Podcast: Blake James is gone. Is Manny Diaz next? How Miami got here and what comes next
The Miami Hurricanes’ loss to the Florida State Seminoles felt like an end point, and the end started to begin Monday.
Miami parted with Blake James and began a furious search for a new athletic director. Coach Manny Diaz is clearly hanging by a thread. A new era for the Hurricanes is about to arrive.
On a new episode of the Eye on the U podcast, David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, discuss how Miami got here, what the current situation is in Coral Gables and what comes next for the Hurricanes.
James tied himself to Diaz in 2018 when he hired the coach less than 12 hours after Mark Richt retired, without conducting any sort of comprehensive search for the former coach’s successor. Three years later, the decision hasn’t worked out and James couldn’t survive the error.
Saturday was only the point of no return for Miami, which got off to its worst six-game start since 1997, then rallied for three consecutive, potentially job-saving wins for Diaz before blowing a late lead in a 31-28 loss to rival Florida State in Tallahassee. It dropped the Hurricanes (5-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) out of ACC championship contention and guaranteed a second five-loss season — at best — for Diaz in his three seasons as coach.
Diaz’s firing isn’t imminent, but barring some sort of incredible finish — or a surprise change of heart from university decision-makers — he won’t be Miami’s coach next season, simply playing out the string of these final two regular-season games before a new AD can come in and make changes.
The school, by the way, has to move quickly. There are less than two weeks left in the regular season and less than a month until the early signing period begins. The Hurricanes have hired a search firm and need to move quickly to have a new AD in place for the end of the regular season, when it’ll have to make a quick decision whether to move on from Diaz.
All the signs right now point toward Oregon Ducks coach Mario Cristobal as Miami’s priority. It’s too early to talk too much about potential successors to Diaz, but the Hurricanes want to find a new AD who can get them a championship-level coach.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 11:23 AM.
