UM dealing with angry trustees and donors amid football’s struggles

A few UM football notes on a Saturday:

▪ Several UM donors and Board of Trustee members have met with athletic director Blake James over the past few days to express displeasure about the football program, hear him out and discuss different potential solutions.

But James appears disinclined, at this point, to execute one of the ideas that has been suggested: having a general manager for the football program and putting NFL executive and former Canes great Alonzo Highsmith in that role.

According to a source, James is reluctant to bring in Highsmith for a general-manager type position of authority over the football program because he does not believe it’s necessary and doesn’t want someone looking over Diaz’s shoulder.

But according to a school source, Highsmith has remained in discussions with UM about a more modest chief of staff role that would carry no level of authority to make unilateral decisions. Whether that would interest Highsmith is unclear.

As of Saturday, he remained employed by the Cleveland Browns as a vice president/personnel, amid reports that he would be out after the dismissal of general manager John Dorsey.

There is considerable anger among trustees, as we noted in this Dec. 4 column. Several trustees and boosters have complained to James, and one trustee said Saturday: “The trustees are up in arms, very upset about football. Blake and Manny are on notice.”

Another trustee said last week that there was concern about donations being withheld because of anger about the football program.

Still, both trustees said James’ and Diaz’s jobs remain safe at this time, as we’ve reported. UM never had any intention, or expectation, of dismissing a coach one year into a five-year contract.

Diaz and James are gambling that new coordinator Rhett Lashlee will solve most of the problems that ail the program.

And president Julio Frenk remains something of a passive observer, disinclined to inject himself into controversial athletic issues. Frenk is much different than predecessor Donna Shalala in that way, the trustee said.

▪ ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky - a critic of UM’s offense in recent years - called UM’s hiring of Lashlee as offensive coordinator “a runaway home run hire. Creative, tempo pusher, matchup exploiter, innovative thinker, standard setter. Sees the game so well.”

▪ One thing that seems very likely: UM, by moving to an up-tempo offense, will run more plays.

SMU ran 80.8 plays per game last season, third-most in the country. Miami averaged 68.2 plays, which was 93rd.

▪ The Canes want to vigorously explore the grad transfer market at quarterback, offensive line, cornerback and receiver. Though it’s unclear if there has been contact, one natural target would be Texas Tech grad transfer quarterback Jett Duffey, who has experience in a spread offense and averaged 339 yards passing in his final eight starts last season.

Duffey compiled 2,840 yards passing with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions in 10 games, adding 212 yards rushing and another score on the ground. He completed 65.1 percent of his passes, going over the 300-yard mark in four consecutive games to finish the season.

This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 6:04 PM.