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Manny and WQAM and other thoughts (long)

Manny just isn’t HC material. Time for either him or someone above him (Highly unlikely!) to cut the cord. We need a coach who’s both, innovative and a disciplinarian, no nonsense personality.
 
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Jassid82 said:
I don't like starting threads too often unless I am just really really disturbed at something and I need a space to vent. Thank god CIS gives us that. Have no idea what we did back in the 80s and 90s after tough losses!

Manny was on WQAM this morning. 7am sharp. I don't have the link but here are the points.

*I am starting to get the feeling (and I know its been said on here a million times) that Manny just doesn't know how to fix this "disease" he is talking about within the program. And it is bothering him. Its like having a child that acts out all the time and no matter how many times you beat them, ground them..none of it works. They just won't act right. I heard it in Mannys voice when he talked about things that he saw leading up to the game that look familiar when they came off other bye weeks (in other words, guys BSing around and not taking game prep serious). He even said that the hotel walk through was a mess the night before. So he knew this team was not prepared and prayed that they would snap out of it come kickoff. That was disturbing to hear as a fan.

*I got the feeling that even though he loves many of the upperclassmen (Shaq and Pinck included) I think he is ready for them to go. I think they just aren't the leaders that he thought and expected them to be as he is basically a "HC in training". I think he depended on the Srs to really takeover as leaders and it didn't happen like he expected. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I got the impression that maybe the Srs are the ones that are leading this wave of not taking every week serious. You can tell Manny was guarded with his words. But I was trying to read between the lines. Whenever a HC says, "The 2020 class is hyped up and they actually have a group chat. They have the mindset that none of this will happen on our watch and that's the mentality we need. At some point, there will be a class to come in and turn this around.", then you know that he is not fully happy with how this Sr class conducted themselves as a whole leadership wise.

*He didn't get to much into Xs and Os. It was more like a therapy session for him. He was really in deep thought about the season as a whole and how things got to this point to where a team this talented is 6-5. He alluded to the fact that some of the players assume that just because you have that "U" on your helmet that certain things are a given. Like beating FIU. I got the feeling that he doesn't think it is Xs and Os related but a mental thing with this team. One thing I thought was interesting was that he said that this team feeds off of Jarren. When Jarren came out flat, the whole team went into the tank. That is a good thing and bad thing I guess. Shows he is the unquestioned leader of this team but Good God man..if Jarren doesn't have his "A" game on any given Saturday, we can assume that we are going to more than likely lose??


Those are the basics of the 20min interview. Said he doesn't expect any decommits in the 2020 class. They are solid as a rock. 2021 he is expecting some guys to drop.

I'll say this, Manny isn't going anywhere this year. That 3 game winning streak saved his job at least. But I am going to need him to stay off the yachts this offseason, stay out of the jewelry store conjuring up new pieces for next season, and stop the bravado. I am hoping he is humbled and realized being the HC at UM is more then just wearing that U on your shirt and hat, it takes hard work and dedication. He needs to make some tough decisions on his staff.

He needs to study every coach that had a bad record there first year and what they did to turn it around the second season. (Nick Saban at Bama, Urban at UF, etc) I know it sounds corny, but he needs to get into the lab and study every tendency and every detail of what coaches like this did to completely turn there program around in such a short time. His job depends on it.

He needs to make the tough decision and fire Enos and Baker. Gotta start from scratch. Neither of them are good coaches are even good recruiters. Double whammy in my book.

He needs to start taking this job serious. I look back on the last offseason and realize that Manny just didn't take this serious. He thought he could walk in, give a few speeches, hire a "good OC" and just coast to 10-11 wins. That yacht ride he took to the banquet should have been a sign for us. It was cool at the time but it looks extremely foolish now.

Sorry for the long review. I know posters will hit me with the "None of this matters. Blake and Manny have to go". Well, if they don't go, doesn't mean I am turning in my O&G gear either. Now am I going to renew my season tix? Not so sure yet. That said, I am looking to see a new Manny Diaz going into Spring ball. New focus and renewed energy. Playtime is over. His HC career depends on it. Neg away. LOL.
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Recognizing a disease/problem and and having the skills to fix it are often two separate things.
 
