King Of The Offseason

The vitriol was high, the confidence was low, and Manny Diaz was silent on his decision concerning the offensive staff. Just a little more than 7 weeks ago, the Miami Hurricanes were facing uncertainty on the landscape of college football. As the hours turned to days, and the days turned to weeks, Manny began what has been widely viewed as arguably the greatest offseason for any program in the country this cycle.

He pulled in a very respectable group of signees during the early signing period, got rid of Offensive Coordinator Dan Enos, OL Coach Butch Barry, and Wide Receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield decided to move on to Penn State. Manny brought in Rhett Lashlee as the new OC & QB guru, hired Garin Justice as the new offensive line coach (Justice has been HIGHLY spoken of on Twitter for his work ethic thus far), landed a grad transfer from FIU who should be the 2020 starting kicker, grad transfer QB D’Eriq King from Houston who is expected to be the 2020 starting QB, and grad transfer DE Quincy Roche from Temple who was the 2019 AAC Defensive Player of the Year and will likely be a starter at DE opposite Greg Rousseau. What an amazing haul! He followed that up by signing a surprise WR from California in Keyshawn Smith. Red Shirt Freshman QB Jarren Williams decided it was best to move on, as did DE Scott Patchan.

When the news of Alonzo Highsmith not signing with Miami broke, many were back on Manny’s neck, but he stayed the course, kept a low profile, and eventually agreed to a deal with former Hurricane and Baltimore Ravens great, Ed Reed. Having a National Champion and Super Bowl winner on the staff will be monumental as Reed gets to impart his NFL Hall of Fame wisdom and work ethic on the program as a trusted advisor to Manny.

Back on the 1st of December I wrote an article titled “Nothing Personal, Strictly Business” imploring Manny to do exactly what he did. Manny surrounded himself with experienced guys who can help this program turn around.

He has brought on some younger, less experienced, yet hungry assistants who will work hard to prove themselves in the hopes of landing a position coach spot on a coaching staff.

I am happy to see that the message that the fanbase and team was sending was recognized, acknowledged, and rectified. As I stated in the article linked above, there is no magic bullet. We will have to exercise some patience as Manny begins to build HIS program in year two and (hopefully) beyond.

I’m rooting for your success, Manny.

We all are.

Now go out there and begin to fulfill the expectations you set for the program to return to excellence.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

#GoCanes