he could retain his former defensive coordinator, who had yet to officially take over as coach of the Temple Owls, who had hired him less than three weeks earlier.
It was a gamble — a bet on continuity and Diaz, who had no head coaching experience, but led one of the nation’s best defenses and had deep ties in Miami — and now both are on the hot seat.
While Diaz talks multiple times per week and even Frenk sent out a letter Thursday, James has yet to make any public as another season unravels in South Florida.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 1:45 PM.