I believe that Flake will be fired and hopefully they could get a real AD in there. we can suggest which needs to be fired and which needs to stay but as long as UM had a quality AD , we can just let him decide what to do.
 
Scheme and Xs & Os weren't the main problem on Saturday. Yes Blake Baker is a disaster and he routinely gifts big plays to the other team especially on 3rd and longs. Yes you can nitpick certain calls from Enos, the lack of pace, the lack of identity in the run game, etc.

Miami lost the game because too many key players took a gigantic dump on the field and that ultimately falls on the head coach. Jarren Williams was as unprepared as you will see a QB in a game. Dee Wiggins played like he showed up for a manicure not a football game. Deejay Dallas had some uncharacteristic blunders. But Diaz is a defensive guy and when Romeo Finley is the only defender who looks like he's competing that's an indictment on Diaz's leadership. I guess Trevon Hill played hard too but he was sloppy and undisciplined.

Baker has to go, Enos has to be given ultimatums about his offense or get canned (which is a shame because he can actually design good plays), but even if those moves are accomplished we're still left with a green HC who has proven himself to be a poor leader. I don't blame any fans for giving up on that.
 
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I've seen this **** too many times to be fooled again. Manny has to go. FIU itself is a fireable offense but throughout the course of the season, you could tell he's not HC material.
However, the bigger problem is the people up top. They WILL make the wrong hire again. Our focus need to be on them.
 
Dwinstitles said:
Trust me the recruiting class he had coming in helped that following year. Saban and those guys are different animals......we only have one guy next class I believe that u can say he's a Savage and that's Chaney and he may not even be a guarantee savage. **** he may not even play year one. This is Diaz who wasn't some guy known for recruiting....on top of that he hired a staff that isn't known for recruiting.
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Julio was the only freshmen that started or even played significant minutes. The rest were Jrs and Srs.

I get your overall point that he gave that team a steroid shot of talent but he still had to get the returning players to trust him and buy into what he was building coming off a very bad season.
 
Jassid82 said:
Julio was the only freshmen that started or even played significant minutes. The rest were Jrs and Srs.

I get your overall point that he gave that team a steroid shot of talent but he still had to get the returning players to trust him and buy into what he was building coming off a very bad season.
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Saban and some great coaches have this gift that when they are hired the team gets stronger up front. Diaz doesn't have that secret sauce cause we would of saw it already and we haven't seen signs of an elite coach. He is checking all the red boxes right now
 
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This "players culture" sh it is way exaggerated and the most commonly used excuse failing coaches use. Get your players in line, put some fear in their hearts, scheme better against your opponents, whatever it takes. If the players don't respect and fear you then you better pack your bags and get out of here.
 
Saban kicked a whole mess of guys off the team year's 1 and 2. I remember hearing about this guy or that guy gone every week. The guys who stayed did it Saban's way after that.
 
twes.305 said:
I believe that Flake will be fired and hopefully they could get a real AD in there. we can suggest which needs to be fired and which needs to stay but as long as UM had a quality AD , we can just let him decide what to do.
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Thing is let's say we hire a Savage AD.....let's say by some miracle we get an AD with balls (assuming he gets passed Strawley and doesn't offend her like Dan Mullen did). Lets say this is the twilight zone and we hire someone with balls...the minute he does a balls move and even says I'm the AD I make the call....he will be low key fired or there will be a "stepped down" story cause of family issues. They don't want alphas they want yes men they can control
 
Manny spent time with Jimmy Johnson before the season. Does he not have the resources to reach out to right people and right the ship?
Does he have to much pride to reach out to the right people to help him out ? He has definitely has built the platform...If he does not make changes
this off-season hopefully he does not hang himself being loyal to his friends....
 
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He's in completely over his head which explains his hires. The blind leading the blind. I didn't watch the game (and probably won't) but the final score said enough. I'm shutting my UM money down til improvements are made.
 
