Manny and WQAM and other thoughts (long)

[SonsofSoul]

After getting bytch-slapped by FIU, it's time to point out a couple things. No matter what coaching or AD changes we make or don't make, there are some other issues we have to deal with. Reality sucks, but here it is.

The powerbroker$ in college football Clemson, OSU, Bama, LSU, UGA, etc., are spending tens of millions a year to get to and stay where they are. Once in a while, a team like Minnesota can have a good year and it's a "Well, isn't that special!" moment - before they fall back to their perennial mediocrity. The big boys who are in the long game with sustainable success spend millions annually on facilities, recruiting, stadium upgrades, etc., just to compete at that level. Fricking Bama just began a $106M stadium upgrade that will be completed before their next home game. They already had a kick-8ss stadium. Their facilities are over the top - just like the other top programs, and they're always falling over each other to one-up the other for competitive advantages. UF just renovated their basketball arena, and is doing the same with baseball and softball, and they have plans to do a big $$$$ football only facility - necessary to keep up with Bama, LSU, UGA, etc.

My point is that after we get the right coach and staff, what else can we expect as far as significant capital expenditures to seriously compete every year? The BOT and Administration needs to be ready to spend like the big boys and I just don't see it. It's already a ****** Monday. Apologies, but just trying to be realistic as far as getting us back to where we all want to be. Good coaching and good players are just basic pre-requisites for sustainable success.

To say otherwise is like thinking that some jewelry, dance moves and a couple slogans are enough to win games and fill stadium seats.

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

I guarantee Richt would have embarrassed Bootch if he'd seen the flopping. Too bad we have Diaz.

 

[mirednmediocrity2]

This program is at a point where even the Nick Sabans of the world couldn't fix it. Totally broken. At the very least, we would have to have a Schnelly type coach come in and rebuild the entire program up from scratch again. That's not happening under the idiots who are running the show now. They are incompetent and clueless from the university president on down.

 

[jkdood]

The powerbroker$ in college football Clemson, OSU, Bama, LSU, UGA, etc., are spending tens of millions a year to get to and stay where they are.

First things first for me, 50 years supporting this team. Top 5 is nice (we been there) but right now I'd just like to see a ranked team going to a nice Bowl and maybe with some luck or stellar individual or team performance finds we are "in the hunt".

This .500 record with a soft schedule losing to FIU and GT and barely beating CMU is for the birds, and worst I can remember. Call it rebuilding if you will, but if you gotta bench the veterans because the talent they bring excludes leadership, seriousness, discipline, and other traits of competitiveness, so be it. And if this coaching staff can't/wont do it, bring on another. Soon, please!

 

[mirvin88]

I watched the game on Saturday. It was fairly obvious:

We lost to FIU because of coaching.

We lost to GT because of coaching.

Not players. Not 'culture.'

Coaching.

The coaching staff should be able to take the day off and this team run FIU off the field. It's **** poor coaching, but absolutely truth to this team as majority not giving a ****.

 

[MotoSniper]

If I'm Manny, I lean hard on Jimmy Johnson for guidance this offseason...refine the template, send Enos off to his next job and bring in a spread OC with a proven track record. JJ has been involved with Manny since Manny was brought in as HC, Let the Master guide the student

 

[Garnacho]

 

[stormsurge]

let me take a different tact here

if the players truly respected the staff, truly had just a little bit of fear of them and if they had bought in to the staff

then

we'd look a lot more like we did against FSU a lot more often

Instead, I think the players do not respect our staff and are only motivated when they (including our team leaders) motivate each other

case in point: VT

Against VT we come out as flat as has ever been seen. Only when our guys say enough do we get back in the game. No amount of prodding by manny made a difference except in a negative direction.

another case in point: against UF scott patchan makes a brutal stupid play that enables the gaytor to keep a drive alive deep in the RZ. manny gives him a soft talking to on the sideline then leaves him in the game to make another idiotic mistake the next play. I would like to see a HC bench a player's *** for stuff like that.

 

[mirvin88]

I won’t speak in the coaching that needs fixing but...

You fix the culture by making an example out of some of these players early in the season and early in your HC career. Some of these players should have been benched early in the season for a long time it either kicked off the team.

I agree. Manny was probably too scared to bench starters because he was desperate for a quick turnaround.

 

[Zanecane]

Go back 4 years and he was saying the same things about this senior class coming in and changing the culture around Miami. It’s all bullsh*t.

He’s just trying to buy himself time. If we are expected to wait until the 2020 class are upperclassmen able to lead this program, Manny won’t be around to see it. There’s already blood in the water.

With the circus he stirred all offseason and the product he produced. He won’t last longer than Willie Taggart did.

 

[jd716]

Link?

 

[The Franchise]

I don’t blame the 10 year old but I don’t give him keys to another car

Manure was the 10 year old car crashed when Mack Brown greased him. He had no answers then and has none now.

 

[Page305]

Don’t fall for the trap. Last week Shaq was the best linebacker in the history of football

There are other seniors besides Shaq. I'm more so focusing on the mental part and work ethic not necessarily the talent. For example, personally, I think Pickney might actually be one of the toxic ones. Like I actually think he has the talent but as a linebacker, why did it take 4yrs to finally lose that beer belly? He's just now playing in the shape he should've been in as a sophomore. That shows a lack of work ethic. Also let's not forget he was banned from doing interviews I think when he was a freshman. Now that could also have been an inside "joke" but who knows.

