14 - 0 Manny Diaz has been at Miami for one season, and he enters the 2020 already in trouble. Don’t think for a minute he’s safe either. When Arkansas and Florida State fired their coaches Chad Morris and Willie Taggart less than 2 years into their tenures, there no reason Miami may not do the same.
After the way the Canes ended the season, Diaz will be looking over his shoulder.
Let’s go back to the beginning of the season. Miami came within a series of defeating a top 10 Florida team. The defense looked spry and athletic. Jarren Williams looked like a star in the making. Given time, he made good throws and showed promise. The Canes offensive line had clear issues and Williams would hold on to the ball too long, but things looked encouraging.
Even a 3-3 start with close losses to UNC and Virginia Tech didn’t cause too much concern, but the 28-21 OT home loss to Georgia Tech was the first real sign Miami had big issues on their team.
At that point in the season the Jackets were the ACC’s worst team, with an offense that could only be described as dysfunctional. At least Georgia Tech had the excuse of a total offensive overhaul from the triple option. Miami should not have lost to them, but they did and it raised the mid-season concerns.
The next 3 games, Miami beat Pittsburgh, Florida State, and Louisville. At 6-4 Miami appeared ready to finish the season strong, but then the bottom fell out.
There was a 30-24 loss to a bad FIU team, then a 27-17 defeat at the hands of a Duke that didn’t make a bowl game. Thursday night’s bowl was a 14-0 disaster of a bowl loss to a Louisiana Tech.
Don’t think for a second that Miami wasn’t motivated in this game. They were motivated team, but a really bad one that got worse as the season progressed. By the end of the season, no ACC team had regressed more from early in the year.
OC Dan Enos is likely gone after the bowl, and Miami offense played like it. Unimaginative, with poor OLine play, and multiple QBs that looked some combination of confused, unprepared and disinterested.
Frankly it was a pathetic effort by Miami and staff, and that falls on Manny Diaz. Times have changed in college football, and you don’t get years to turn a program around. You are starting to see coaches get less than 24 months to show positive signs. Diaz didn’t show enough in 2019 to feel safe. No ACC coach better get off to a fast start in 2020 than him.
Cane fans deserve better than what they saw in Miami’s final three games. In a coaches first year, you don’t ask for much. You only want to see improvement, and Miami didn’t even do that.
