After Monday’s practice, Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz looked to move forward following his team’s loss to #1 Clemson over the weekend, making sure the team stays focused on their upcoming matchup vs. Pitt on Saturday.
“What we’re talking about, is inside this program, we’re taking an approach of having respect for everyone we play,” Diaz said. “What we’ve proven is when we play well, we can beat anybody, and when we don’t play well, we can get beat by anybody. In here, we have to have the respect (for every opponent), can’t just think we’re Miami and we’re more talented than Pitt or whoever because we’ve been saying that for so many years - our players have been hearing that for many years regardless of who the head coach is, and it has not been serving them well. We have to have respect for who we are playing.”
With their loss to Clemson coming out of a bye week, UM is now 0-4 under Diaz following a bye, something Diaz doesn’t put a lot of stock in.
“I get the narrative there, but how would you quantify that? We lost, it’s a loss after a bye, but I don’t know how to quantify `If we’d have played in week 4, the game would have looked like this’,” Diaz said. “Miami-Clemson, a game we made a lot of mistakes… When you compare this year’s team to last year’s team, we couldn’t beat a Conference USA team last year. It is what it is.”
The Canes’ WR unit recorded only 5 catches combined against the Tigers this weekend, and the lack of production from the receiving corps has been a key issue holding the offense back thus far. Does Diaz envision incorporating more of the younger WR’s going forward?
“We’re very excited about those guys, their development, but we’re oversimplifying about it if we talk about separation, making contested catches,” Diaz said. “We have to self-analyze the little nuances. `Why was I not behaving the same way as on the practice field?’ It’s easy to say this guy has the speed, the ability, it’s (other factors) that are all a big part of playing wide receiver. As the season goes on, we’ll continue to roll our guys, play our depth. But you also have to give credit to the guys we were playing against as well.”
While OL John Campbell started the Clemson game at left tackle, OL Zion Nelson spilt snaps with him before Campbell left the game with an apparent knee injury.
“Going into the game, John and Zion were splitting series and we felt we have two quality left tackles,” Diaz said.
On the defense, Diaz praised the play of striker Gilbert Frierson and S Bubba Bolden against Clemson; Frierson had 3 TFL vs. the Tigers and now leads the team on the season with 6 TFL, while Bolden was named the ACC Defensive Back of the Week after racking up a team-high 10 tackles, two blocked field goals, and a forced fumble against Clemson.
“In that setting, you have to not only feel confident in your abilities physically, but mentally,” Diaz said. Gilbert has such a great awareness of what’s going on on the field.
“There’s a play right before the blocked field goal for a touchdown, Bubba goes down there and gets the first hit, (Brian) Balom is going to blitz, is confused, Bubba had to tell him what to do. Having that guy with a calm head, not just making himself better but others better, that’s what you want.”
Freshman LB Corey Flagg saw the first significant action of his career, recording 1 tackle vs. Clemson; Diaz mentioned that was in part due to LB Sam Brooks dealing with a foot injury.
“Corey played very well,” Diaz said. “Sam gave up the first touchdown of the game, but other than that, we felt they played well. Corey is so instinctive, has a great feel... Corey Flagg didn't look out of place at all, which is very encouraging for us… (The injury) has taken some time from (Brooks), but we all know what Sam can do and he'll be an important part of our rotation moving forward."
In addition to the Brooks and Campbell injuries, TE Brevin Jordan left the game vs. Clemson with a shoulder injury and didn’t return, while LB Zach McCloud briefly left the game before later returning.
“We’ll have staff meetings today and get further updates, right now I don’t have anything (new),” Diaz said of the injury situation.
With Pitt up next, Diaz knows his team can’t spend too much time feeling sorry for themselves regarding the Clemson loss, on account of the Panthers being known as a team that has given UM trouble the past few years.
“Quick turnaround from Saturday night, disappointed in the result on Saturday night,” Diaz said. “We got back to Miami around 4:30, 5 in the morning, had to turn our attention quickly to Pitt.
“Pat Narduzzi’s team this year is filled with fourth and fifth year seniors. Their defense is outstanding. This will be our fourth year going against their quarterback, Kenny Pickett. They’re coming off back-to-back one-point losses, kind of spooky in nature how they went down. We expect a highly competitive game on Saturday.”
Last week, Clemson held a Miami team averaging 232.3 ypg on the ground to 89 yards rushing by stacking the box and forcing UM’s receivers to beat them over the top, a tactic that Diaz expects to see a lot of vs. Pitt this week.
“That’s what (Narduzzi) has been doing since he’s been at Michigan State - they’re going to put as many people as they can find close to the line of scrimmage and play press man-to-man on the outside,” Diaz said. "That is who they are and what they’ve been. We’ve seen that before as well, it’s not `Oh my gosh, where did this come from?'"
