Rebuild? I Thought This Was Supposed To Be The New Miami.

Saturday was the worst loss in Miami history. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say losing to a 1-5 Georgia Tech team is worse than anything Miami has done since the school became a national powerhouse. The question is what now for Miami? Many fans angrily took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon and demanded that Manny Diaz be replaced. The reality is that Manny Diaz sold us a dream that “The New Miami” would be relevant immediately. Seven games into his tenure, something is totally off.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Before the season got underway, Manny Diaz was the hot story around college football. He was on yachts, he was crashing opponents recruiting parties and he was a hit on the transfer portal circuit. Never once did Manny Diaz mention the word rebuild, and why would he? Looking at the schedule and the alleged talent on this team, Miami was supposed to be one of the favorites in the ACC Coastal and should have at worst been a 9 win squad. All of those aspirations are now long gone, crushed by an awful offensive line, brutally bad place-kicking and some horrible coaching decisions along the way.

We All Took The Bait

I bought in, hook, line and sinker. I wrote an article here before the year saying our Canes were going to go 11-1. I also said anything less than an ACC Title Game appearance would be a failure. A failure would be an upgrade over what we are seeing now. This is a disaster, and losing to that Georgia Tech team has me already questioning is Manny Diaz the guy to turn Miami around. Al Golden lost to 2-10 Maryland his 1st year, and from that point on I never believed his coaching acumen was high enough to get Miami back among the nations elite. This loss is worse than any loss from Golden, Shannon, Richt or Coker. This loss, had it been in year 3 or 4, would’ve probably got Manny fired on the spot.

Rebuild???

Manny Diaz then completely lost me when he uttered the word “rebuild” in his post-game press conference. Really? Rebuild? Where was this talk during the offseason? Where was the rebuild talk just one week ago when Miami upset #20 Virginia? It’s convenient and cowardly to throw rebuild around when you had arguably the worst loss in the schools’ history. Stand up and be accountable coach, because this is on you and your hand picked staff. Dan Enos your “homerun” hire at OC is scoring less points a game than Mark Richt’s staff did a year ago. Blake Baker is failing so much at DC, that you yourself has had to take over some of the defensive responsibilities. Manny backtracked on 560 The Joe this morning saying the rebuild statement was taken out of context. I’d rather he own up to it than insult our intelligence by saying he needed to rebuild the players confidence. Shouldn’t they have felt plenty confident after a big win over Virginia?

Get Off Twitter

The players are to blame in this as well. When has it become more important to dance on the sidelines getting ready for overtime against a 1-5 football team? Miami should’ve been over there embarrassed that this game wasn’t put away long before a missed FG in the 4th quarter. The New Miami is The Soft Miami. This culture of accepting losing to vastly inferior teams has to be eradicated or Miami will never be anything more than a middle of the road ACC team that has a shiny history. Miami right now isn’t as good as Wake Forest or Duke in football. Let that sink in for a moment! That should make kids want to practice better and play harder, yet all we see is keyboard warriors run to Twitter to tell fans how we should feel. Yes fans have the right to boo, and fans have the right to question why a walk-on is playing a ton of snaps in the 3rd and 4th quarter of a conference game. Players shouldn’t be responding to this, and Manny Diaz needs this culture to stop immediately.

The Culture is Broken

Miami used to win games by outworking their opponents Monday through Friday, yet with this 2019 version we constantly hear about how practice has been all over the place as far as effort and intensity goes. These kids and coaches need to take a long look in the mirror and figure out how to change this losing mentality, or the glory days will never come back.

I don’t think Manny Diaz should be fired, but everyone on his staff should be under fire the rest of the year. Change what hasn’t been working or someone will be found who can change it. Same should go for the players, if you aren’t performing, then you will be replaced by someone who is better. That is what should happen, but let’s see if Coach Diaz will do that. So far it has been a lot of talk, without the action to back it up.

Get off twitter.

Stop with all of the cute hashtags.

“Don’t be a fan later”? How about don’t lose to awful teams now!

Manny your honeymoon is over.