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Following the first practice of the fall, Miami Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz described what he felt was a high intensity opening day for his team.
“Just talking to the team, as we broke it down - you could see, especially at the end, guys had great energy," Diaz said. "The moment happened where you just realize you're present, the thing you missed for so long, where you get lost playing the game. I think there was a real sense that today was not promised to us, just a real appreciation for all of us to be out there and have the opportunity to sort of immerse ourselves in this game.”
“How many times in aspects in all of our lives do we say things aren’t normal anymore. So, to finally have some sense of normalcy, `Oh, this is familiar.’ Standing farther apart, different little nuances of practice, with social distancing, but ball is still ball. Just `This feels like what I’m used to,’ and there’s been so few things in this calendar year that you have been able to say that. That’s the general sense everyone had.”
Without the team being able to do their typical offseason workouts, Diaz said the depth chart is more open than ever heading into 2020.
"You have some feedback from the weight room, how they did the last few weeks, even in walkthroughs you can find out assignments, who knows what they’re doing, who doesn’t know what they’re doing," Diaz said. "We went into this camp not thinking we had much of a depth chart at all, want this to be a real great competition, guys can move up and move down daily and no one feels very comfortable about their place on our football team.”
Diaz also mentioned the team had already started looking at film on Clemson and others before the updated ACC schedules were released last week; Miami ended up adding the Tigers to their list of 2020 matchups this year.
“With Clemson, we had already game-planned for them,” Diaz said. “Because when, whatever week it was, there had been some whispers we’d go to a conference-only schedule. So, when that happened, we started looking at some different opponents - we’d watch Clemson, watch Notre Dame, had some familiarity with Louisville because of playing them a year ago, but our offensive staff wasn’t here. So, we had already taken some steps to do all that.”
“The teams you don’t play year in and year out, it’s always nice to have a little bit of familiarity so you get to that week, break down what they’re doing in that given year - `Oh, they’re very similar to a year ago,’ `Oh, they morphed into this, are running this ploy more often.’ So, you can at least tell the story chronologically of where they were and where they are now.”
Houston senior grad transfer OT Jarrid Williams started out working at right tackle today, as was expected.
“Certainly, he stands out just through his size, tremendous length,” Diaz said of Williams. “He’s hard to miss. Today was our first time, we were just in helmets. We’ll learn more when the pads come on Sunday, I suppose. Length-wise, you have to take an extra step to get around him because he has such great reach. That definitely provides value.”
Speaking on senior OL Navaughn Donaldson, who is currently planning to redshirt in 2020 due to a knee injury, Diaz said he would not be ready at the start of the season due to his rehab, but that there was a chance Donaldson could return near the halfway point of the season due to the NCAA possibly allowing redshirted players to appear in six games this season, instead of the usual four.
“There’s talk of that rule going up to six because of the unusualness of 2020,” Diaz said. “Our mentality is [Donaldson] is not going to not play this year, but you can get him ready and use him when the calendar allows.”
Diaz also talked about Florida transfer OL Issiah Walker, who is currently applying for a transfer waiver that would allow him to play right away instead of sitting out this season per NCAA transfer rules.
“You don’t have to answer that till September 11th,” Diaz said. “All the paperwork and all that, we’re going through that now. When we hear, we hear.”
Redshirt senior LB Zach McCloud sat out the majority of 2019 to retain his redshirt and see more playing time when the depth chart opened up in 2020, and Diaz said his return has gone well so far.
“Zach provides great value not just for our defense, but our football team,” Diaz said. “It helps when your best players are also your best people. I think Zach is a guy that has the respect of everybody in our locker room. He’s one you want young ones to emulate - `How do I work, what do I do in the weight room, how do I practice?’ He’s a great one to learn from.”
In the area of recruiting, the Canes have been hot on the trail lately in landing commitments from two 5-star prospects and multiple 4-star prospects in the past two months, most of which have come from local talent.
“I’m sure there’s some factor in the pandemic, and the fact it’s been basically a dead period since March, but it’s hard to say what exactly that percentage would be,” Diaz said. “Most of the credit goes to our staff, we have a staff of highly energetic people that I think the players are really gravitating toward. Some of these recruits we’ve been recruiting now for multiple years and you see those relationships are starting to pay off. And some of the benefit of our recruiting staff - David Cooney, Edwin Pata, Demarcus Van Dyke, those guys with Andy Vaughn - it’s hard to say it’s one thing, but certainly all those things together are helping us out.”
Diaz also gave some credit to Chief of Staff Ed Reed for the recent run of recruiting success.
“Well where he’s been invaluable has been in recruiting,” Diaz said of Reed. “When we hired him, we weren’t aware that we’d go into a shelter in place for as long as we did. Because we all became recruiters on the phone, it’s not even just the name ‘Ed Reed’ when he talks these young men, it’s who he is, his personality. It’s a great resource for them, would be hard to mention our progress in recruiting without giving Ed some credit as well.”
