Podcast: Manny Diaz overhauls Miami’s defensive coaching staff, but did he do enough?

Manny Diaz’s now-annual offseason overhaul for the Miami Hurricanes seems to be complete.

When he took over as coach after the 2018 season, the coach overhauled the entire offensive coaching staff. After the 2019 college football season, he changed up his offense again. Now the defensive staff has gone under the microscope and come away with a far different look than it had in 2020.

Blake Baker is still around as the defensive coordinator and Jonathan Patke is still a position coach, but the other assistants are all new. The question now is whether Diaz did enough, and David Wilson and Susan Miller Degnan, the Miami Herald’s Hurricanes beat writer, seek to answer this on a new episode of the Eye on the U podcast.

The most consequential move, however, might be one without any sort of formal title change involved. Diaz, who was an excellent defensive coordinator for the Hurricanes from 2016 to 2018, is reclaiming playcalling duties on defense. It lets him split the difference: Miami’s defense has regressed with Baker at the helm, but he’s a protege of Diaz, so the coach hopes he can get the defense back on track without firing a close confidant.

The rest of the moves are nearly as interesting. With former safeties coach Ephraim Banda now the defensive coordinator for the Utah State Aggies, new defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson should improve the Hurricanes’ recruiting. The same is true for DeMarcus Van Dyke, who moves from assistant recruiting director to cornerbacks coach while former corners coach Mike Rumph moves into an off-the-field role. At defensive line coach, Miami is bringing in a familiar face, too, with Jess Simpson replacing Todd Stroud as Stroud moves into an off-the-field role.

There are some unarguably positive moves — the additions of Robinson and Simpson — but the gambles, like keeping Baker around and promoting Van Dyke, will define the 2021 season for the Hurricanes.

Meanwhile, Miami (8-3, 7-2 Atlantic Coast) continues to be active in the transfer portal, landing wide receiver Charleston Rambo from the Oklahoma Sooners and finally positioning itself for its biggest splash of the offseason. Georgia Bulldogs defensive back Tyrique Stevenson is in the portal and eyeing a transfer back home to Coral Gables.

From a personnel standpoint, Diaz is improving the No. 22 Hurricanes again and keeping players in the fold, too. Wide receiver Mike Harley, and defensive linemen Nesta Jade Silvera and Jon Ford are all set to return in 2021. Miami wants to “run it back,” and the pieces are in place, even as a season-opening matchup with the reigning-champion Alabama Crimson Tide looms.