Diaz: Dallas out for year, speaks on FIU flopping, making players more accountable

Stefan Adams
4 min read
After Wednesday’s drills, Miami head coach Manny Diaz updated some personnel news, saying RB DeeJay Dallas would miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury suffered against FIU. Diaz also mentioned TE Brevin Jordan practiced and would be ready for the Duke game, and that WR Jeff Thomas was questionable for Saturday.

“Jeff’s been limited with a back deal, so that’s what he’s been working through,” Diaz said of Thomas.

In practice this week, Diaz says the team has continued to work on what has been a season-long struggle to improve player accountability.

“We’ve tried to put something in place this week, trying to get it to be a little more player-led,” Diaz said. “If there’s something like a guy jumps offsides, another guy will say ‘Let’s get five up-downs’, that kind of thing. We’re trying to get the players bonded to each other from their accountability.”

Diaz spoke more on the effort level of practice, saying today felt like it had greater energy and spirit. Regarding players that loaf in practice, Diaz feels it more important for the other players to notice it and call it out.

“The whole key is that the players see it… You’re trying to draw that line of what does it mean to be fully into the program. Those are all the challenges in trying to get this rolling and building the culture of what it means to be a Miami Hurricane.”

Diaz also mentioned that yesterday’s practice was the second fastest practice of the year per the Catapult system, something Diaz found encouraging.

“Yesterday, I thought our practice was good watching it,” Diaz said. “Watching the film, it was much better than it felt... We run the Catapult system that measures every step, our speed. Turns out, yesterday was our second fastest practice of the year in how guys were running. We can’t run fast without straining. That was very encouraging to hear, because what that is telling you is that a football team in week 14 of a season after such a bad loss came out here and put the work in.”

Last week, FIU players appeared to be faking injuries to stop the clock and allow the Panthers to get the right personnel on the field. Does Diaz feel there’s anything the NCAA can do to adjust the rules to prevent that in the future?

“That’s beyond me. No one likes it, but the officials say `We’re not allowed to judge intent,’” Diaz said. “Right now, it’s a loophole in a rule that I think everyone wants solved, I don’t think anyone wants to watch that. They’ll have to figure out some kind of way to curtail it.”

The Canes’ offense took a big step back from where they were the past two games against FSU and Louisville, and Diaz feels that youth and inconsistency is holding that unit back.

“There’s two things - one, we’re young on offense… Secondly you still have to look at where we were coming from, what was the culture on the offensive side of the ball,” Diaz said. “You’re looking for a way you can get guys that are not just defined by their talent but defined by what they do out here (in practice). When you look at the year in its totality, the development of Dee Wiggins, Cam Harris, Mike Harley and how he stepped up as the year’s gone on, those kind of guys. Mark Pope had a touchdown last week. That’s a positive sign to rebrand what we’re doing on that side of the ball.”

Diaz said he challenged the team following the FSU win to be the same team every week starting with Louisville, and after the big win over the Cardinals, he thought the team turned the corner.

“My mistake was to think that it was cured, because I told them I didn’t think they could be this team every week,” Diaz said. “That’s my arrogance to think that we had it solved that when obviously we didn’t.”
 

Comments (71)

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The Lisping Leprechaun continues his clueless rambling. The weak leaders are always trying to abdicate their leadership duties. This dude couldn’t lead a fat fck to a buffet, so he keeps trying to make a bunch of weak loafing lame players lead each other.

You hear Amari Carter talking about how cold it’s going to be at Duke and matter of factly talking about the FIU disgrace like we lost a close game to Clemson, and you think these dudes are going to lead each other? Just so sad.
 
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“If there’s something like a guy jumps offsides, another guy will say ‘Let’s get five up-downs’, that kind of thing. We’re trying to get the players bonded to each other from their accountability.”

This is exactly the kind of **** that drives me crazy with this guy. Nothing is real It’s all forced and highly mechanistic with Manny. Like he’s looking to operate a business. It’s ******* football *******! Just shut up!
 
Mammy reaches a new level with that pathetic load of defeated snowflake comments. That drivel is just embarrassing to even read. Where's the leadership, the ********s? The savage new Miami? Those quotes are fireable offenses.

Mammy = BETA
 
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To think if we had Richt this year there’s no way we lose to FIU or GTech. Easily only have 1 or 2 losses. To come out flat after 3 bye weeks is dumbfounding and the fact we’re still trying to find “leaders” this late in the game is beyond concerning.

He of all people should of known not to rest on the fact we won 3 games in a row and supposedly turned a corner. Anyone with a pulse could see we were not motivated in the least bit on Saturday and that starts at the top. Level of accountability from the coaches to the players sucks to the high heavens.
 
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I read an article awhile back about Nick Saban’s recruiting philosophy. Yes, he obviously can pick who he wants, but out of 100s of many talented players available, how does he pick the best 25 or so? He said he looks for players who are hyper competitive. Fact is that lots of teams buy recruits, but not all of them have players that play every game with maximum effort regardless of the level of competition. When was the last time Alabama played down to an opponent?

If you don’t have players who take losing personally, doing up/downs for jumping offsides isn’t going to fix it. As far as I know, 247 or Scouts doesn’t include “angry at the thought of losing” in their recruiting rankings. So being #5 in the country recruiting doesn’t mean much if those players aren’t embarrassed at the thought of losing to a G5 team. I don’t know if Richt is mostly to blame, but a lot of these soft players on the defense, which means Diaz had a big part in recruiting them. There just isn’t much you can do to make a non competitive person suddenly be competitive. Even all that stuff about being accountable doesn’t matter. Sure, everyone can be made to understand they are accountable for their mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they will take losing personally. The culture isn’t “broken”, the players just think a game is a game. Obviously it feels better to win, but life goes on if you lose. You can’t fix that with trust falls and jumping jacks.
 
Nothing but a bunch of lame *** horse**** excuses from this Head Coach, no leadership at all.

Sounds just like his worshippers on here making excuses on his behalf, he even reached into the "we're young on Offense" excuse bag smfh...

How ****** old do we have to be to beat FIU??? Do we need a roster full of 5th year Seniors to beat a team that lost 50-17 & gave up 471 yards rushing to Middle Tennessee State???

GTFOH PLEASE.
 
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