Football frustration grows for some UM trustees: ‘Manny better straighten out this mess’
A prominent longtime member of UM’s Board of Trustees and another high-ranking executive involved in UM’s administration said this week that there’s unhappiness among several trustees with the state of the Hurricanes’ football program but added that it’s unlikely the administration would engineer major changes this offseason.
However, the trustee cautioned that Manny Diaz likely could not survive a second season like this one.
“Manny better straighten out this mess,” said the trustee, whose voice is respected among peers. “He better figure it out. But they’re not getting rid of him after one year.”
As for athletic director Blake James, the trustee said his job is safe.
“He’s done a great job of fundraising, won awards for athletic directors,” the trustee said. “Our student graduation rate is one of the highest in the country.”
That trustee said school president Julio Frenk “supports Blake. [Former president] Donna Shalala would fire an athletic director she wasn’t happy with, but Julio would leave it to the board. He’s not a sports enthusiast like Donna was.”
The two sources said, as of Tuesday evening, there had been no Board of Trustees meeting to discuss the state of the football program.
Several trustees were upset that James hired Diaz the day Mark Richt retired Dec. 30 instead of conducting a national search, according to both sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about athletic department issues.
The trustee said he has no doubt that even if Diaz had started the job full-time at Temple on Jan. 1, he would have quit in mid-January to take the UM job if offered the Canes gig two weeks later.
“But if you did a search, Diaz wouldn’t have been on top; you would have looked at experienced guys,” the trustee said.
(As a point of clarity, from my previous conversations with James, I can tell you that James strongly believes Diaz would have been unavailable if he hadn’t been hired that day. I never had any issue with Diaz’s hiring because of his work as defensive coordinator, his intelligence and his leadership skills. I’m not sure anyone could have anticipated the 6-6 debacle. But in general, I would never give a first-time coach a five-year deal like the one Diaz got and most coaches are given. A three-year deal for a first-time coach would limit a school’s monetary burden if it doesn’t work out. But I digress...)
The trustee said “if I’m Blake, I tell Manny he has to make changes. But Blake likes to let the coach do his job and pick his assistants and [schemes].”
Beyond the 6-6 record and losses to schools with seemingly inferior talent such as FIU and Duke, the trustee cited other issues that have angered some members of the board, including the staff that Diaz hired and the team’s offense, which finished 90th in yards per game and 130th and last in third down conversions.
“The other thing they’re not happy with is the bling [expletive],” said the executive, who is close with several key trustees beyond the one quoted in this piece. “The rich people on the board don’t understand the chains and the bling.”
The trustee said: “The turnover chain, the rings, the dancing on the sidelines, you look like an idiot” when you’re doing that with a 6-6 team.
The trustee said in his opinion, Diaz “has got to go to a spread offense. He’s trying to run the Alabama offense without the players. We can’t run a power offense; we have no power line. The offensive line stinks, the worst I’ve seen here. You have to get the ball out quickly. He’s got to make a lot of changes. Dan Enos might have been a good quarterback coach, but he’s a terrible coordinator.”
The trustee expressed frustration with Diaz praising his team’s effort after the loss to Duke, saying it “was a ridiculous thing to say. Are you kidding me?”
(This is where we remind you that the trustee is speaking only for himself, not for the entire board.)
The UM executive said Diaz “needs better assistants around him” and said hiring former UM star and Cleveland Browns executive Alonzo Highsmith “wouldn’t be a bad idea. He would do a great job as a football coordinator, judging talent.”
Highsmith - a highly respected longtime NFL executive and personnel evaluator - hasn’t been contacted by UM, but one associate thought he would certainly listen if contacted.
The issue is whether Diaz would resist having another person above him in the hierarchy (beyond James), and whether James could come up with the money in the budget to add a football general manager position even if UM decided to pursue that approach.
“You have to do something serious,” the trustee said. “We’ve been on the wrong track for 15 years.”
It was business as usual this week for Enos, who visited 2020 four-star quarterback commitment Tyler Van Dyke at his Connecticut home.
I would be surprised if Diaz simply fires Enos, but a parting certainly cannot be ruled out, considering UM’s offensive problems and Enos’ history of changing jobs. I would be surprised if Diaz doesn’t make at least one significant change in some aspect of the program. James does not believe in forcing coaches to dismiss assistant coaches.
NEWS NOTES
Guard Cleveland Reed, who left the UM football team and entered the transfer portal on Sept. 20, has decided to rejoin the team in the spring, according to multiple reports. UM isn’t commenting....
Fullback Realus George left the team and entered the transfer portral. Mark Richt considered George the nation’s best prep fullback when he recruited him, but this staff wasn’t impressed and had little use for him this season.
Here’s my Wednesday piece with four Dolphins roster moves, comments today from Adam Gase and a bunch of other things.
Here’s my Wednesday Marlins 6-pack, with how Don Mattingly plans to use his new hitters, MLB reaction to the Marlins’ moves and more.
Here’s my Wednesday story on why Erik Spoelstra will miss Wednesday’s Heat game.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 6:44 PM.
