‘I’m at peace’: Manny Diaz talks return to Miami as Hurricanes host Duke Blue Devils

It has been nearly three years since Manny Diaz last stepped foot in Hard Rock Stadium as a coach, nearly three years since his tenure as head coach with the Miami Hurricanes came to an end as UM opted to hire Mario Cristobal to replace Diaz after his three-year run at the helm of the program and six years overall on the coaching staff.

Diaz, now in his first year as head coach at Duke, makes his return as the No. 5 Hurricanes (8-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) host the Blue Devils (6-2, 2-2 ACC). Kickoff from Hard Rock Stadium is scheduled for noon.

Diaz’s thoughts on his return to face the Hurricanes?

“There’s a great saying that no man crosses the same river twice [like] before. He’s not the same man, and it’s not the same river. And that’s really the way I look at it,” Diaz told reporters Monday. “I’ve grown. I’m different as a coach, as a head coach, as a man, than I was when I was at Miami, and certainly the program’s in a different place by every metric from when I was there. So I’m at peace. I moved on. We still go down there. We have a place not far from down there, and we’re down there all the time. There are still people in the program on the staff and players who I have a lot of respect for.”

Diaz spent six seasons with Miami. He began as the team’s defensive coordinator under Mark Richt from 2016-2018. On Dec. 13, 2018, Diaz had been named the head coach at Temple, but he resigned from that position two-and-a-half weeks later to replace Richt, who had unexpectedly announced his retirement.

Diaz went 21-15 in his three-year run as Miami’s head coach — 6-7 (4-4 ACC) his inaugural season, 8-3 (7-2) in 2020 and 7-5 (5-3) in 2021.

Miami announced its hiring of Cristobal within a few hours of its dismissal of Diaz.

After that, Diaz spent two seasons as Penn State’s defensive coordinator before being hired by Duke last offseason.

Cristobal on Monday said that there hasn’t been much crossover between him and Diaz throughout their coaching careers beyond his obvious connection as Diaz’s successor at Miami.

They have faced each other four times before as coaches. There were three meetings from 2007-2009 when Cristobal was head coach at FIU and Diaz was the defensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State and then a 2015 matchup when Cristobal was the offensive line coach at Alabama and Diaz was the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

“Aside from that,” Cristobal said, “not much.”

That said, the Hurricanes are preparing for a stout defense like one would expect for a Diaz-led team.

The Blue Devils lead the country with 10 fumble recoveries and are tied for second nationally with 19 total turnovers. They forced six turnovers and blocked a field goal on Saturday in their 28-27 overtime loss to SMU.

Duke also ranks second in tackles for loss (71, behind only Ole Miss, which has 81) and has five players with at least six-and-a-half tackles for loss in linebackers Alex Howard (11) and Cameron Bergeron (six-and-a-half), defensive ends Vincent Anthony Jr. (seven-and-a-half) and Wesley Williams (six-and-a-half) and defensive tackle Aaron Hall (six-and-a-half).

Their 24 sacks are tied for 13th nationally and rank fourth in the ACC. Their 18.6 points per game allowed are 20th nationally and second in the ACC.

“They’ve got a good front seven,” offensive lineman Anez Cooper said. “They’re one of the best in college football right now. They force a lot of tackles for loss, a lot of turnovers. We’ve just got to go in there and be ready for a challenge.”

Added Cristobal: “Very disruptive. They play really hard. I think the fact that they have had that type of production is part of it. They have really good players, but they scheme it up really well, and the guys play really, really hard.”