Diaz updates QB battle, weighs-in on linemen

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Stefan Adams

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Miami’s QB battle continued today during the Hurricanes’ fourth spring practice, and, when asked when he would be comfortable naming a starter, head coach Manny Diaz said the team would do so “when it’s obvious.”

“If you have a guy, you want that guy to be the starting quarterback because you want everyone in that locker room to know,” Diaz said. “If you’re not sure who the guy is, you have to battle it out. To me there’s no craftiness of trying to hold it in. If we knew today, we’d announce it today, you know? I like what we have going on right now and one of the big themes of the spring – get out of your comfort zone, everybody on edge, no one really comfortable with anything and let’s see who responds in the chaos.”

The Canes and new OC Dan Enos have been pretty liberal in rotating the QB’s with the first team, and Diaz gave his thoughts on how two of them are looking so far.

On Tate Martell: “Tate, he can make all the throws, has good zip on his ball,” Diaz said. “And from a physical standpoint, he gives you an element with his legs either designed quarterback runs or improvisation that makes a defense have to defend two plays. There’s no doubt he has good skills. All our quarterbacks are all being held to a ridiculously high standard by coach Enos.”

On Jarren Williams: “Jarren has arm talent,” Diaz said. “Jarren can make throws. In terms of getting better, commanding the huddle, understanding what’s going on, that’s just the deal. Coach Enos is very demanding, wants them to do it exactly right.”

Redshirt freshman DE Gregory Rousseau missed the majority of his first season at Miami with a broken ankle, but Diaz says he is fully recovered and picked up right where he left off.

“Greg hasn’t missed a step, he’s a very talented young man, tries to do everything exactly the way he’s coached to do it,” Diaz said. “With his length, he’s a problem to block.”

Rousseau has been working on the second team so far this spring, and across from him at the other DE spot has been true freshman Jahfari Harvey, who enrolled early as a 2019 signee from Vero Beach.

“Jahfari, you have to remind yourself the guy should be sitting in English 4 class right now,” Diaz said. “He has really done some nice things out here early on. We couldn’t believe in recruiting there weren’t more people busting down his door to try and get him. We’re thankful he’s here.”

While many expected him to slot right in at first team LT, Butler grad transfer Tommy Kennedy has instead struggled his first few practices. Kennedy has spent the last 2 practices working as the backup center, and Diaz feels he has a long way to go to get used to the competition at Miami.

“He’s just learning the different tempo of our practice, going up against better players than he’s probably gone up against at any point of his career,” Diaz said. “And understanding that when coach (Butch) Barry teaches you these techniques, you better be on point with them because you need them to go against the guys on our defensive front.”

The second team offensive line has had a rough first few spring sessions and Diaz recognizes that Miami may need more depth at those spots. He intimated that they will evaluate everyone after spring and decide if they need to bring in another grad transfer offensive lineman.

“We’re aware there’ll be another little bump of transfer activity after spring practice,” Diaz said.
 
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That's code for- they are sucking

I took it as in general the portal is going to have "seasons" if you will... At the end of the year there was a flurry of activity, now it has died down, but after spring the portal will likely pick up again.
 
On Tate Martell: “Tate, he can make all the throws, has good zip on his ball,” Diaz said. “And from a physical standpoint, he gives you an element with his legs either designed quarterback runs or improvisation that makes a defense have to defend two plays. There’s no doubt he has good skills. All our quarterbacks are all being held to a ridiculously high standard by coach Enos.”

On Jarren Williams: “Jarren has arm talent,” Diaz said. “Jarren can make throws. In terms of getting better, commanding the huddle, understanding what’s going on, that’s just the deal. Coach Enos is very demanding, wants them to do it exactly right.”

this tells you pretty much all you need to know. - tate can make all the throws and can run and Jarren has a big arm but jarren needs to get better at commanding the huddle. just reading the tea leaves even though manny said they don't know yet so far Tate is QB1 and JW is QB2. obviously this can change after the scrimmages.
 
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On Tate Martell: “Tate, he can make all the throws, has good zip on his ball,” Diaz said. “And from a physical standpoint, he gives you an element with his legs either designed quarterback runs or improvisation that makes a defense have to defend two plays. There’s no doubt he has good skills. All our quarterbacks are all being held to a ridiculously high standard by coach Enos.”

