Diaz speaks publicly for first time since games rescheduled, shares what he told UM
Manny Diaz said his players are not at fault for the COVID-19 outbreak that has paused the Miami Hurricanes’ football season and that an internal medical analysis convinced them that the virus has penetrated the program from “the outside” instead of simply spreading internally.
In his first public comments since three UM games were rescheduled because of COVID-19, Diaz told WQAM’s Joe Zagacki and Don Bailey Jr. on Hurricane Hotline on Tuesday night that UM paused its season because “we fell just below the threshold of available players for us to be able to play safely. We kind of knew that in 2020 we had to be ready for anything. We knew that going in. And here we are.”
Diaz said the UM medical staff — not the athletic program — has “studied every data point that we have as far as how this virus spreads inside of our program. Our medical people have found no connection, which shows it’s community spread. It’s coming in through the outside. It is a warning that it is not a Miami problem or college football problem. This is a problem all these months later, of all the things we’ve done, we’ve still not appropriately dealt with [as a society].”
UM had three players test positive early in the summer but then went weeks without more infections, according to a source. More than a handful of players have tested positive in recent weeks, and last week’s win against Virginia Tech was nearly postponed because UM had at least a dozen players in COVID-19 protocol.
Test results on Monday left UM believing it could not play this week — not only because of the volume of players out but also because of the quality of players out, according to a source.
Still, UM managed to play eight games before shutting down temporarily due to the virus.
“I am so proud of them because they fought the good fight for a long time,” Diaz said. “If they didn’t do right in June or July, we may not even have had a season. I don’t fault them.
“I’m sick of it, you’re sick of it, everyone is sick of coronavirus. I get it. But it’s a little like sports.
“Last week’s win doesn’t guarantee you this week’s one. You can do the right things for 20 days in a row and if you don’t do something right on the 21st day, the virus is still there. You don’t get to save up or have momentum from having 20 good days in a row. That’s where we’re at as a country. To our league’s credit, they were able to act quickly [with rescheduling six ACC games].
“We have to continue to battle the virus. We have to double down in our protections. It’s obvious it has spread in our community at as high a level as it has at any point this year.”
Here’s what Diaz said he told his players in a Zoom session late Monday afternoon:
“The way I look at it, we have a chance to get well. We have to be even more diligent against the virus. We got a two game season. If we win those two games, we are going to look at our records and see if we got a shot at 8-1 in ACC to get in the ACC championship game. If 8-1 doesn’t get us in, we’ve got one more game to play [Dec. 19 against Georgia Tech]. Odds are if we win that game, we’re looking at a New Year’s Day bowl game.
“[We still have] big time goals for our program. Chance to finish the year 10-1, win a big time bowl. A lot to play for and worth keeping this team healthy and strong and together for.”
How will his 7-1 team respond after a three-week break between games, with a Dec. 5 game at Wake Forest next up?
“If I can judge by what they’ve done this entire year I think they will respond well,” Diaz said. “We have great leadership. We’ve got some guys who want to accomplish some big-time goals here at the school.
“Our meeting was on Zoom. You can’t see everybody eye to eye on Zoom like you want to. We’ll slowly build it back. We’ll start with socially distant workouts, then get back to practice, then get back into game week flow and get ourselves ready to go again.”
UM players won’t practice this week or next week, but players who aren’t in quarantine will be permitted to do socially-distanced conditioning.
“We’ll be off the next couple of weeks,” he said. “But that will give our guys a chance to get healthy.”
That includes guard Navaughn Donaldson, who hasn’t played all season off of knee surgery at the end of last season but was available to play last weekend in an emergency situation. With UM off until Dec. 5, Donaldson conceivably could unseat D.J. Scaife or improved Jakai Clark for a starting job. Clark missed last Saturday’s game.
With 13 players out against Virginia Tech, a bunch of UM players played more than they otherwise would, including Jon Ford, Ousman Traore, Sam Brooks and even starting defensive linemen Quincy Roche and Jaelen Phillips.
“We had a lot of guys play a lot of snaps and some gutty, heroic efforts in Blacksburg,” Diaz said. “But we knew we were on the brink this past week. This team has something special about it; I just want to see them all together again for this final stretch run.
“Our thought process is get the game to the fourth quarter and we know we’re going to win. That’s exactly what we did. The amount of snaps some of our guys had to play and still be able to contribute with relentless effort shows we’re in great condition and [strength and conditioning coach] David Feeley has done a great job with our guys.”
Here’s my Tuesday Dolphins piece, with lots of notes.
Here’s my Tuesday Heat piece on Bam Adebayo’s potential max extension, where things stand and the consequences.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 7:30 PM.
