MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Manny Diaz Sr. served as the mayor of Miami for eight years, and he was a regular on the sideline at Hard Rock Stadium when his son was the head coach of the Hurricanes not too long ago.
On Saturday, the 69-year-old was on the visiting sideline clad in Duke blue, hoping to see his son stick it to the program that dumped him three years ago to hire Mario Cristobal.
The former mayor didn’t hide his pleasure that his son’s new team led the fifth-ranked Hurricanes by 11 points in the second half and that Miami had to scratch and claw its way past the Blue Devils before pulling away for a 53-31 victory.
Next year, Diaz huffed, “They won’t have Cam Ward.”
📈📈📈
*1 | #HE1SMAN pic.twitter.com/I9RDwrfomg
— Miami Hurricanes Football (@CanesFootball) November 2, 2024
Make no mistake about it: The way Miami cut Diaz loose after it courted Cristobal during the 2021 season — as Diaz was still trying to lead the Hurricanes to wins — was not politically correct.
But college football is a business, and Miami’s decision to invest in its football program went beyond Diaz. It required hiring Cristobal, who is a far better recruiter than Diaz and whose hiring mobilized the program’s name, image and likeness efforts in ways it would not have without him.
The bottom line: The Hurricanes are not 9-0, armed with arguably the best quarterback in college football and the top-scoring offense in the country if Diaz were still in charge of the home team.
That’s not to say Diaz might not have been successful long term as Miami’s coach. If Cristobal had decided to stay in Oregon, Diaz would have received more time to prove himself at Miami. But sometimes, timing is everything.
“It was fun to be a part of a big-time game and a big-time environment,” Duke’s coach said of what it was like to return to his hometown and coach against his former team.
“I was proud because our guys believed. They really believed that they could win the football game, and they played like it, and that’s why they’re still so hurt right now.”
Diaz is a good coach. He’s proved himself to be an excellent defensive coordinator multiple times. But being a first-time head coach at a place like Miami in this era wasn’t a winning recipe. At Duke, he can grow without heavy expectations thrust upon him.
He’s already exceeded the ones placed on him in his first year in Durham. Duke, which suffered heavy personnel losses during the coaching transition, was picked 11th in the ACC in the preseason poll and its over/under for wins was set at 5.5. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 5-0 start — highlighted by a comeback win over rival North Carolina — and are already bowl eligible at 6-3 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. In the last two weeks, they had a ranked ACC opponent fighting for its life.
Being scrappy, though, isn’t what Miami’s administration wants its program to be. That’s what Duke is right now.
Diaz made a couple of decisions in a tight fourth quarter Saturday that hurt him.
After Duke trimmed Miami’s lead to 32-31, Diaz called for a squib kick. Poor execution led to Miami taking over at its own 49. Two plays later, Ward hit Jacolby George on a 49-yard touchdown strike.
Later, a few plays after Duke intercepted Ward at the Blue Devils’ 40, Diaz decided to punt the ball back to Miami trailing 39-31 with 8:21 to play. Two plays later, Ward connected with Xavier Restrepo on a 66-yard touchdown strike.
“The squib was supposed to go all the way to the far corner of the field,” Diaz said. “We just wanted to keep it away from one of their fastest players on their team. They had been getting close on some of the returns and we just wanted to change it up. The call became poor because the execution was poor. We own that.
“The situation on (the punt), the analytics just said kick the ball back and get a stop in a one-score game.”
Miami does not play Duke again until it travels to Durham in 2027. The Blue Devils then return to South Florida in 2028.
It’s anybody’s guess where Diaz or Cristobal will be when the teams meet again. But Cristobal is only in the third year of a 10-year, $80 million deal at Miami, and he’s expected to lead Miami to championships.
Is this Miami team with Ward good enough to win one this year? Winning the program’s first ACC championship come December is not out of the question. Clemson, SMU and Pittsburgh all have their own warts.
But there’s no question that Miami has a knack for playing with fire. This was the third time this season the Hurricanes trailed at the half and needed a second-half surge led by Ward to fuel a comeback victory.
Miami continues to struggle with consistency on defense, allowing big plays to offenses that don’t typically have much firepower. Duke hit on seven plays of 20 yards or more after averaging four such plays per game entering Saturday. This was the first time the Devils have topped the 30-point mark against a Power 4 opponent this season.
It doesn’t help that starting cornerback Jadais Richard was carted off the field with a serious knee injury.
Ward will keep getting the green light to fire away. He threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns against Duke and connected with Restrepo eight times for 146 yards and three touchdowns. There may not be a better QB-receiver combination in college football. Restrepo is now the all-time leader at Miami in receiving yards and is tied for the lead in catches.
Yet, Miami’s offense doesn’t always make it look easy.
Ward threw another bad interception on Saturday — forcing the ball into the middle of the field — with his team leading by only eight points in the fourth quarter.
“I’m gonna do it again — gonna make the play next time I do it,” Ward said. “I really don’t care for plays like that. At the end of the day, if you’re going to be a robot, why are you gonna play the quarterback position? When I do it again, it’ll be a better outcome.”
Ward and confidence are why Miami is where it is today — in position to do something that hasn’t been done in a long time.
Where will the Blue Devils be at season’s end? In a bowl game drawing praise for how scrappy Diaz has made them.
There’s nothing wrong with that either. It’s just not what the leaders at The U aspired to be three years ago.
(Photo of Mario Cristobal: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)