“Just talking to the team, as we broke it down - you could see, especially at the end, guys had great energy," Diaz said. "The moment happened where you just realize you're present, the thing you missed for so long, where you get lost playing the game. I think there was a real sense that today was not promised to us, just a real appreciation for all of us to be out there and have the opportunity to sort of immerse ourselves in this game.”
“How many times in aspects in all of our lives do we say things aren’t normal anymore. So, to finally have some sense of normalcy, `Oh, this is familiar.’ Standing farther apart, different little nuances of practice, with social distancing, but ball is still ball. Just `This feels like what I’m used to,’ and there’s been so few things in this calendar year that you have been able to say that. That’s the general sense everyone had.”
Without the team being able to do their typical offseason workouts, Diaz said the depth chart is more open than ever heading into 2020.
"You have some feedback from the weight room, how they did the last few weeks, even in walkthroughs you can find out assignments, who knows what they’re doing, who doesn’t know what they’re doing," Diaz said. "We went into this camp not thinking we had much of a depth chart at all, want this to be a real great competition, guys can move up and move down daily and no one feels very comfortable about their place on our football team.”
Diaz also mentioned the team had already started looking at film on Clemson and others before the updated ACC schedules were released last week; Miami ended up adding the Tigers to their list of 2020 matchups this year.
“With Clemson, we had already game-planned for them,” Diaz said. “Because when, whatever week it was, there had been some whispers we’d go to a conference-only schedule. So, when that happened, we started looking at some different opponents - we’d watch Clemson, watch Notre Dame, had some familiarity with Louisville because of playing them a year ago, but our offensive staff wasn’t here. So, we had already taken some steps to do all that.”
“The teams you don’t play year in and year out, it’s always nice to have a little bit of familiarity so you get to that week, break down what they’re doing in that given year - `Oh, they’re very similar to a year ago,’ `Oh, they morphed into this, are running this ploy more often.’ So, you can at least tell the story chronologically of where they were and where they are now.”
Houston senior grad transfer OT Jarrid Williams started out working at right tackle today, as was expected.
“Certainly, he stands out just through his size, tremendous length,” Diaz said of Williams. “He’s hard to miss. Today was our first time, we were just in helmets. We’ll learn more when the pads come on Sunday, I suppose. Length-wise, you have to take an extra step to get around him because he has such great reach. That definitely provides value.”
Speaking on senior OL Navaughn Donaldson, who is currently planning to redshirt in 2020 due to a knee injury, Diaz said he would not be ready at the start of the season due to his rehab, but that there was a chance Donaldson could return near the halfway point of the season due to the NCAA possibly allowing redshirted players to appear in six games this season, instead of the usual four.
“There’s talk of that rule going up to six because of the unusualness of 2020,” Diaz said. “Our mentality is [Donaldson] is not going to not play this year, but you can get him ready and use him when the calendar allows.”
Diaz also talked about Florida transfer OL Issiah Walker, who is currently applying for a transfer waiver that would allow him to play right away instead of sitting out this season per NCAA transfer rules.
“You don’t have to answer that till September 11th,” Diaz said. “All the paperwork and all that, we’re going through that now. When we hear, we hear.”
Redshirt senior LB Zach McCloud sat out the majority of 2019 to retain his redshirt and see more playing time when the depth chart opened up in 2020, and Diaz said his return has gone well so far.
“Zach provides great value not just for our defense, but our football team,” Diaz said. “It helps when your best players are also your best people. I think Zach is a guy that has the respect of everybody in our locker room. He’s one you want young ones to emulate - `How do I work, what do I do in the weight room, how do I practice?’ He’s a great one to learn from.”
In the area of recruiting, the Canes have been hot on the trail lately in landing commitments from two 5-star prospects and multiple 4-star prospects in the past two months, most of which have come from local talent.
“I’m sure there’s some factor in the pandemic, and the fact it’s been basically a dead period since March, but it’s hard to say what exactly that percentage would be,” Diaz said. “Most of the credit goes to our staff, we have a staff of highly energetic people that I think the players are really gravitating toward. Some of these recruits we’ve been recruiting now for multiple years and you see those relationships are starting to pay off. And some of the benefit of our recruiting staff - David Cooney, Edwin Pata, Demarcus Van Dyke, those guys with Andy Vaughn - it’s hard to say it’s one thing, but certainly all those things together are helping us out.”
Diaz also gave some credit to Chief of Staff Ed Reed for the recent run of recruiting success.
“Well where he’s been invaluable has been in recruiting,” Diaz said of Reed. “When we hired him, we weren’t aware that we’d go into a shelter in place for as long as we did. Because we all became recruiters on the phone, it’s not even just the name ‘Ed Reed’ when he talks these young men, it’s who he is, his personality. It’s a great resource for them, would be hard to mention our progress in recruiting without giving Ed some credit as well.”
