Miami Football: 3 reasons Manny Diaz was a bad hire for Hurricanes
3. History isn’t on his side
Way back in the late 1970s Howard Schnellenberger was hired to take over the Miami football program from Lou Saban. He had put strong recruiting in place but hadn’t gotten Miami over the hump into national power. With national schedules already in place, since Miami was an independent, the ‘Canes had the schedule (ahem, unlike UCF) to be front and center for a national title run once the winning started.
By 1983, Miami had their quarterback in Bernie Kosar and Schnellenberger guided the ‘Canes to the Orange Bowl Classic and 1983’s National Championship victory over Nebraska. After that, the Hurricanes athletic directors hired up-and-coming head coaches in Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson. After the Erickson era came to a close Miami looked to Butch Davis to take over with impending NCAA sanctions looming.
Davis was a great hire to get Miami through the dark ages of losing massive scholarships and through bowl bans. Davis drove Miami out of the near death penalty and built an amazing roster but left before he could see the fruits of his labor. Miami then started their run of promoting assistant coaches as the ‘Canes promoted offensive coordinator Larry Coker, then defensive coordinator Randy Shannon.
Manny is also Miami’s second Temple hire as the ‘Canes brought in Al Golden from Temple to see the program through sanctions once again. Then hired Mark Richt after he was fired by the Georgia Bulldogs. Richt had ups and downs at Miami which included an 11-game winning streak and two four-game losing streaks. With Richt retiring and Manny Diaz returning to Coral Gables this marks the second Temple coach, third promotional hire from within, and fourth time since the modern era that Miami has hired someone without head coaching experience.
Of the hires without prior head coaching experience, Larry Coker was the only coach to not have a losing record as his worst season came in 2006 where Miami finished 7-6. Davis and Shannon posted losing records, and Al Golden did, as well.
history doesn’t bode well for Manny Diaz or Blake James.