Mired in ‘utter disappointment’ after loss, Diaz to take ‘hard look’ at Miami program

The moment was telling.

A joyous, hyped FIU Panthers football coach Butch Davis rushing with his hand extended to a dazed, likely flabbergasted Miami Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz after a 30-24 Saturday-night whupping that few in their right minds could have expected.

The handshake at Marlins Park was brief by both parties, as each went in different directions — Diaz to face his 30-24 underachievers and Davis to celebrate with his victors.

Both spoke to the media afterward, with Davis, the former Miami coach who led the Hurricanes’ pre-national title resurgence from 1995 through 2000, nearly breathless and understandably excited; and Diaz, the 2019 rookie head coach who couldn’t have envisioned this rough season, understandably pensive and forlorn.

“Obviously a very, very dark night,’’ Diaz began in the post-game news conference. “One of the lowest points ever in this proud program’s history. I take ownership of that. I take full responsibility for the way we played tonight. We did nothing to give ourselves a chance to win the football game. Turnovers, penalties, red zone, third down defense. The things that good football teams do, we could not do.”

Diaz said he felt “utter disappointment’’ in how his Hurricanes played, “as poor of a performance as we’ve had all year. We just did not give ourselves a chance to win this game.

“We’ve got to take a hard look at where we are, but know it can improve and know that it can get better and know that this can be fixed... Everything is under investigation.’’

Diaz said he made sure to tell his Hurricanes that “two years ago, Troy went to Baton Rouge and beat LSU, who right now is the No. 1 team in the country. So things can change, but it needs to change. It can happen, but it’s got to happen within and it’s got to start with myself and start with the coaching. We’ve got to do a lot better job of coaching our guys, and we’re so fortunate that we have another opportunity in seven days up in Durham against Duke.’’

The Hurricanes (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and are six-point favorites against the Blue Devils (4-7, 2-5) in the final regular-season game of the year. Of course the Canes were 20-point favorites against FIU, so that didn’t mean much.

UM already has played itself out of a top-tier bowl, but some ACC-affiliated post-season game will be happy to have the Hurricanes. Some of the bowl projections by major media outlets include the Military Bowl against UCF (8-3, 5-2 American Athletic Conference) or Navy (8-2, 6-1 AAC ) on Dec. 27 in Annapolis, Maryland; the Music City Bowl against Kentucky (6-5, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) or Liberty (6-5 independent) on Dec. 30 in Nashville; and the Independence Bowl against Liberty on Dec. 26 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Likely at this point, after struggling with Central Michigan and Saturday’s performance against the Conference-USA Panthers (6-5, 3-4), that the Hurricanes would not want that Liberty matchup.

“The only thing that matters is the guys inside that locker room in there,’’ UM linebacker Shaq Quarterman, who finished with a game-high 12 tackles, said after the loss. “And that’s the only thing I honestly care about. Finish out this year with my guys and putting a close to my career here at Miami is the most important thing to me at this point.

“It sucks for tonight, but we have to wake up to work in the morning. That’s the only thing I know how to do.

“I have faith we’ll overcome this post-bye week thing we have going on,’’ Quarterman said of UM’s three losses after all three bye weeks this season. “But we just have to keep working as a team from top to bottom. The only way to go is up right now.’’

Davis compared the victory to when he coached at Miami in 1998 and led the Canes to a 49-45 historic win against No. 3 UCLA, a week after getting crushed by Syracuse 66-13.

“Maybe, after losing a tough game last week and not playing good and then bouncing back,’’ Davis said, “a little bit reminiscent of getting blown out by Syracuse and then coming back and beating UCLA...We had to just immediately change the mindset of you can’t fix what’s in the past and all you can do is come out and fix what you’re doing now.”

▪ Four times during the night, FIU players suddenly appeared to have injuries or cramps at integral moments when the Hurricanes were driving, eliciting loud boos from the crowd. Davis defended his program.

“I’d like for them to look at our medical reports,’’ Davis said. “I guarantee you, I’ve never coached a football team that has had as many hamstrings and groin injuries this entire season. And this is the truth. Our medical people have tracked every kid on our football team that has missed a practice. We’re over 700 through 11 games. We’ve got a hundred kids on the team. One kid misses eight, one misses five. It doesn’t take long to get there.

“But we’ve had a bunch of kids that have hamstring injuries and stuff like that. So, it’s a shame when somebody boos when people get injured. We didn’t boo when their kid broke his elbow.’’

▪ The “broke his elbow’’ comment was referring to UM’s star running back DeeJay Dallas, who, according to a WQAM report during the game, dislocated his left elbow. Dallas was visibly in pain, holding the arm to his torso as he was escorted off the field by training staff.

“DeeJay is a huge loss,’’ Diaz said. “Not just what he does as a player, but he is as important from a leadership aspect of anybody we have on our offense and in our entire program. I thought Cam [Harris] and Robert Burns did nice jobs in handling the run load, but there will be a leadership vacuum that other guys will have to fill.’’