 

[Jassid82]

You think Al Golden didnt want to turn this around? You think he didnt care if he failed and never became a HC again?

You think Randy didnt love the U, likely way way more than Manny the Nole ever did?

STOP THIS BS TALKING POINT about Manny “really wanting to do it”. So does Dannyboycane but you dont hire him now do you?

Golden didn’t give a **** about UM. He disappeared for 48hrs after the UL bowl game loss and tried to sneak out the back door and would have if PSU hired him on the spot.

I didn’t mention Randy. You did.

 

[nycane]

Golden didn’t give a **** about UM. He disappeared for 48hrs after the UL bowl game loss and tried to sneak out the back door and would have if PSU hired him on the spot.

I didn’t mention Randy. You did.

This and they still kept him. His players and recruits had no idea if he was alive

 

[Brains]

I listened, as well—and sounds to me like he believes the disease gets fixed through recruiting the right kids moving forward; the type of guys who want to be part of a rebuild—which is contrary to the type of me-first athlete the exists today in abundance.

From the sounds of what he said, he feels a lot of these foundation-type kids are in the 2020 class, as well as a lot who stuck around and signed on for 2019—which means a small step forward in 2020 and a measurable one in 2021, most likely.

Completely agree with the sentiment about 55 and 56 not being the vocal leaders this program needed—but both (especially 55) were lead-by-example types and we're important part of this year's team. That said, they're both part of the old regime and not the type of player Miami needs moving forward. (Go listen to 55's coachspeak when talking about the loss to FIU. Very robotic. Zero passion, frustration or anger.)


Fully agree the issue is mostly mental—but from his post-game presser, I got the sense that he's not thrilled with Enos' play calling—when he gave his "everything under investigation" quote. Curious to see how that plays out. Personally think Enos is a bad fit and that he needs someone else in there. Curious how willing he is to pull the trigger there year one.

Definitely a baptism by fire this year for Manny and he underperformed. That said, he deserves at least three years to get this done—and is saying enough of the right things to show that he knows where he wants to take this; but hasn't yet proved he knows how to get it there—hence the next two years to see if he can pull it off.

Disagree with the other poster who said Shannon said the same things. As someone who had to listen to literally every one of Randy's pressers to write about the program, the difference between Shannon and Diaz as head coaches with a vision is night and day. Randy was absolutely lost from 2007 to 2010 when taking over this team; a teacher's assistant type who was promoted to professor and simply wanted to go back his assistant role—proven by his career trajectory since Miami—a position coach for years before even getting another crack at defensive coordinator again.

Manny has the right traits for the job. Time will tell if he's able to get it done. More "ready" guys have failed on the big stage, as knowing what to do an executing are two vastly different things. Hope he can pull it off.

3 years carte blanche? Say Diaz sacks several assistants but next year yields the same result...does he "deserve" another year? Say he retains everyone and the same thing happens...is year 3 still warranted? How many fireable offenses is one allowed before the pink slip?

 

[Brains]

let me take a different tact here

if the players truly respected the staff, truly had just a little bit of fear of them and if they had bought in to the staff

then

we'd look a lot more like we did against FSU a lot more often

Instead, I think the players do not respect our staff and are only motivated when they (including our team leaders) motivate each other

case in point: VT

Against VT we come out as flat as has ever been seen. Only when our guys say enough do we get back in the game. No amount of prodding by manny made a difference except in a negative direction.

another case in point: against UF scott patchan makes a brutal stupid play that enables the gaytor to keep a drive alive deep in the RZ. manny gives him a soft talking to on the sideline then leaves him in the game to make another idiotic mistake the next play. I would like to see a HC bench a player's *** for stuff like that.

Bingo

 

[The Franchise]

All incoming classes have group chats about how they will turn it around. So Diaz wants me to believe that if Shaq went to Clemson or Bama he wouldn't be mentally prepared?

That's a coaching and talent thing but more of coaching....if u can't wake the kids up for FIU then what makes u think the 2020 class will wake up? Cause of a group chat? Words are words until u get punched in the face

He's actually causing a low key division inside the locker room pretty much saying all these classes suck except my 2020 class lol. Guy doesn't know wtf he's doing

It’s not that low key of a division he’s causing when he constantly trashes the current roster and is now adding the message that the 2020 kids are his dreamboats and that this group of HS kids is better than his current players.

 

[TemplarCane]

Manny thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, and hires a protege as DC. All of his defensive coaches are lackeys with a relationship to him. Enos taken at face value was a good hire, but dig deeper and you can see Enos milked the Bama QB relationship into an OC gig. And of course Manny let’s Enos hire his own yes-men.

Manny doesn’t realize he had the very disease he’s talking about.

 

[Negro-Wan Kanobi]

No. RIght or wrong I've always called it like I see it.

I saw marked improvement for three straight games and remained hopeful. Saturday night that all went to ****. There are some losses a staff can't recover from. This is one of them.

I take back my suck on a Manny phallus comment.