‘Over 10’ Miami Canes miss practice, some with (non-COVID) virus. Others might transfer
There’s rarely a ho-hum moment at The U.
University of Miami football coach Manny Diaz said Wednesday, two days before the Hurricanes will fly to UNC to play the Tar Heels on Saturday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that “over 10 guys” didn’t practice in the morning.
“The young guys were ill,’’ Diaz said when he was asked about receivers Mark Pope and Dee Wiggins, linebacker Sam Brooks, running back Cody Brown and tight end Kahlil Brantley not being seen Tuesday during media viewing. “I guess on campus there’s some virus that’s been running through the dorms, and we’ve actually been dealing with all week.
“I think we had over 10 guys not practice [Wednesday]. It’s not coronavirus related but there’s something going on.” He added that “hopefully it won’t affect anybody for Saturday for the game.’’
The older players among that list would be fourth-year juniors Pope and Wiggins, both out of Miami Southridge. Both players were highly rated recruits but have underwhelmed at UM, and are believed to be exploring the transfer portal.
In-or-out week
Diaz called the past bye week “sort of the you’re-in-or-you’re-out week’’ after player disillusionment and dissension seeped in during a disappointing season in which young players have started to get more playing time in place of veterans.
“I’ll tell you certainly a storyline with this team has been with the expanded roster and the COVID year and those type things plus recruiting and all the questions you would ask early in the year about the young guys getting more and more reps,’’ Diaz said. “Without commenting on anybody in particular, when older guys, and some who even started, have had their roles changed, that’s hard. Some guys accept that. Some guys don’t. That can create division in your locker room.
“That is a real, live thing that we’ve had to deal with. Coming off the bye week I think we’re in a better place now.”
He said there “were one-on-one conversations with some players. Going forward we can’t have sad guys in the locker room. That energy just brings everybody down... A lot of our players had a lot of expectations. That’s what the bye week was about. There were some sit-down, one-on-ones to say, ‘Look, if you’re not happy with your role now, actually, if you don’t raise your level of play it’s going to get worse — so we’re going to have to move on.’
“I think some guys saw some hard truths.’’
Speaking their piece
UM cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who transferred this season from Georgia, said he’s “witnessed both’’ ends of the spectrum regarding younger and older players. He said players need to “keep a level head, this is a family, this is a brotherhood. If we let us [or] the outside come between us we’re ruined.
“Things are not going to go the way we want to if we’re all divided. We all [came] together as a team and we let everybody speak their piece so everybody understands where everybody is coming from. We all give our opinion and we all make sure that we are on the same level once we leave the locker room.
“It’s just football and football comes with the emotions and the anger behind some players [not] getting what they want. We just make sure that we keep all that to a minimum and remind everybody this is a family... and we need everybody.’’
Possible transfers
Diaz was asked if any players have expressed wanting to leave the program or get into the transfer portal.
“We haven’t had any of that yet,” Diaz said, “but there are some individual cases that are ongoing now that I’m not going to comment on. There are some that will be back and some that probably won’t.“
He said the focus this week “has been on the guys we’re going to get ready to bring up to North Carolina.”
Miami (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) will kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against the Tar Heels (3-3, 2-3).
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 1:46 PM.
