Diaz bolts Temple after 10 days to take over at Miami
CORAL GABLES, FLA. >> Manny Diaz came to Miami three years ago with a vision for how the Hurricanes should play defense: Fast, physical and violent.
He now has the same plan for Miami’s offense.
The Hurricanes’ new head coach said Monday that finding help on offense — from a coordinator to a quarterback and more — is at the top of his list of priorities, now that he’s replaced Mark Richt as the man in charge of the program. Diaz, who was Miami’s defensive coordinator for the last three seasons under Richt, was hired Sunday night to fill the job his former boss vacated by unexpectedly retiring hours earlier.
“In terms of establishing the identity of what we’re going to be on offense and what that vision should be, it’s very similar to what we’ve been on defense,” Diaz said on WQAM, the Hurricanes’ flagship station. “We came here three years ago and set a vision of how the Miami Hurricanes play defense and what in my mind fits best for the talent that’s available to us here in South Florida.”
Diaz was part of a wild Sunday for Miami, which was rocked in the morning by Richt’s retirement announcement. By mid-afternoon, the school said it was beginning a national search for Richt’s replacement. Before the night was over, Diaz had a five-year deal to coach the Hurricanes and told Temple that he was leaving as its head coach — he took the job there a couple weeks earlier.
Diaz stayed with the Hurricanes through last week’s Pinstripe Bowl. He returned to Miami on Friday and spent the weekend putting together what he thought would be his Temple coaching staff.
But around midday Sunday, Diaz’s wife heard the news that Richt stepped down.
Craziness ensued from there.
“It’s been wild. There’s no other way to explain it,” Diaz said in the radio interview. “It’s something that when everybody woke up yesterday morning, no one could have predicted. They don’t write scripts for these things. If they did they would get thrown in the trash because no one would believe it.”