Coordinator of Miami’s only good unit probably leaving for Temple
Manny Diaz’s departure could pose a real problem for a team that can’t afford to have its defense not be great.
Miami defensive coordinator Manny Diaz is finalizing a deal to become Temple’s next head coach, according to Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel and other reporters on Wednesday.
He seems like a good get for for the Owls, who have had recent success with highly regarded assistant coaches sliding into their top job. Their last four coaches — Al Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule, and Geoff Collins — have all used the Temple job as a springboard to Power 5 head coaching gigs. (Collins just left for Georgia Tech.)
It’s never fun to lose a head coach, but that it’s happened so frequently at Temple suggests the Owls are doing something right. Sticking with what’s worked makes sense.
It seems like a bad thing for Miami, which needs its defense to be great.
The Hurricanes just went 7-5. They’re 7-8 since they started the 2017 season 10-0. Their biggest problem is offense, where they haven’t found an answer at quarterback and, flowing from that, haven’t been able to turn some top-end talent at running back and receiver into great results. They were 36th in Offensive S&P+ in 2017 and 67th this year.
The Canes’ saving grace has been Diaz’s defense, which gave the world the Turnover Chain during ‘17’s breakout and got even better as a unit this year. Miami is No. 7 in Defensive S&P+, and without that elite defense, a 7-5 year easily could’ve been a 5-7 year. (Wins against Florida State and Pitt, when UM scored 28 and 24, are the easiest flips to imagine.)
Miami’s 100th in Special Teams S&P+, so it’s not a stretch at all to call Diaz the person in charge of the team’s only good unit. Mark Richt’s had a number of problems with his offensive staff, including his own play-calling and the performance of his QBs under their position coach, Jon Richt, who’s the head coach’s son. As Bill Connelly recently put it:
His quarterbacks coach and son Jon Richt, and his play-caller, Mark Richt, are the two biggest issues on this team. Defense is awesome — I’m a Manny Diaz homer, and the defense is even better than I would’ve thought — and the run game has been kind of all-or-nothing, but it was great yesterday. But they can’t pass, they’ve got no quarterbacks, and the quarterbacks are getting worse. And the way he calls plays, there’s no, like, “Hmm, maybe we can sneak our way out of this situation tactically.” It’s like, “I don’t trust these quarterbacks to do anything, so I’m just gonna have them throw these two passes over and over again, and maybe it’ll work.”
Losing Diaz doesn’t mean Miami’s defense will suddenly and forever be bad. That’s not really the point, though, given how things are now.
Miami has a couple of blue-chip QBs either on the depth chart already in N’Kosi Perry and Jarren Williams. It has a five-star running back, Lorenzo Lingard, who was injured and didn’t get liftoff as a true freshman in 2018 but should be great at some point. The offense should be better, at some point, than it was this year. But for a team like Miami, whose fans and leadership will expect ACC contention (and even beyond) as soon as next year, losing the guy in charge of the one phase of the game that was already doing well is an issue.
No matter who follows Diaz as coordinator, it’s not clear how much experience the defense will have in 2019. The unit had some midseason attrition, both via players getting hurt and leaving the program. It only had four senior starters on its two-deep for the last game of the regular season, but it had six juniors who could turn pro if they want. Those juniors include middle linebacker Shaq Quarterman. Star safety Jaquan Johnson is out of eligibility.
Diaz’s exit makes the equation more complicated, and there was already a lot for Richt to figure out heading into 2019.
If there’s any good news here for Miami, it’s that the rest of the ACC Coastal is way down, and Richt should have a more talented roster than any of his competition.