UM's Turnover Chain Is Back for 2020
Miami Coach Manny Diaz made an important announcement regarding the 2020 season Monday.
"The Turnover Chain is back," he said on a video call with media, later cracking, "It’s not a Turnover Mask, which would have made some sense this year but we weren’t thinking ahead at the time."
The University of Miami’s highly-publicized Turnover Chain will (hopefully) make its debut in Thursday’s 8 p.m. season opener against UAB at Hard Rock Stadium, and that might be some of the most uplifting news UM fans can get days ahead of the game.
The Turnover Chain took the nation by storm when it was introduced in 2017, the brainchild of Diaz, then Miami’s defensive coordinator, and his defensive staff.
"It'll be a little different as it is every year," Diaz said.
And, yes, they'll be aware of COVID-19 issues.
"We have to get it wiped down like we have done with everything else," Diaz said.
The Turnover Chain was created by jeweler AJ Machado, a.k.a. “The King of Bling,” who is based in the South Florida town of Cutler Bay, not too far from the UM campus in Coral Gables. It was a 10-karat, Cuban link chain that weighed 5.5 pounds.
Perhaps the best thing about the chain, however, was it came out often.
Miami forced 31 turnovers in 2017, third-best in the nation.
No one had ever seen anything like it and it spurred a whole cottage industry of knockoffs from Florida State’s Turnover Backpack to Kennesaw State’s Turnover Plank.
The Canes introduced a bigger and better Turnover Chain in 2018.
“The new chain is, obviously, outstanding,” Diaz told the South Florida SunSentinel prior to that season. “We couldn't have asked for it to be more, slap me for using the word 'bling,' but it's fantastic. The way the Ibis shines and pops is just really remarkable. When our players saw it…It's hard to outdo 1.0, but I think 2.0 did it.
“I'd like to see it come out more often during the games, though, if we're being honest.”
Of course, the Turnover Chain won't debut Thursday unless the Canes record a turnover so while the chain will be in the house there's no guarantee it will make its first appearance of the season against the Blazers.
"Getting turnovers is a big part of winning games, especially in openers," Diaz said. "Turnovers really took a game last week that UAB played against Central Arkansas, that they really should have won by five or six touchdowns, and made that game look a lot closer than it was because of some ball security issues.
"So turnovers in openers, we saw it, it hurt us a year ago, are of utmost importance."
