Diaz discusses 12-man battle at receiver. And updates, insight from other UM coaches
A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Wednesday:
▪ UM’s wide receiver room will certainly be crowded, with 12 on scholarship. Whether the room is good enough remains to be seen. The position underperformed last season — aside from Mike Harley Jr. — but the room is also filled with top recruits.
Manny Diaz said a 12-man receiver battle is manageable, and that everyone essentially will enter with a clean slate and a chance to win rotation spots.
“You can play with 12 at wide receiver,” Diaz said. “That’s what we want. For us to go at the tempo we want to play at, we want to have guys we can roll in. We want to get in different personnel groups, with four wideouts in the game, five wideouts in the game. For us to put our foot on the gas and push the tempo the way we really want to, we don’t want to play with three or four. We want to have some depth.”
The 12 include four players who have played a lot: Harley Jr. (UM’s best receiver last season), Mark Pope and Dee Wiggins (who had some good moments but also too many drops) and Oklahoma transfer Charleston Rambo, whose speed will be an asset.
The other eight: Jeremiah Payton (five career receptions in two years and missed time last year in quarantine), second-year players Keyshawn Smith, Xavier Restrepo, Daz Worsham and Michael Redding, and incoming freshmen Romello Brinson, Brashard Smith and Jacolby George.
“It’s very difficult for freshmen to break into the team,” Diaz said. “There’s competition. I would rather pull back and say the whole football team should think right now we are in great competition this spring because we have so much depth back.
“The last thing we would want is to say we have all this experience back, you guys put your feet up all offseason and we’ll kind of get the young guys ready for the following year. That’s crazy. The whole idea is we don’t want anyone in the program feeling comfortable. We want everyone to raise their level. Whether you’ve caught all the balls Mike Harley did or you’re one of the new talented receivers we have coming in, it’s all there to play for. Of the first two or three weeks of the offseason, the team has that mentality, that we’ve really earned nothing.”
In a conversation with Rivals’ Mike Farrell, Diaz praised Brashard Smith’s “skill set, taking a short one and turning it into a long one.”
▪ Diaz said UM doesn’t have the ability to add any more players in the transfer market, even though it doesn’t even have 85 players on scholarship. “If you don’t get initial scholarships, you can’t add another player,” Diaz said. “It puts you in a spot that it’s difficult to add players. You never have any chance to get back to 85.”
▪ New defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson said he spent two years recruiting UM five-star safety freshman James Williams when he was on South Carolina’s staff, but Williams wasn’t interested.
“He wouldn’t pick up the phone for me when I was trying to recruit,” Robinson said good-naturedly. He said he kidded with Williams: “Look at me now. You’ve been running away from me for two years, saying you’re going to hang out. Now you have to be nice to me because I’m going to control your playing time.”
Robinson, who was South Carolina’s defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach last season, said Williams “is a big man that can move. He’s an athletic, talented dude. I speak to him all the time to make sure academically he’s finishing up the right way [at Plantation American Heritage]. He’s an exciting young player, physical guy. He can play multiple spots, but his home will be safety. He’ll be able to do all the things we want to do because of his athleticism.”
Robinson said one key is “making sure he’s not getting overweight because he’s a big person to play in the secondary and cover.”
Williams, rated the Class of 2021’s No. 1 safety by Rivals, is listed as 6-5 and 227 pounds.
▪ Robinson and new inside linebackers coach Travis Williams — who are longtime friends — are considered good recruiters.
“I’m a very personable guy,” Robinson said of his abilities in recruiting, mentioning UF’s Dante Fowler as his biggest/most surprising recruiting victory. “One of the big things in college football is creating relationships. I’m going to coach [players] hard. That’s why I’m successful with the recruiting part.”...
Regarding UM’s South Florida recruiting, Robinson said: “The key is to get big people staying home. Big people change the complexity of the ballgame. All the fast people, and all that kinds of stuff, you win the games up front. If we do a good job of keeping those guys close, we have a chance.”...
Robinson said UM’s group of safeties — led by Bubba Bolden, Amari Carter (who’s returning to UM for a bonus season) and Gurvan Hall — “are extremely talented. Things we can do from a discipline and technique standpoint we can do better. Doing little things, eye control, proper angles of tackling. Sometimes we have to break down some of the habits they have. It helps with a new coaching staff; it’s a different way of explaining things. It will be good for everyone to get out of their comfort zone. That’s what coach Diaz talked to the team today.
“I’m excited to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve been with coach [Will] Muschamp 10 seasons; it’s good for me to do some different things, learn different ways of doing things.”
▪ Defensive line coach Jess Simpson — who said coming back to UM after two years with the Atlanta Falcons was “an easy decision” — noted that ends/tackles Jason Blissett and Elijah Roberts will play defensive tackle because UM likes “penetrating three technique bodies. We value movement skills, ability to redirect. We’re trying to identify those guys with those traits.”
That leaves UM with Nesta Silvera, Jon Ford, Jared Harrison-Hunte, Jalar Holley, Blissett and Roberts as returning tackles.
UM has one defensive end with a lot of experience at that position (Tennessee transfer DeAndre Johnson), former linebacker Zach McCloud and a half dozen young players, led by Jahfari Harvey, Cameron Williams and Chantz Williams.
“The first two things I see are potential and competition,” Simpson said of those half dozen young ends. “All those guys are in the same boat. All have great traits and attributes. All can be special.”
Simpson said Johnson — who had 4.5 sacks for Tennessee last season — is a “good kid, physical, been [well] coached, has a tremendous chance to make an impact this year.”
Simpson said UM wants defensive linemen who can “run, want to tackle in the backfield and attack the quarterback [with] the length and speed on the edges.”
▪ Couple notes from new cornerbacks coach DeMarcus Van Dyke:
He was flattered by Diaz’s reference to his ability to close as a recruiter. “It starts with relationships with kids and parents, mostly the parents,” Van Dyke said. “Making sure they know I’m going to take care of your son and he will leave here with a degree and NFL contract. Once you instill academics in them [and emphasize that will be prioritized], everything is pretty much easy-peasy.” He said UM needs “game-changers.”...
Van Dyke said overall: “I think I can bring a lot to the table, my knowledge of the game. I played, and my relationship with kids, recruiting.” He said his friend Mike Rumph — who was moved from cornerbacks coach to a UM front-office role focusing on recruiting — is “excited for me. There’s no love lost.”...
Van Dyke said second-year cornerback Marcus Clark is one of UM’s two fastest corners, that DJ Ivey “has got long arms, good technique at the line” and that second-year cornerback Isaiah Dunson is a “long kid, very fast, good change of direction.”
Susan Miller Degnan and David Wilson will have a bunch of notes from Manny Diaz’s news conference later today, including his explanation for why he will be defensive coordinator, why he changed cornerbacks coach, and updates on Al Blades Jr. and Avantae Williams (both are awaiting medical clearance), D’Eriq King (doing well in his recovery from ACL surgery), N’Kosi Perry (transferring) and other news, including thoughts from new inside linebackers coach Travis Williams.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 4:07 PM.
