Happy Monday everybody. Let’s recap the weekend, shall we?

Canes beat Duke to sleep 47-10

Just as it should have been, Miami blew out the worst team in the conference, the Duke Blue Devils, by a 47-10 score line. Sure, Duke went up 10-3 midway through the first quarter, but 44-0 after that to get to the 5 TD margin of victory still feels good.

KappaCane made his triumphant return with the 3 stars from the game.

And, as always, I chimed in with The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

And of course, Justin Dottavio brought the fire with his day-after film review

I fully expect another weekly award for QB Tyler Van Dyke after another 300 yard, 3 TD performance.

The win brought Miami’s regular season record to 7-5 (4-3 ACC). Better than Duke’s winless record in conference, but nowhere near good enough for the University of Miami. Regardless, we’ll see which Bowl Game Miami gets a bid to next week and go from there.

Athletic Director Search ongoing

Since Miami fired Blake James a couple weeks ago, the University has retained a search firm to try and help them find the next leader for the Athletic Department. There’s been lots of rumors and chatter and a few reports about the process. I’ll link you here:

Manny Navarro’s Sunday piece from The Athletic ($)

David Lake’s latest dispatch (his 4th, I believe) on the AD search process from Inside The U ($)

Most don’t think an AD hire will happen fast, because Miami is trying to get it right. There are said to be some big names in the worlds of sports administration who are interested in the job. But, we’ll see who it is and how it plays out, and most importantly, who Miami hires for the role, soon enough.

Manny Diaz awaits his fate

If you’re talking about a position that’s being discussed at length, it’s Manny Diaz’s position as head coach. I’m of the clearly stated and firm opinion that Diaz’s time at Miami needs to end. I said it after the Michigan State game and my opinion has not and will not change.

Though they all said they don’t pay attention to social media or any chatter about their coach, nearly 30 Canes players took to Twitter after beating a horrible, HORRIBLE Duke team to try and campaign for Diaz to keep his job. You even had former walk-on LB Ryan Ragone record a podcast that was ostensibly to “address unfair critisicm of Diaz’s job”.....and he can miss me with that. Sorry, buddy, but just because you like Diaz doesn’t mean he needs to stay here.

Miami has put up all the numbers of snaps that freshmen have played....but haven’t talked about the fact that it took Miami losing games they shouldn’t have, while playing players they shouldn’t have, to incite the action to play the youngsters on the roster. But hey, if they don’t say it, we’ll forget about it, right?

Now, to the point here, it has been said that Diaz’s fate won’t be decided until Miami hires an AD. That person will have the chance to speak to Diaz, who will have the chance to state his case to keep his job.

Whoever the AD is would be wise to smile politely and inform Diaz they’re going in a different direction.

Obviously, the top candidates/targets for Miami should they fire Diaz are Oregon HC and Miami alum Mario Cristobal and Ole Miss HC Lane Kiffin. I believe Miami has a strong chance to get either coach, and that would be a massive upgrade over Diaz.

It’s also imperative that Miami actually create and open spot for a HC soon because USC hired Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, and Florida hired Billy Napier from Louisiana. That means other top jobs, like LSU and now Oklahoma, are open, and will be looking for coaches, and could look to the same people Miami would want to hire should they fire Diaz. Nothing is gained by waiting. Send the communication and move on.

But, Diaz is still the coach, and he’s still doing the job there is to be done.

For how much longer, however, is the question.

That’ll do it for today. Plenty to discuss. So talk it up, everybody.

Go Canes