Manny Diaz hot seat: Miami has hurdles as the heat turns up

After Miami’s third loss of the season on Thursday, Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman believes that Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz is firmly on the hot seat.

“It is getting hotter,” Feldman said on Big Noon Kickoff on Saturday. “The Miami fanbase has definitely turned on Manny Diaz, so have some former star players.”

He continued.

“Sources tell me that UM leadership is prepared to back Manny Diaz at least through this year,” Feldman said. “Unless they believe the team has essentially quits on him and stops showing grit.”

In year three of the Manny Diaz era, Miami opened the season 2-2 with losses to No. 1 Alabama and Michigan State. Miami’s first win of the season came in a tight 25-23 matchup with Appalachian State. The Hurricanes have just one convincing win on the season, a 69-0 blow out over Central Conneticut State.

On Thursday, the injury-plagued Hurricanes missed, what would have been, a game-winning field goal as time expired to lose 30-28 to the Virginia Cavaliers.

“The other day, UM was down nine starters, playing their third string quarterback,” Feldman said. “That was an issue. They had all sorts of issues going against them, but they showed a lot of resilience. A lot of teams at Miami in the past, probably would’ve folded and did, and ended up getting blown out of the building.

“That part of it, at least, Manny Diaz has it on his side.”

Starting quarterback D’Eriq King was out with a shoulder injury that he suffered in the second half of Miami’s 38-17 loss to Michigan State and backup freshman Jake Garcia was out with an undisclosed injury. Without the top two quarterbacks, second-year freshman Tyler Van Dyke earned his second-straight start. In the loss, Van Dyke completed 15 of 29 passes for 203 yards and one touchdown.

In the loss, Miami’s defensive efforts were dismal, letting up nearly 450 yards of total offense, as the Cavaliers averaged 6.1 yards per pass and over five yards per carry.

Manny Diaz’s contract also plays a factor in his job security as Feldman reported that his buyout right now is worth more than $8 million and the Hurricanes have multiple assistants on multi-year deals.

After three seasons as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Miami under Mark Richt, Diaz left briefly to be head coach for Temple. Within two weeks, after Richt retired, Manny Diaz returned to Miami as head coach.

In his tenure, Diaz holds a 16-13 record in three seasons leading Miami. In a wide open ACC, with games against North Carolina, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech still on the schedule, pressure is mounting on Manny Diaz to turn his team around sooner rather than later.