“What we’re talking about, is inside this program, we’re taking an approach of having respect for everyone we play,” Diaz said. “What we’ve proven is when we play well, we can beat anybody, and when we don’t play well, we can get beat by anybody. In here, we have to have the respect (for every opponent), can’t just think we’re Miami and we’re more talented than Pitt or whoever because we’ve been saying that for so many years - our players have been hearing that for many years regardless of who the head coach is, and it has not been serving them well. We have to have respect for who we are playing.”
With their loss to Clemson coming out of a bye week, UM is now 0-4 under Diaz following a bye, something Diaz doesn’t put a lot of stock in.
“I get the narrative there, but how would you quantify that? We lost, it’s a loss after a bye, but I don’t know how to quantify `If we’d have played in week 4, the game would have looked like this’,” Diaz said. “Miami-Clemson, a game we made a lot of mistakes… When you compare this year’s team to last year’s team, we couldn’t beat a Conference USA team last year. It is what it is.”
The Canes’ WR unit recorded only 5 catches combined against the Tigers this weekend, and the lack of production from the receiving corps has been a key issue holding the offense back thus far. Does Diaz envision incorporating more of the younger WR’s going forward?
“We’re very excited about those guys, their development, but we’re oversimplifying about it if we talk about separation, making contested catches,” Diaz said. “We have to self-analyze the little nuances. `Why was I not behaving the same way as on the practice field?’ It’s easy to say this guy has the speed, the ability, it’s (other factors) that are all a big part of playing wide receiver. As the season goes on, we’ll continue to roll our guys, play our depth. But you also have to give credit to the guys we were playing against as well.”
While OL John Campbell started the Clemson game at left tackle, OL Zion Nelson spilt snaps with him before Campbell left the game with an apparent knee injury.
“Going into the game, John and Zion were splitting series and we felt we have two quality left tackles,” Diaz said.
On the defense, Diaz praised the play of striker Gilbert Frierson and S Bubba Bolden against Clemson; Frierson had 3 TFL vs. the Tigers and now leads the team on the season with 6 TFL, while Bolden was named the ACC Defensive Back of the Week after racking up a team-high 10 tackles, two blocked field goals, and a forced fumble against Clemson.
“In that setting, you have to not only feel confident in your abilities physically, but mentally,” Diaz said. Gilbert has such a great awareness of what’s going on on the field.
“There’s a play right before the blocked field goal for a touchdown, Bubba goes down there and gets the first hit, (Brian) Balom is going to blitz, is confused, Bubba had to tell him what to do. Having that guy with a calm head, not just making himself better but others better, that’s what you want.”
Freshman LB Corey Flagg saw the first significant action of his career, recording 1 tackle vs. Clemson; Diaz mentioned that was in part due to LB Sam Brooks dealing with a foot injury.
“Corey played very well,” Diaz said. “Sam gave up the first touchdown of the game, but other than that, we felt they played well. Corey is so instinctive, has a great feel... Corey Flagg didn't look out of place at all, which is very encouraging for us… (The injury) has taken some time from (Brooks), but we all know what Sam can do and he'll be an important part of our rotation moving forward."
In addition to the Brooks and Campbell injuries, TE Brevin Jordan left the game vs. Clemson with a shoulder injury and didn’t return, while LB Zach McCloud briefly left the game before later returning.
“We’ll have staff meetings today and get further updates, right now I don’t have anything (new),” Diaz said of the injury situation.
With Pitt up next, Diaz knows his team can’t spend too much time feeling sorry for themselves regarding the Clemson loss, on account of the Panthers being known as a team that has given UM trouble the past few years.
“Quick turnaround from Saturday night, disappointed in the result on Saturday night,” Diaz said. “We got back to Miami around 4:30, 5 in the morning, had to turn our attention quickly to Pitt.
“Pat Narduzzi’s team this year is filled with fourth and fifth year seniors. Their defense is outstanding. This will be our fourth year going against their quarterback, Kenny Pickett. They’re coming off back-to-back one-point losses, kind of spooky in nature how they went down. We expect a highly competitive game on Saturday.”
Last week, Clemson held a Miami team averaging 232.3 ypg on the ground to 89 yards rushing by stacking the box and forcing UM’s receivers to beat them over the top, a tactic that Diaz expects to see a lot of vs. Pitt this week.
“That’s what (Narduzzi) has been doing since he’s been at Michigan State - they’re going to put as many people as they can find close to the line of scrimmage and play press man-to-man on the outside,” Diaz said. "That is who they are and what they’ve been. We’ve seen that before as well, it’s not `Oh my gosh, where did this come from?'"
