Some clarity on Diaz’s status at UM. And what went wrong with Jarren Williams against FIU

A six-pack of Miami Hurricanes notes on a Monday:

▪ UM intends to retain Manny Diaz as coach next season regardless of how this season finishes, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Diaz is 6-5 in his first year at UM, with the Hurricanes set to conclude their season Saturday at Duke and in an undetermined bowl game. But even if Miami loses both of those games, Diaz will not be fired.

The administration has faith in Diaz and believes judging him one season into a five-year contract would be unfair and premature. There’s no Board of Trustee pressure to make a coaching change, even after Saturday’s stunning loss to FIU.

There are several examples of coaches who rallied after poor first seasons. UM is well aware, for example, that Matt Rhule was 1-11 in his first year at Baylor in 2017 and has rebounded to go 7-6 last season and 10-1 this season entering Saturday’s regular-season finale at Kansas.

▪ UM has no plans to schedule FIU in the immediate future, but that’s not because of the Golden Panthers’ feigning injuries during the game.

Though UM wasn’t happy that FIU faked injuries as a delay tactic on four occasions, the Hurricanes have decided not to criticize FIU publicly about it. UM isn’t intending to schedule FIU in the coming years because it has no schedule opening.

▪ So what in the world happened Saturday to Jarren Williams, who was awful for the first three quarters and rallied late to finish 19 for 36 for 249 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions?

Offensive coordinator Dan Enos said one of the first commandments for a quarterback is “never make a premeditated decision. A quarterback’s worst enemy is his own head. Saturday he predetermined what is going to happen and guessed wrong. And when you’re guessing, you’re not going to be very efficient. We missed a wheel throw on a touchdowns because of his pocket posture. Saturday was more an effect of we lost track of our fundamentals and techniques. We had a lack of technique and fundamentals and need to get back to basics.”

Enos said FIU “didn’t do anything we hadn’t seen on tape.”

▪ Why didn’t coaches replace Williams with N’Kosi Perry during the game?

“We decided Jarren was our starter,” Perry said. “We wanted to give him an opportunity to work his way through it, have this be a good learning lesson for him. Coach Diaz has had a really, really good feel for this. [The thinking during the game was] let’s let him work through the situation right now.”

Enos said Williams will start Saturday at Duke.

Enos said he spoke to all the quarterbacks on Saturday night about needing “to do a better job as a quarterback room of organizing extra preparation with our offensive players. We can only have them 20 hours a week [as coaches].”

Enos did say that Williams has become “much better at correcting guys and going to communicate with tight ends” and other positions.

Williams “had played so well” before Saturday, Enos said, adding that “human nature, complacency sets in sometimes when you have success. I’m not saying that happened. Sometimes success leads to complacency and a more casualness. [But] I didn’t notice any lack of preparation for him.”

▪ Though Diaz stopped short of saying that junior DeeJay Dallas (elbow) will miss the rest of the season, it’s possible we might not see him in a Canes uniform again.

Draft analyst Tony Pauline of profootballnetwork.com said “over the past several weeks I’ve heard from a number of sources Dallas will bolt for the NFL Draft after the season- which seems to be an annual event for underclassmen running backs on the Miami roster.”

▪ Quick stuff: ESPN2 picked up the UM-at-Duke game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m, with Wes Durham and Roddy Jones on the call. ESPN decided to put UM on ESPN2 and the simultaneous Pittsburgh-Boston College game on ACC Network....Defensive coordinator Blake Baker said Miami’s top three cornerbacks - Trajan Bandy, Al Blades Jr. and DJ Ivey - had a “very up and down day” against FIU. And as for the front seven, “we could have done a better job stopping the run,” Baker said, even though FIU “hadn’t shown us anything we hadn’t seen.”... Three-star St. Peterburg-based linebacker Cortez Mckenzie on Monday became the third Class of 2021 commitment to de-commit from UM.

Here’s my Monday post with Dolphins nuggets.

Here’s my Monday post with lots of news on the Dolphins’ search for a franchise quarterback.