On Jarren Williams: “Jarren has arm talent,” Diaz said. “Jarren can make throws. In terms of getting better, commanding the huddle, understanding what’s going on, that’s just the deal. Coach Enos is very demanding, wants them to do it exactly right.”

this tells you pretty much all you need to know. - tate can make all the throws and can run and Jarren has a big arm but jarren needs to get better at commanding the huddle. just reading the tea leaves even though manny said they don't know yet so far Tate is QB1 and JW is QB2. obviously this can change after the scrimmages.
Not true, there is no QB1 or QB2 right now.

ALL 3 QB's have taken reps with the 1st team offense in all of the practices thus far, Enos has equally played them all.

Another thing fans have to understand is that the media only gets to watch a portion of practices, they're not seeing everything happening. Diaz & Enos are aware of that too, they're not showing every single play in every 7v7 series to the media.

This early in Spring practice is the install period for the offense, they're going to shuffle players at every position on both sides of the ball until they get a feel of who's picked up Offense/Defense & knows all the assignments, who's responding to coaching, who's giving maximum effort etc..

Plus the whole roster isn't on campus yet, there's still more players who will come in Fall & challenge for reps at just about every spot except WR & RB.
 
Not true, there is no QB1 or QB2.

ALL 3 QB's have taken reps with the 1st team offense in all of the practices thus far, Enos has equally played them all.

Another thing fans have to understand is that the media only gets to watch a portion of practices, they're not seeing everything happening. Diaz & Enos are aware of that too, they're not showing every single play in every 7v7 series to the media.

This early in Spring practice is the install period for the offense, they're going to shuffle players at every position on both sides of the ball until they get a feel of who's picked up Offense/Defense & knows all the assignments, who's responding to coaching, who's giving maximum effort etc..

Plus the whole roster isn't on campus yet, there's still more players who will come in Fall & challenge for reps at just about every spot except WR & RB.
Obviously. I’m just saying if I had to guess where they are headed based on the limited body of work and coaches comments.
 
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One thing is so far getting clearer, and that is that we need to bring in at least one OL (possibly two if another player leaves the team) when the portal re-opens. Unless Kennedy can make a major turnaround, it looks like he will be a 2nd stringer.
 
What a great read...until the offensive line comments!

This is year 3 of me saying (paraphrasing); 'If the offensive line doesn't improve dramatically it won't matter who is playing the QB position as the offense will continue to be a disaster.'

Enos can be the second coming of Bill Walsh, but will end up looking like Pee Wee Herman should the offensive line continue to underperform.
 
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On Tate Martell: “Tate, he can make all the throws, has good zip on his ball,” Diaz said. “And from a physical standpoint, he gives you an element with his legs either designed quarterback runs or improvisation that makes a defense have to defend two plays. There’s no doubt he has good skills. All our quarterbacks are all being held to a ridiculously high standard by coach Enos.”

On Jarren Williams: “Jarren has arm talent,” Diaz said. “Jarren can make throws. In terms of getting better, commanding the huddle, understanding what’s going on, that’s just the deal. Coach Enos is very demanding, wants them to do it exactly right.”

this tells you pretty much all you need to know. - tate can make all the throws and can run and Jarren has a big arm but jarren needs to get better at commanding the huddle. just reading the tea leaves even though manny said they don't know yet so far Tate is QB1 and JW is QB2. obviously this can change after the scrimmages.

NKosi is still a QB at the university of Miami regardless of whether Stefan wants to include him or not. Let the competition unfold without injecting bias. There’s QB1, QB2, and QB3
 
Not true, there is no QB1 or QB2 right now.

ALL 3 QB's have taken reps with the 1st team offense in all of the practices thus far, Enos has equally played them all.

Another thing fans have to understand is that the media only gets to watch a portion of practices, they're not seeing everything happening. Diaz & Enos are aware of that too, they're not showing every single play in every 7v7 series to the media.

This early in Spring practice is the install period for the offense, they're going to shuffle players at every position on both sides of the ball until they get a feel of who's picked up Offense/Defense & knows all the assignments, who's responding to coaching, who's giving maximum effort etc..

Plus the whole roster isn't on campus yet, there's still more players who will come in Fall & challenge for reps at just about every spot except WR & RB.

👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽
 
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