▪ Manny Diaz offered updates on two of UM’s blue-chip recruits who haven’t played this season. Guard Navaughn Donaldson, recovering from knee surgery after last season, “is not cleared for full contact practice,” Diaz said. “He’s working with our trainers and getting his movement skills back. He does some walk-through things for us when we’re not in a contact setting for the offensive line.” Diaz previously said that Donaldson might play at some point this season. Donaldson, a senior, previously announced plans to redshirt, but no matter how many games he plays this season, he would retain eligibility next season. That’s because the NCAA is giving everyone an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, when I asked if UM expects safety Avantae Williams to be able to play football again, Diaz said yes. Williams is missing this season with an undisclosed physical issue. “That’s what doctors have said that right now he’s in the process of strengthening some muscles that need to be strengthened,” Diaz said. “They will evaluate him. We hope to have him cleared whenever they say he’s cleared.” Williams was considered the best safety in the country in the 2020 recruiting class.
▪ Diaz said on WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline that cornerback Te’Cory Couch “is going to play more and more. He’s a fearless, highly competitive player. For not being a guy who’s super big in stature, he will throw his body around. “He forced two fumbles [Saturday]; both happened to go out of bounds. To see him take pride in not just the coverage part but the tackling part was really fun for us to see.” Per Herald correspondent Daniel Gould, Couch wasn’t very good in coverage, though. He was targeted six times and allowed five completions for 84 yards.
▪ After allowing two touchdown passes in the opener, cornerback DJ Ivey was targeted in coverage only once against Louisville and that pass was incomplete. “It was more focus,” Ivey said on Tuesday. “I wasn’t too much locked in on the game” against UAB.
Al Blades Jr. was also very good in coverage against Louisville, allowing two completions in five throws against him, for 25 yards, with one interception.
▪ On WQAM’s Hurricane Hotline, Diaz made a good point in explaining one under-the-radar reason for Cam’Ron Harris’ improvement this season: “Cam’s work in the weight room has allowed him to maintain his speed throughout the course of a [long] run.” On his 75-yard run on Saturday, “he would have been pushed out of bounds three quarters of the way last year. He hit 23 mph on our GPS” on that run. Diaz also believes Jaylon Knighton’s presence has pushed Harris to improve.
▪ Whether players like each other probably doesn’t matter typically, but it has helped the Heat in the NBA bubble because players are spending so much time together. And Diaz said that has helped his team, too. He said he has a team that’s “connected and you really suffer when you don’t have that. This is a team that enjoys playing [together] and being in each other’s company.” That wasn’t the case with all players last season, and Diaz conceded “we had some of that [not all getting along] on our resume in the past.”
Diaz said: “In 2020, it’s 10 times as important. You have to be your own energy and bring it on your own. If you’re a team that’s not well connected, [that’s a problem].. The guys are really enjoying playing with each other. “We are a much more mature team than we were a year ago. We’re a much more junior laden team than we were in the past. We don’t have a humongous senior class this year. They’ve seen some of the pitfalls of 7-6 and 6-7 and they say they’re not going to let that happen now that they’re the upperclassmen and it’s on our watch.”
▪ Diaz, on the series of personal foul and targeting penalties that have been called on Amari Carter over the years, cracked: “Amari was on campus the other day and bumped into someone and a yellow flag came out.” But seriously… “I think Amari plays the game the right way. He could have done a lot of damage to the guy if he wanted to [against Louisville] and he didn’t. At some point quarterbacks have to understand you can’t throw the ball late over the middle with No. 5 there. That’s on them.” The targeting penalty against Carter in the Louisville game was correctly
▪ Diaz, speaking on WQAM about Jaelan Phillips: “He’s just so strong and powerful at the point of attack. He’s quite literally a handful.” But Diaz told Joe Zagacki and Don Bailey Jr. that “there are some techniques we’ve got to clean up playing defensive end [against the run] that let us down. But it’s great having a guy like Jaelan who inspires others with his effort and toughness.”
Per CFB Film Room, Phillips is tied for second in the ACC with 10 quarterback pressures and is first with eight QB hits. He doesn’t yet have a sack.
▪ Quarterback D’Eriq King is still working to improve his chemistry with Mark Pope. Last Saturday, only 4 of the 10 passes thrown to Pope were caught; one was dropped. Conversely, Brevin Jordan has now caught 10 of his 12 targets for 171 yards, two touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
▪ Though Bubba Bolden’s tackling was exceptional against Louisville, his coverage was not. Per Gould, all 10 passes in Bolden’s coverage area were caught for 136 yards and two touchdowns. Of course, it’s not entirely clear on which of those plays Bolden was supposed to receive help and which of those he was primarily responsible for.
▪ Quick stuff: Diaz said defensive tackle Jared Harrison-Hunte “was our best inside guy” against Louisville. “It’s fun to watch young guys like Hunte have his best game.”... Diaz said of Florida State: “They’re as a big of a defensive line as we’ll face all year. They’re hard to move.” But, Diaz said, “When we execute the way we think we can, we’re a hard unit to stop.”
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