ESPN GameDay’s Herbstreit & crew again dissect Miami Canes, talk Blake James, Manny Diaz
ESPN College GameDay was at it again Saturday, devoting a segment to the Miami Hurricanes football program and discussing its past, present and future in light of Manny Diaz’s job being in jeopardy and this week’s firing of University of Miami athletic director Blake James.
Several hours before UM (5-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) was to kick off against Virginia Tech (5-5, 3-3) in the final regular-season game at Hard Rock Stadium, GameDay host Rece Davis brought up Kirk Herbstreit’s segment on Sept. 25, when the popular college football analyst called out UM president Julio Frenk, James and Diaz for not being aligned in their goals and visions for the program. The segment prompted Frenk to release a long statement five days later regarding UM athletics, and to appoint two trusted members of his leadership team — chief of staff Rudy Fernandez and senior advisor Joe Echevarria — “to 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.’’
“Like I said,’’ Davis told Herbstreit in the newest segment, “maybe a statue [is] coming your way, because there was some reaction after Herbie called it out, and rightfully so.’’
Saturday’s segment began with Davis saying ESPN is working on a piece by Andrea Adelson “to celebrate” UM’s last national title in 2001, and that as part of it, “several of those Hurricanes got together to talk about what it was like then, what the standard is and what type of investment Miami needs that you really can’t put a price tag on.”
Davis talked of the $20 to $30 million that UM reportedly is willing to pour into the football program going forward. Both Mike Ryan Ruiz, the producer of the Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz, and CaneSport founder Gary Ferman reported those numbers or similar ones this week.
Former players
They showed a bit of the interview with former Miami players, including Ed Reed, who now serves as UM’s Chief of Staff, and former players Joaquing Gonzalez, Brett Romberg, Jonathan Vilma and Bryant McKinnie.
“The standard, I’m not going to get into that part right now,’’ Reed said in his televised clip. “The standard is not even close to where it used to be, to be honest. Our standard was well above, because we weren’t individuals, we were truly a team. The individuals were put on the back burner for their brothers.”
And this, from Vilma: “I think it’s a combination of setting the bar higher. When I came in my freshman year, the seniors were strong. They were a very strong-knit group and they led by example, so they need that back as well.”
Gonzalez: “What’s it going to take to get this program back, it’s going to take a lot of work. I think that’s the easy part. But the development within the program of the players themselves, these guys have been living without an identity.’’
GameDay opinions
Lee Corso spoke of Diaz and the “two bad signs” that happened recently. “They lost to Florida State and his AD is gone. That’s bad, but not all is lost. If he wins the last two he ends up 7-5 and maybe he’ll be back next year.’’
Herbstreit and Desmond Howard each spoke on UM’s impressive resolve to not quit on Diaz, no matter how painful this season has been.
“One thing you can say about Manny Diaz’s team is through all this noise, his team, they didn’t win last week, but they’re playing hard for him and for each other,’’ Herbstreit said. “I thought Ed Reed summed up to me what’s been missing at Miami for a long time, no matter who the head coach is: the players playing for each other, putting the individual goals kind of on the back burner. Of course you want to have goals, but putting them on the back burner, you play for that brotherhood. When Miami was Miami, it was that brotherhood and winning was all that mattered.”
Herbstreit added that “it’s just great to see they’re going to make a commitment to the sport.’’
Said Howard: “One thing I noticed, even when they lost games, they weren’t getting blown out. Like, they were still in games. A boink off a goal post here or stuff like that, and that’s the difference. I love the way they went out there and consistently competed, so to me there’s hope for this Hurricanes team.”
Howard also brought up “an interesting point” made by Vilma. “He talked about the upperclassmen and the leadership he saw,’’ Howard said. “A strange thing happened in Miami this year. Some of the upperclassmen, I don’t know if they were thinking about the draft or they were just thinking about individual goals, but they weren’t playing up to the standard. And Manny did not hesitate in replacing some upperclassmen with freshmen and they started winning games.”
The Bear
Chris Fallica, the popular ESPN “College GameDay” research producer and sports betting analyst who graduated from UM in 1994 and is known as “The Bear,” was asked by Davis how he would assess his alma mater in terms of football.
“It’s tough because people want to criticize Manny and they want him gone,’’ Fallica said. “But at the same time you look at what he’s done since he’s gotten there. They didn’t have any talent on the roster when he got there. He went heavy into the portal and brought some players in. The first year the offense wasn’t good at all. He got rid of the offensive coordinator and brought in [Rhett] Lashlee.
“The defense had struggles, he got rid of the defensive coordinator and made some changes. Early in the year, some of the upperclassmen weren’t playing well. OK, we’re going to overhaul with young guys. Like, he’s done the right things and made the right moves and tough decisions. It’s tough to say. You wonder now with the AD gone how it’s going to play out.”
Concluded Davis: “It’s clear that they didn’t want Blake James to make the decision, whatever it is going to be, whether they keep [Diaz] or they want someone else.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
