Miami is Awful and Manny Diaz Doesn't Seem to Have a Plan
Miami and new head coach Manny Diaz made a lot of noise this offseason. Diaz loudly claimed he wanted to bring swagger back to "The U" and wound up landing a number of big-name transfers. Hype increased and the Hurricanes were expected to show some life this season. That hasn't happened.
Miami lost to Florida International 30-24 on Saturday in a monumentally embarrassing upset. The Hurricanes were favored by 21 points and somehow lost to a terrible FIU squad. It was the third time Miami has lost as at least a 14-point favorite this season. It has been 40 years since that happened in college football.
With the loss to FIU, Miami becomes the only team in the last 40 years to lose three times as a 14-point favorite in a single season. Canes lost to VT as 14-pt fave, GT as 18.5-pt fave and tonight to FIU as 21-pt fave. Canes also won 17-12 as a 30.5-pt fave vs Central Michigan.
— Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) November 24, 2019
On Saturday, we saw a familiar Miami problem. The team was ill-prepared, as it was against Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Central Michigan and other games. The Hurricanes fell behind FIU 23-3 before finally waking up in the fourth quarter. That's a recipe for failure.
Despite landing transfers from former top recruits like Tate Martell, Jaelan Phillips, Bubba Bolden and more, Miami has looked awful. While Phillips is sitting out, Bolden and Martell have made almost no impact on the team, while the returning starters haven't improved at all.
Miami is 6-5 this season and has three conference losses despite playing in the horrific ACC. The offense has looked awful all season and entered Saturday ranked 84th in yards per game (387.5) and 69th in scoring offense (29.3 points per game).
Of course, this all falls on the shoulders of Diaz, a first-year head coach. When you talk as big a game as he did during the offseason, you have to deliver something. Any level of improvement would have at least given some confidence that he could be the guy to turn Miami around. But this? This has been an absolute mess.
Mark Richt led Miami to nine, 10 and seven wins in his three seasons before he retired and the school rushed to bring Diaz back from a two-week stint as Temple's head coach. Maybe they should have taken their time in finding a better coach.