Because these "national coaching searches" were so successful for Miami after 2006 and 2010—both just taking up time and proving that we already knew; that Miami isn't as desirable a job as this fan base thinks it is.
James took the lower-risk hire and nabbed Diaz, believing the defense was in tact—hiring the architect who rebuilt it, while trusting he could do the same thing on offense by bringing in the right guys there.
The hire also kept a recruiting class from being decimated, kept some seniors on campus who were gonna leave and resulted in some forward-thinking regarding how to play the Transfer Portal that helped Miami with depth this year.
Without all that, it'd have been a full-blown overhaul that would've set this thing even further back.
Fact is the timing was **** with Richt leaving when he did and a national search would've arguably lasted until after NSD; with zero guarantee Miami would've been able to pull anyone worthwhile.
It was a lower-risk hire, but it wasn't dumb, lazy or any of the other garbage the critics keep putting out there.