I don’t blame Manny Diaz for going back to Miami. Dude’s dream job opened up suddenly and he found himself in a tight situation and made a difficult decision.

That being said, it was still a dick move to bail on Temple after 17 days, having already done the press conference and then signing 17 players to letters of intent during last December’s early signing period.

Diaz went on to deliver Miami one its worst seasons ever, finishing 6-7 after Thursday night’s horrific 14-0 loss to Louisiana Tech in the Independence Bowl. The Hurricanes put up 227 yards in a college game, which is unfathomable. I watched most of it and it was a tough viewing. There was a point where Miami was down 7-0, got a huge interception, and then drew a penalty for a forward lateral on the return, which gave them the ball at the Louisiana Tech 50 yard line. They then proceeded to move the ball 11 yards on six plays before punting from the Bulldogs’ 39 yard line for a net gain of 29 yards.

It was hideous football, and the performance drew the ire of famous alumni, giving us tweets like this one:

For what it’s worth, Miami’s athletic director came out in support of his coach last night, but we’ll see what happens.

To put things in perspective, The U won these games in 2019:

  1. home to Bethune-Cookman
  2. five-point home win over Central Michigan
  3. home win over ranked Virginia team (this was a good win at the time)
  4. at Pittsburgh
  5. at lame duck Florida State
  6. home to Louisville

They were actually 6-4 at one point before losing their final two games to Florida International and Duke, a couple of football powerhouses. They also lost to a Georgia Tech team transitioning out of the triple option and gave up 42 points at home to offensive juggernaut Virginia Tech. The irony of Miami’s terrible season is that their division was very winnable and did not have a standout team. They had the tiebreaker over UVA and had a legitimate shot at going to the ACC Championship game for the honor of being throttled by Clemson.

But yeah, banner year for Manny Diaz, so perhaps it’s karma or kismet or something like that. Temple gets North Carolina in the Military Bowl later today, so we’ll see if the Owls can finish on a positive note by beating a team that beat the Hurricanes. No matter what happens, they’ll finish with more wins than Miami.