Dwinstitles said:
Saban and some great coaches have this gift that when they are hired the team gets stronger up front. Diaz doesn't have that secret sauce cause we would of saw it already and we haven't seen signs of an elite coach. He is checking all the red boxes right now
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You make a great point. Diaz has not shown us any elite trait of being a great coach down the road. Not a single one yet. That is a big problem. **** you would think the guy would be an elite recruiter with the talk game he has but hes not even that.
 
Jassid82 said:
You make a great point. Diaz has not shown us any elite trait of being a great coach down the road. Not a single one yet. That is a big problem. **** you would think the guy would be an elite recruiter with the talk game he has but hes not even that.
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That's the crazy part kids see through the bs.....big red flag when sfla kids are leaving. Every HC since Coker they have all left
 
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ItsAUThing.com said:
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.
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Going paragraph by paragraph as to why you are entitled to your opinion, but it is horrifically misguided.

1) He recruited half of the roster we currently have over the last four years. His defense gave up 30 points to a terrible team and caved late when we needed stops. What makes you think he is able to spot foundation-type kids in the 2020 class when he was not able to in the past several cycles?

2) What did 55 and 56 do to "lead by example" and how were they important on this year's team? They had 2-3 good games out of 11 and w ere often out of place or responsible for big plays. That aside, what exactly were their examples in preparation or focus given our record coming out of bye weeks. The issues were not only with offense. We have come out on defense and crapped the bed multiple weeks. They are the defensive leaders. That is on them and their lack of leadership.

3) The "deserving of three years" nonsense has to end. No one deserves anything in this world. That is garbage. He said himself there was no rebuild. If a rebuild was necessary, then de facto, he should never have been considered for the job. He has been here for a full recruiting cycle of his players coming in. We have roster holes and depth/experience issues all over the defense next year. His recruiting has been a mess and continues to be. That aside, he has been here for four years. He was part of the broken culture under Richt and continues to be under himself. He is not your standard outside hire that had no role in 50% of the roster and culture that led to below average results.

4) Make no mistake, this is the offense Manny wants. He said it himself in the last two weeks. This is his tempo and his vision of what a Miami offense should be. If he sees our offense is being shut out against FIU, he needs to be the one to tell Enos we are going up tempo and going to be the aggressors. If he cannot see that, he should not be the coach. If he is unable to dictate that, he should also not be the coach.

5) He has not said one thing of substance about how to fix this. Rather, he said he does not know how to fix the culture on QAM today. This jackhole is your typical South Beach scenester... all flash, no substance, and no idea of the hard work that it actually takes to succeed and get things done. You can sit outside of LIV and be blinded by the bling and cameras, I will keep perspective and see the plastic BS that it is.

6) That is great that he does not sound like Randy. Unfortunately, he sounds exactly like Golden.

7) I am not sure what traits you are seeing and especially not after this season.
 
JeddTheFisch said:
If these considerations outweigh the ambitions of making more money and moving up in career challenges and prestige, then I question the motivation and fortitude of that individual.

The performance of the team was x10000 more pathetic than the crowd. This "we have bad fans" trope is incredibly tired. Other than the most well-connected, bagged-up boosters, fans have virtually zero influence on the direction of the program.
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Call it tired but it's real.
 
Jassid82 said:
I don't like starting threads too often unless I am just really really disturbed at something and I need a space to vent. Thank god CIS gives us that. Have no idea what we did back in the 80s and 90s after tough losses!

Manny was on WQAM this morning. 7am sharp. I don't have the link but here are the points.

*I am starting to get the feeling (and I know its been said on here a million times) that Manny just doesn't know how to fix this "disease" he is talking about within the program. And it is bothering him. Its like having a child that acts out all the time and no matter how many times you beat them, ground them..none of it works. They just won't act right. I heard it in Mannys voice when he talked about things that he saw leading up to the game that look familiar when they came off other bye weeks (in other words, guys BSing around and not taking game prep serious). He even said that the hotel walk through was a mess the night before. So he knew this team was not prepared and prayed that they would snap out of it come kickoff. That was disturbing to hear as a fan.

