‘Standing still in the storm:’ Canes face Hokies with seniors, bowl, Manny Diaz on minds
One thing after another has disappeared where there once was reason for hope for the Miami Hurricanes: their starting quarterback way back in September; their Atlantic Coast Conference title aspirations; their three-game overall winning streak; their four-game streak against Florida State; their athletic director Blake James, who was fired by the university on Monday.
But through it all, the Hurricanes have fought to the finish for the program and coach Manny Diaz, who could be the next unsettling disappearance for the Hurricanes with his job clearly in jeopardy as UM searches for a new athletic director.
At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the Hurricanes (5-5, 3-3 ACC) will face Virginia Tech (5-5, 3-3), whose head coach Justin Fuente was fired Tuesday, and play for the seniors who have one more shot for a victory in the regular-season home finale at Hard Rock Stadium. They will play to qualify for a bowl game, ensured with one more win. And they will play for Diaz, for whom they haven’t quit, despite vocal angry fans, boosters and former players who want him out.
“I mean, yeah, you see it around,’’ said UM second-year freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, when asked if it’s difficult to ignore the speculation on Diaz and some of the vitriol spewed on social media. “You try not to pay attention to it. At the end of the day we want to play for the guys in the building [and] Coach Diaz. We’re all going to fight for him, fight for the team, like we have all year. And we want to get this win for our seniors.’’
Senior day
The Hurricanes conclude their regular season Nov. 27 at Duke in Durham, North Carolina. But the home finale has special meaning, as the families of seniors take part in a pregame ceremony and the players soak in their surroundings for what could be the final time.
“Coach Diaz, throughout the week, he’s asking seniors to talk about what being here and the experience means to us, and words of advice we can tell younger guys,’’ said striker Amari Carter, who has 40 tackles, an interception, 2 1/2 tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries. “A big thing is taking it all in, appreciating where your feet are.”
Carter called James “a great person” and said Diaz was “a great leader — and that’s something I will stand on for the rest of my life. Just the way he’s able to take all the negativity that comes from outside this program and continue to not be a different person — attacks every day the same. There’s no switch and change of how he coaches us. He is a true leader, a man of faith... a person of good character.’’
‘Unshakable guy’
Defensive end Zach McCloud, a sixth-year senior who played almost of all his career as a linebacker, with Diaz his defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2018 before he took the job as head coach, called Diaz “an unshakable guy.”
“And that’s one of the lessons I’ve taken from him, how to operate as a person,’’ said McCloud, who leads the Canes with five sacks and has four quarterback hurries. “When it comes to any type of adversity or perceived pressure, whatever you want to call it, he’s going to stand still in the storm. And he’s the same way through all of this and the team kind of carries that with us, even in the way we play.”
McCloud said Diaz is “open to talk about whatever,” and indicated the coach has addressed his current situation, though McCloud stopped short of going into specifics.
“He’s gotten up in front of the team and kind of just… You have to address these things. Imagine being a big business owner. If something major happens that would affect the business, you have to get up and address the employees. You gotta settle the water. Everybody is going to have their own thoughts, and it’s his job to kind of keep everybody on the same page and that’s what he did.”
UM’s resolve
Earlier this week, Diaz spoke of the resolve the Hurricanes have shown all season, win or lose, and how unusual it is “if you look around college football in this day and age” for the Canes to have never quit. He acknowledged that it could a bit tougher Saturday after falling in the last 26 seconds at FSU, but that the Hurricanes’ team meeting Sunday helped ease them at least a bit out of their funk.
“Obviously, when everybody walked in on Sunday there was a lot of sadness,’’ Diaz said. “That was hard. But we had a couple of older guys get up. We had them speak. What we try to do is insulate and get ourselves forward thinking to Saturday. As hard as that was, what would this mean? What does this Saturday mean?
“A few guys sharing their heart sort of refocused everybody. You could feel the tension come out of the room a little bit and suddenly there was just a different feel, which I think helped us.”
Added Diaz of the seniors or final-year players who will be honored Saturday:
“When you run out of that smoke for the last time, life hits you in a different way, and we’ve had some guys express that to their teammates. When you’re a freshman, you think you can play forever and that you will play forever. A couple of guys expressed how fast it goes. All I can go on is the DNA that we’ve shown the last 10 weeks.
“And the DNA is as mentally tough of a football teams as I’ve been around.’’
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 4:39 PM.
