Breaking: Miami Reportedly Makes Decision On Manny Diaz

Amid what appears to be a bizarre internal struggle within the Miami Hurricanes football program, head coach Manny Diaz has found himself on the outside looking in for most of it. Now he’s just outside.

According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Miami has fired Diaz after three seasons with the team. He will not be coaching the Hurricanes for their upcoming Sun Bowl tilt against Washington State.

Miami made the rather baffling decision to court Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal while Diaz was still under contract. Firing Diaz today probably means that Cristobal has agreed to take the job.

Diaz finishes his three-year tenure in Miami with a 21-15 record that saw him go 16-9 in the ACC. He led the Hurricanes to a No. 22 finish in 2020.

Manny Diaz was born in Miami and went into coaching in 1998 while he was in his mid-20s. It didn’t take long for him to climb the coaching ladder and by the mid-2000s he was getting high profile defensive coordinator jobs.

Mississippi State and Texas are two of Diaz’s most notable stops before Mark Richt hired him as defensive coordinator in 2016. Diaz served in the role for three seasons before being hired as head coach at Temple in 2018.

However, 17 days after being hired by Temple, Richt retired. Diaz promptly left Temple to take the Miami job when they reached out and offered it.

After going 6-6 in 2019 and 8-3 in 2020, the Canes got off to a 2-4 start in 2021. Though they won five of their last six, athletic director Blake James lost his job and an internal power struggle ensued.

Diaz may still have a bright future in college football coaching, but that future isn’t in South Beach.

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