*I got the feeling that even though he loves many of the upperclassmen (Shaq and Pinck included) I think he is ready for them to go. I think they just aren't the leaders that he thought and expected them to be as he is basically a "HC in training". I think he depended on the Srs to really takeover as leaders and it didn't happen like he expected. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I got the impression that maybe the Srs are the ones that are leading this wave of not taking every week serious. You can tell Manny was guarded with his words. But I was trying to read between the lines. Whenever a HC says, "The 2020 class is hyped up and they actually have a group chat. They have the mindset that none of this will happen on our watch and that's the mentality we need. At some point, there will be a class to come in and turn this around.", then you know that he is not fully happy with how this Sr class conducted themselves as a whole leadership wise.

*He didn't get to much into Xs and Os. It was more like a therapy session for him. He was really in deep thought about the season as a whole and how things got to this point to where a team this talented is 6-5. He alluded to the fact that some of the players assume that just because you have that "U" on your helmet that certain things are a given. Like beating FIU. I got the feeling that he doesn't think it is Xs and Os related but a mental thing with this team. One thing I thought was interesting was that he said that this team feeds off of Jarren. When Jarren came out flat, the whole team went into the tank. That is a good thing and bad thing I guess. Shows he is the unquestioned leader of this team but Good God man..if Jarren doesn't have his "A" game on any given Saturday, we can assume that we are going to more than likely lose??


Those are the basics of the 20min interview. Said he doesn't expect any decommits in the 2020 class. They are solid as a rock. 2021 he is expecting some guys to drop.

I'll say this, Manny isn't going anywhere this year. That 3 game winning streak saved his job at least. But I am going to need him to stay off the yachts this offseason, stay out of the jewelry store conjuring up new pieces for next season, and stop the bravado. I am hoping he is humbled and realized being the HC at UM is more then just wearing that U on your shirt and hat, it takes hard work and dedication. He needs to make some tough decisions on his staff.

He needs to study every coach that had a bad record there first year and what they did to turn it around the second season. (Nick Saban at Bama, Urban at UF, etc) I know it sounds corny, but he needs to get into the lab and study every tendency and every detail of what coaches like this did to completely turn there program around in such a short time. His job depends on it.

He needs to make the tough decision and fire Enos and Baker. Gotta start from scratch. Neither of them are good coaches are even good recruiters. Double whammy in my book.

He needs to start taking this job serious. I look back on the last offseason and realize that Manny just didn't take this serious. He thought he could walk in, give a few speeches, hire a "good OC" and just coast to 10-11 wins. That yacht ride he took to the banquet should have been a sign for us. It was cool at the time but it looks extremely foolish now.

Sorry for the long review. I know posters will hit me with the "None of this matters. Blake and Manny have to go". Well, if they don't go, doesn't mean I am turning in my O&G gear either. Now am I going to renew my season tix? Not so sure yet. That said, I am looking to see a new Manny Diaz going into Spring ball. New focus and renewed energy. Playtime is over. His HC career depends on it. Neg away. LOL.
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Great post and sums up pretty much how I was feeling after listening. I think part of the problem is kids seem to respect Manny at least the few I know but I don’t think there is a ton of respect for some or most of the assistant coaches. I know last year players didn’t respect Jon Richt because they all felt they knew more than him and when Golden was here some of the players didn’t believe in what D Norfrio was telling them.

Even if the players like some of the assistants I don’t think the majority of them demand respect. Stubblefield is way out of his culture element with the WR, Stoud is more like a 60 yr old grandpa trying to be cool instead of being a respected grandfather figure (like Odell at FSU), Banda is everyone’s boy during recruiting process so when he tries to be a hardass at practice it isn’t perceived well, kids feel Rumph is a big brother figure and I think does well with them but lacks being a killer in recruiting, I think Enos is that alpha personality just running wrong type of offense, after being with Manny for 4 years I feel Baker is a downgrade and that is also noticed by team.

Just my 2 cents but I feel this is one of he major culture issues. It’s like getting yelled at by the principal (Manny) and it hitting you but then you spend the rest of the time with the teacher you walk all over and go back to doing what got you in the trouble he first time.

We need more alpha coaches
 
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