With uncertainty swirling around Diaz, Miami heads to Duke to close out a lost season

In the rarely stable world of college football, there are different types of uncertainty and the Miami Hurricanes seem to have encountered nearly every variety throughout this eventful season.

There was the worry something might change when Miami lost four of its first six games and Blake James was noncommittal about Manny Diaz’s status moving forward. There was tangible change when the Hurricanes lost to the Florida State Seminoles on Nov. 13 and fired James two days later.

Now Miami is at the end of the 2021 regular season and more change is inevitable. At some point in the next few weeks, the Hurricanes will hire a new athletic director to replace James and he or she will have a decision to make about Diaz. There’s a real chance Saturday is the coach’s last game at Miami and Diaz is doing everything he can not to think about it.

“It’s not letting it enter your mind,” Diaz said Monday. “The question is do you allow it to stay there and take up residency. The way our mind works, thoughts are always going to come into our mind. We have the choice whether to allow them to become permanent residents or not. One thing I’ve been fortunate about is the ability to stay present. This job allows you, if you do it the right way, to stay present because there’s always something to do.”

Throughout the second half of the season, his team has followed his lead and Diaz has made the decision tougher for those responsible for making it.

He has started winning: When they close out the regular season Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against the Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium, the Hurricanes (6-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) will have a chance to finish the regular season with five wins in six games after their abysmal start and they’re doing with a freshman starting quarterback, a freshman starting running back, one freshman starting wide receiver and four freshman starters on defense.

Miami upsets No. 17 Pittsburgh in shootout to topple top-20 teams in back-to-back weeks

He’s still recruiting: Miami hosted a slew of top prospects — including blue-chip South Florida defenders Shemar Stewart, Nyjalik Kelly and Wesley Bissainthe — in the last week and Diaz struck an optimistic tone about the potential recruiting finish he has in store.

Things are even suddenly going well enough for his assistant coaches to be candidates for promotions: Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee is in line to be the SMU Mustangs’ top target if SMU coach Sonny Dykes leaves for the TCU Horned Frogs, Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday.

Uncertainty chases everyone, for good and for ill.

“We know what we signed up for. You’re playing for your job every week, pretty much,” Lashlee said Monday. “I’ve learned this in this business: If things are going well and you relax, they can switch in a hurry.”

Diaz’s future, Rivals.com reported Monday, is not yet sealed and the new AD will be the one to make the final decision. Of course, Miami does get to pick the AD and prospective candidates are certainly being asked for their opinions about Diaz, but, for now, he’s still the coach and the Hurricanes are still playing hard for him.

After its 38-26 win against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday, Miami celebrated by sliding around in the mud at Hard Rock Stadium. It was also a trying week for his players, Diaz said, after James was fired in the middle of the week and future of the program cast even deeper into doubt, and it made the bowl-clinching, senior-day victory emotional.

Diaz smiles through rain & pain as Canes win, reach bowl game he may not be around to coach | Opinion

“It was their moment,” Diaz said. “It’s not about where we are. The celebration is not about our record. It’s not about clinching bowl eligibility. It was about what they accomplished. They accomplished a real thing last week.

“It could have gone any direction, and for those guys to do a hard thing and say, We’re still going to play with great energy on Saturday, we’re going to play hard for each other ... that’s not always been the case here.”

Diaz’s case to return for a fourth season next year hinges upon how much his players like playing for him and how young a roster he’s using right now.

His issue is the results on the field. The Hurricanes have had the ACC Coastal’s top ranked recruiting class in seven of the last 10 cycles and sent 28 players to the NFL in the last five, and still they’ve only won the division once and are guaranteed to finish with fewer than nine wins for the third straight season with Diaz at the helm. Miami looks like it should be an ACC contender next year, but the Hurricanes were also supposed to be a contender this year and they officially fell out of title contention when they lost to Florida State, rendering the final two weeks mostly meaningless.

A game against lowly Duke (3-8, 0-7) in Durham, North Carolina, qualifies. No matter what happens this weekend, Miami is going to play in a middling bowl game at the end of another middling season.

Diaz is right to point out some other Hurricanes teams would’ve quit by now. Getting Miami to play hard in a lost season is progress. The question a new AD will have to answer is whether this bit of progress is good enough.

“You don’t take a team lightly that doesn’t have nothing to lose,” Mike Harley said Tuesday.

The wide receiver was talking about the Blue Devils, but he could’ve been talking about these Hurricanes, too.