With "perfect" coach for their program, Hurricanes will bring speed, aggressive defense

When Mack Brown decided to have an artificial AstroTurf surface installed at Kenan Stadium over this offseason, allowing the Tar Heels to play faster was one of his goals.

He won’t have to wait long to find out, as a speedy Miami team visits Chapel Hill on Saturday night for North Carolina’s season-opener.

“I got the turf in here for fast teams,” Brown said. “I’m hoping it works for us this weekend because they’re really fast.”

The U isn’t quite back to dominant runs of the 1980s and early-2000s, but the Hurricanes have loads of talent all over the field, a new culture established by a coach, Manny Diaz, who grew up in Miami during the program’s golden era and a promising freshman quarterback in Jarren Williams.

But taking a look at linebackers Shaq Quarterman, Michael Pinckney and Zach McCloud, one might think of the days of Ray Lewis, Jonathan Vilma and Dan Morgan.

“The first thing you look at is their defense,” Brown said. “They’re an old-timey Miami defense. Maybe the best set of linebackers in the country and if not, they’re in that group. Those two guys are all over the field.”

As a whole, the Canes’ defense has been all over the field since Diaz arrived in 2016 to serve as Mark Richt’s defensive coordinator, with an average ranking of 20 nationally in total defense over the past three seasons, including fourth last season.

The recipe has been the same as Diaz’s entire career, disguising unique defensive pressures and aggressively pursuing turnovers, with Miami having forced four in its season-opening loss to Florida.

“Third down is their money down, so they like to heat you up on third down,” left tackle Charlie Heck said. “They’ll bring a lot of exotic blitzes. They have three great linebackers and they have a great D-line and secondary so they’re just flying to the ball, every chance you get.”

It's a defense Brown is familiar with, having hired Diaz as his defensive coordinator at Texas in 2011, where the Longhorns were an instant success, ranking 11 nationally in total defense.

Things quickly went south, with Texas giving up more than 400 yards per game in 2012 to fall to 68 nationally, and two games into the 2013 season, Brown fired Diaz after BYU ran for 550 yards in a 40-21 blowout.

Brown said that at the time, Diaz handled the situation well.

“It wasn’t about him,” Brown said. “We weren’t as good and I had three older coaches in there, and things weren’t working; I could have fired all of them, very honestly. We weren’t playing good defense so it wasn’t him, it was just the timing and he understood that. Manny is a professional and he’s very good, and we’ve moved way beyond that.”

When Richt was looking to build his staff at Miami, Brown said he actually gave Diaz the recommendation that ultimately gave him his first head coaching opportunity, when the Canes introduced him on Dec. 30, 2018.

“He is perfect for Miami,” Brown said. “I mean, he grew up there, he loves Miami, his dad was the mayor; he was there when Miami was the Miami that we all know, and he’ll want to get them back to that.

“I don’t think there can be a better choice to replace Mark Richt than Manny Diaz. I think he’ll be a huge hit there in time.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google