Manny Diaz said Miami is having great week of practice, but we’ve heard this story before
As Manny Diaz surveyed Greentree Practice Fields on Tuesday, he felt good about what he was seeing. The coach felt even better once he sat down and watched film of the practice inside the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility. He felt even better still once he checked out how the Miami Hurricanes’ Catapult Sports tracking system measured Miami’s second practice since the stunning 30-24 loss to the FIU Panthers.
The tracking systems worn by each player record how fast they’re moving throughout the practice. The readings for the Tuesday practice, Diaz said, were the second fastest of the year.
“Turns out yesterday was our second-fastest practice of the year in terms of how guys are running, which means you can’t run fast without straining,” Diaz said Wednesday after another practice wrapped up in Coral Gables. “That was very encouraging to hear because what that is telling you is that a football team on Week 14 of a season, after such a bad loss, came out here and put the work in.”
Of course, Diaz has said something similar often throughout the season, sometimes even preceding some of the Hurricanes’ most disheartening losses. Before Miami’s loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies in October, Diaz said the Sunday practice was “one of our best practices of the year.” Before the Hurricanes’ loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in September, Diaz lauded the way his team responded in practice to the season-opening loss to the then-No. 8 Florida Gators.
Diaz even admitted he thought maybe Miami’s unpredictable nature was cured after the Hurricanes (5-4, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) blew out the Louisville Cardinals for a third straight win Nov. 9. Attitudes in practice and in between games haven’t translated into what happens on game day often enough, so Diaz is left searching for answers more than ever as Miami prepares to wrap up the regular season Saturday against the Duke Blue Devils in Durham, North Carolina.
“I really don’t see a trend,” wide receiver K.J. Osborn said Wednesday. “We can only control the game what we can control and take it one day at a time. Just because we have a good Wednesday practice doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to play good on Saturday. You execute that play on Wednesday, you got do it again on Saturday, so, I mean, obviously practicing good, that’s what you want to do, but, you know, I also think that you got to go out there and execute when the real moment comes.”
All season, Diaz has strove to have a team led by its players rather than coaches, like he felt he had when he was defensive coordinator. It’s the final week of the regular season and he’s still searching for a way to foster some of the leadership he has been looking for.
Even this week, the Hurricanes are changing up practice procedures looking for a spark of accountability. Any time someone has made a mistake in practice this week, the player who made the mistake would lead the offense or defense in a set of up-downs, Osborn said.
Maybe this is the tweak Diaz has been looking for and Miami will respond with a resounding ACC win at Wallace Wade Stadium to wrap up the regular season. Diaz did say the Hurricanes’ Wednesday practice was one of the best of the year, too.
Or maybe not. After all, it’s just a Wednesday.
“What we asked for today was the energy to increase. Nobody came here feeling really good about things, but they put in the work,” Diaz said. “I keep saying this: There are some cultural things that have been laid as a foundation in this year. You wouldn’t have it if you wouldn’t come out here and have the second-fastest practice on the Tuesday. It wouldn’t be there. Now we want to add the energy, the spirit that we want to play with on Saturday.”
