Coach Banda comes to Miami from Mississippi State with a history of working with Miami Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz from their days at Texas and MSU. Coach Banda will work with a lack of depth on the two-deep at safety with the losses of Deon Bush and Dallas Crawford, but this is a historically dominate position for the Hurricanes with legends like Bennie Blades, Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, and Darryl Williams having been All-Americans and 1st round picks at the U.
Coach Banda started his playing career at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas at the age of 25. His recently documented journey was obviously different than most, having tended bar to make money and playing in amateur football leagues in the area until he broke in with IWU, a new start-up program in Texas. After a knee injury, Coach Banda became a Student Assistant Coach before moving on to the University of Texas to serve under Manny Diaz as a Graduate Assistant. Banda stayed with Texas for three seasons before moving on to Mississippi State to serve as a Defensive Quality Control coach with the Bulldogs under Coach Diaz again.
With the ‘Canes, Banda will be asked to coach the Safeties, a group that’s not very deep, in his first full-time position coach gig. Coach Banda will have talented players with some experience like Jamal Carter and Rayshawn Jenkins; and highly touted 4* recruits with little in-game experience like Robert Knowles and Jaquan Johnson to work with. New-comers like Texas graduate-transfer Adrian Colbert will provide experienced depth and an appropriate connection to Banda.
Much like Manny Diaz bringing in an assistant that has familiarity with himself and his defense in Banda, Coach Banda has brought in Colbert with whom he is familiar with from Texas. As a coach this is a vital move to get into a comfort zone. Colbert will serve as a coach on the practice and hopefully game field for the secondary and Banda will serve Coach Diaz in the same way- being that consistent and familiar echo to his teachings.
What can ‘Canes fans expect from the safety position under Coach Banda? I would expect aggressive safeties that will play the run tough and try to make big pays against the pass.