FWIW …
https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article254114118.html
For input on the state of the Miami Hurricanes football program, I solicited views of a UM official, a former UM assistant coach (who did not apply for a job on this staff and has no ax to grind), an NFL scout, a former All-American Canes player and two Board of Trustees members.
The coach, UM official and player asked that their names not be used so they could speak candidly, and the trustees and scout are prohibited from speaking on the record.
Their feedback:
There are some trustees who want to move on from Manny Diaz, but a UM official said there is not a significant groundswell toward firing Diaz now, though he cautioned that could change with more bad losses.
That official said athletic director Blake James has some support among key people (led by president Julio Frenk), though that’s not unanimous. He said if UM keeps losing, Diaz would be at more risk than James, but both ultimately could be at risk. James declined to comment on the situation this week.
Two Miami-based trustees said they would expect Diaz — who has 2 ½ years left on his contract — to be given at least the rest of the season, unless there are multiple embarrassingly lopsided losses in the weeks ahead.
Those two people said inside the Board of Trustees, there’s frustration with UM football — including from at least one significant donor — but different opinions about what to do and a resignation about two realities:
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While many fans are angry about the state of the football program, president Frenk is largely unfazed by the situation.
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Miami likely doesn’t have the money to lure an elite proven coach to replace Diaz.
On the Frenk issue, one trustee put it this way this week: “Julio is a very good guy, excellent president, but not a sports-minded guy. If this was Donna Shalala, she would be all over this. She wanted to be a winner all the time. Julio is not involved in sports. He’s not going to step in and say, ‘Let’s get rid of this coach.’”
Said another trustee: “When Julio Frenk got here, he told Blake, ‘You’re on your own with sports.’”
The UM official said Frenk’s focuses are elsewhere — and it would take a new president for the football program to become a bigger priority.
Both trustees said Oregon coach and former UM player Mario Cristobal would be the obvious target but doubt UM could afford him. Cristobal reportedly makes an average of $4.5 million per season. If UM offered him $7 million annually to try to entice him to leave Oregon in a five-year deal, that’s $35 million.
It also would cost $9 million to buy him out before Jan. 14, 2022, or $6.5 million afterward. That — plus buying out the final two years and $8 million of Diaz’s contract in December — would cost north of $50 million.
“We don’t have that kind of money,” one trustee said.
But why not? Why can Texas A&M afford to pay Jimbo Fisher more than $9 million annually and UM can’t pay coaches more than $4 million to $5 million?
“Our revenue from sports is $90 million to $100 million a year; at Texas A&M, it’s $175 million, Florida is close to that,” the trustee said. “Endowments are much higher at other schools. All of our coaches are paid for by UM; we’ve never contributed from the booster club to pay coaches. At Florida and Florida State, these coaches’ salaries are paid [in part] by boosters and alumni.”
But what about the notion of a wealthy donor offering to pay $40 million to help lure Cristobal or another big-time coach? “Who’s that person who would do that?” one of the trustees said. “We’ve never had to do that, or had someone who would do that.”
Said the UM official: “Gifts at UM are made for research and the medical school and the music school and facilities. We don’t have donors who contribute to change the culture of the football program or make a transformational commitment to [land an elite coach].”
One trustee said making a coaching change during the season wouldn’t accomplish much.
“You’ve got what you’ve got the rest of the year,” that trustee said. “What good to get rid of him during the season? You are not going to steal somebody now in the middle of the season. You can’t do anything this year. It’s over, unless Manny suddenly turns this around. Hopefully he will.
“Football is a tackling and blocking game, and we don’t do either one very well. That’s coaching. It’s such a discouraging thing to watch.”
If UM moves on from Diaz after the season and cannot land Cristobal, who should UM pursue?
Names mentioned by the NFL scout and trustees — and this is purely their opinion, not who they think will be pursued - included former Alabama and Clemson assistant Billy Napier (now head coach of Louisana, where he’s 30-12), Luke Fickell (38-14 as head coach at Cincinnati) and Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman.
“Cristobal is the No. 1 guy if you have the money, but I don’t know how you get the money,” one of the trustees said. “He’s a tough guy, he knows talent and he gets them to play for him. He can coach and recruit.”
The former Canes assistant coach cited several problems, in his mind: UM not tackling enough in August practices (which he’s convinced contributes to shoddy tackling), quarterback D’Eriq King being late in his reads and unable to anticipate where receivers will be; offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee and King not exploiting what Michigan State was giving them last Saturday, particularly in the middle of the field.
That coach said Diaz needs to bench players who make repeated errors but that he appears reluctant to. “And there’s an acceptance of mediocrity there now,” the coach said.
He said UM has made mistakes in recruiting, including not getting in early enough on recruiting of players such as Ryan Shazier (Ohio State) and Jordan Battle (Alabama), and overestimating a slew of players such as Kai-Leon Herbert.
The NFL scout said anybody who called left tackle Zion Nelson a first-rounder has vastly overrated him and there’s no draft-eligible player on the current roster that he projects as a sure-fire NFL starter.
He said except for Nelson and safety Bubba Bolden, all of UM’s older players are fringe NFL prospects at best. He said he saw improvement from some UM prospects in recent years — such as Greg Rousseau and Sheldrick Redwine — but less so recently.
The former Canes All American player said one problem is that the UM football program employs “too many people who don’t know what a championship team, a winning organization, looks like. Other than Ed Reed — who isn’t there a lot — nobody there has won championships. Guys they think are good players are just guys.”
He said the program seems too concerned with selling the jewelry — the turnover chain and touchdown rings — than selling its winning history and five national titles.
Two trustees said they sense no widespread dissatisfaction with James, who had a conviction about hiring Diaz but has limitations in how much he can pay coaches.
“Blake is very smart and organized and well liked and has done a good job with fund-raising,” one trustee said. “Manny wasn’t the person he should have hired, but that was an impulse hire when Mark Richt resigned. The football program has had problems for years. It needs to be straightened out. Everybody would be at risk if [the losing] continues.”
At least one prominent former player covets the AD job if a change were made.
in us. We’re done.