After watching the film of Miami’s 24-20 opening loss to the Florida Gators this Saturday, head coach Manny Diaz felt his team battled well all around, but made too many mistakes at the end of the day.
“I thought at every position we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Diaz said. “Every position had a hand in what got us beat - on one hand when I look at it in terms of the effort and fight and strain, we were outstanding, which is no small thing. The to-be-expected errors in execution - in that environment you’re not going to get the best football imaginable. When it really came down to it, we made one or two more mistakes than they did.”
What was the team’s mentality after the loss?
“It wasn’t a sadness, more of an edge, anger, maybe a little disgust which I thought was good and healthy,” Diaz said. “Something to build on going forward.”
Despite the offensive line giving up 10 sacks and 16 TFL, Diaz does not plan on shifting the lineup on the O-Line going forward.
“Those are our guys, and they never flinched, never blinked,” Diaz said. “They got beat, that’s going to happen. That’s hard. They had some good dudes that seniors would have a hard time blocking. But we didn’t build this program for August 24th. The idea here is to build a monster to last and is sustainable.”
Speaking more on why he feels set with the starting 5 on the O-Line, Diaz said they tried many combinations over the offseason, including repping Navaughn Donaldson and DJ Scaife at tackle. At the end of the day, this is the group the coaching staff feels most comfortable with.
“We felt DJ and Navaughn do a nice job at guard,” Diaz said. “We have a lot of confidence in our guys. And sacks do not define offensive line play at all. There were easy throws in the first half, we don’t fan out to a linebacker we should pick up, a man comes unblocked but the ball should have come out. Everyone understands it’s an 11-man job to protect the quarterback.”
Sophomore Tate Martell surprisingly saw a ton of snaps at receiver on Saturday, and was also able to get in and run a few plays at QB as well.
“He’s a threat,” Diaz said of Martell. “There’s a lot of creativity we can do with him, things that weren’t called in the game. There’ll be more to that. If you’re playing defense, you’ll want to know if he’s on the field and where he’s aligned because that can make you change your game plan pretty quickly.”
Martell got the fourth most snaps of any UM receiver, but Diaz stressed that it was in part because he’s both in the Wildcat package and has a package installed for him at QB as well. So, is Martell officially a wide receiver now?
“I don’t know, I classify him as `Tate,’” Diaz said. “Receiver, it was something he was very, very excited about and wanted to do and suggested it.”
With Martell seeing more time at wideout, it meant that sophomore WR’s such as Mark Pope, Brian Hightower, and Dee Wiggins saw much less playing time on Saturday.
“Just the way that Jeff (Thomas) and Mike (Harley) and KJ (Osborn) have kind of separated themselves from the other guys - it’s a game where, we had the ball the last seven minutes of the game, which is crunch time,” Diaz said. “It was a game where we only had 10 offensive possessions, a little unique in that. Just on the field where everything mattered, so the bench is a little shorter than it would normally be. But going forward, we expect to rotate more guys.”
On Jeff Thomas’ drop near the end of the game on a diving and potential game-winning grab: “Jeff would say `I should catch that ball,’” Diaz said. “I thought it was a great throw by Jarren (Williams) to give him a chance. You take a shot, it rims in, rims out, at least we’re competing. We can talk about a play here and there - players understand their level of intensity gives us a chance to win those games against anybody we play.”
Sophomore S Bubba Bolden was held out against Florida and is still not cleared to play in games by the NCAA, but Diaz noted they are hopeful he will be back by the UNC game after the bye.
“I thought at every position we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Diaz said. “Every position had a hand in what got us beat - on one hand when I look at it in terms of the effort and fight and strain, we were outstanding, which is no small thing. The to-be-expected errors in execution - in that environment you’re not going to get the best football imaginable. When it really came down to it, we made one or two more mistakes than they did.”
What was the team’s mentality after the loss?
“It wasn’t a sadness, more of an edge, anger, maybe a little disgust which I thought was good and healthy,” Diaz said. “Something to build on going forward.”
Despite the offensive line giving up 10 sacks and 16 TFL, Diaz does not plan on shifting the lineup on the O-Line going forward.
“Those are our guys, and they never flinched, never blinked,” Diaz said. “They got beat, that’s going to happen. That’s hard. They had some good dudes that seniors would have a hard time blocking. But we didn’t build this program for August 24th. The idea here is to build a monster to last and is sustainable.”
Speaking more on why he feels set with the starting 5 on the O-Line, Diaz said they tried many combinations over the offseason, including repping Navaughn Donaldson and DJ Scaife at tackle. At the end of the day, this is the group the coaching staff feels most comfortable with.
“We felt DJ and Navaughn do a nice job at guard,” Diaz said. “We have a lot of confidence in our guys. And sacks do not define offensive line play at all. There were easy throws in the first half, we don’t fan out to a linebacker we should pick up, a man comes unblocked but the ball should have come out. Everyone understands it’s an 11-man job to protect the quarterback.”
Sophomore Tate Martell surprisingly saw a ton of snaps at receiver on Saturday, and was also able to get in and run a few plays at QB as well.
“He’s a threat,” Diaz said of Martell. “There’s a lot of creativity we can do with him, things that weren’t called in the game. There’ll be more to that. If you’re playing defense, you’ll want to know if he’s on the field and where he’s aligned because that can make you change your game plan pretty quickly.”
Martell got the fourth most snaps of any UM receiver, but Diaz stressed that it was in part because he’s both in the Wildcat package and has a package installed for him at QB as well. So, is Martell officially a wide receiver now?
“I don’t know, I classify him as `Tate,’” Diaz said. “Receiver, it was something he was very, very excited about and wanted to do and suggested it.”
With Martell seeing more time at wideout, it meant that sophomore WR’s such as Mark Pope, Brian Hightower, and Dee Wiggins saw much less playing time on Saturday.
“Just the way that Jeff (Thomas) and Mike (Harley) and KJ (Osborn) have kind of separated themselves from the other guys - it’s a game where, we had the ball the last seven minutes of the game, which is crunch time,” Diaz said. “It was a game where we only had 10 offensive possessions, a little unique in that. Just on the field where everything mattered, so the bench is a little shorter than it would normally be. But going forward, we expect to rotate more guys.”
On Jeff Thomas’ drop near the end of the game on a diving and potential game-winning grab: “Jeff would say `I should catch that ball,’” Diaz said. “I thought it was a great throw by Jarren (Williams) to give him a chance. You take a shot, it rims in, rims out, at least we’re competing. We can talk about a play here and there - players understand their level of intensity gives us a chance to win those games against anybody we play.”
Sophomore S Bubba Bolden was held out against Florida and is still not cleared to play in games by the NCAA, but Diaz noted they are hopeful he will be back by the UNC game after the bye.
