Duke is in good hands with Manny Diaz, but Miami made the right decision with Mario Cristobal

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Manny Diaz Sr. served as mayor of Miami for eight years and was a regular on the sidelines at Hard Rock Stadium when his son was head coach of the Hurricanes not long ago.

On Saturday, the 69-year-old stood on the visiting sideline, dressed in Duke blue, hoping his son would stick around for the program that fired him three years ago to hire Mario Cristobal.

The former mayor made no secret of his joy that his son's new team led the fifth-place Hurricanes by 11 points in the second half and that Miami had to fight its way past the Blue Devils before claiming a 53-31 victory .

Next year, Diaz snorted, “They won’t have Cam Ward.”

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*1 | #HE1SMAN pic.twitter.com/I9RDwrfomg

— Miami Hurricanes Football (@CanesFootball) November 2, 2024

Make no mistake: The way Miami let go of Diaz after courting Cristobal during the 2021 season — as Diaz was still trying to lead the Hurricanes to victories — was not politically correct.

But college football is a business, and Miami's decision to invest in its football program went beyond Diaz. That required the hiring of Cristobal, who is a far better recruiter than Diaz and whose hiring galvanized the program's name, image and likeness efforts in a way that wouldn't have happened without him.

Conclusion: The Hurricanes would not be 9-0, armed with arguably the best quarterback in college football and the highest-scoring offense in the country, if Diaz were still leading the home team.

That's not to say Diaz wasn't successful as Miami's coach in the long term. If Cristobal had decided to stay in Oregon, Diaz would have had more time to prove himself in Miami. But sometimes timing is everything.

“It was fun to be part of a big game and a great environment,” Duke's coach said of what it was like to return to his hometown and practice against his former team.

“I was proud because our boys believed. They really believed they could win the football game and they played like that and that’s why they’re still so hurt right now.”

Diaz is a good coach. He has proven multiple times that he is an excellent defensive coordinator. But being a first-time head coach at a place like Miami during that time wasn't a recipe for success. At Duke, he can grow without having a lot of expectations placed on him.

He has already exceeded what was expected of him in his first year in Durham. Duke, which suffered heavy personnel losses during the coaching change, was ranked No. 11 in the ACC in the preseason poll and its over/under for wins was set at 5.5. The Blue Devils are off to a 5-0 start – highlighted by a comeback win over rival North Carolina – and are already bowl eligible at 6-3 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. For the past two weeks, a ranked ACC opponent has been fighting for its life.

However, this is not what the Miami government wants to achieve with its program. That's exactly what Duke is right now.

Diaz made a few decisions that hurt him in a tight fourth quarter on Saturday.

After Duke cut Miami's lead to 32-31, Diaz called for a squib kick. Poor execution led to Miami taking the lead at its own 49-yard route. Two plays later, Ward hit Jacolby George for a 49-yard touchdown strike.

Later, a few plays after Duke Ward intercepted at the Blue Devils' 40, Diaz decided to throw the ball back to Miami with a deficit of 39:31 and 8:21 to play. Two plays later, Ward connected with Xavier Restrepo on a 66-yard touchdown strike.

“The detonator should reach the farthest corner of the field,” Diaz said. “We just wanted to prevent one of their fastest players on their team from hitting. They were close to some returns and we just wanted to change it. The call went bad because the execution was bad. This is ours.

“The punt situation, the analysis just said you were going to punt the ball back and get a stop in a one-score game.”

Miami won't play Duke again until it travels to Durham in 2027. The Blue Devils will then return to South Florida in 2028.

One can only guess where Diaz or Cristobal will be when the teams meet again. But Cristobal is only in the third year of his 10-year, $80 million contract in Miami and is expected to lead Miami to championships.

Is this Miami team with Ward good enough to win one this year? Winning the program's first ACC championship in December isn't out of the question. Clemson, SMU and Pittsburgh all have their warts.

But there's no doubt Miami has a knack for playing with fire. This was the third time this season that the Hurricanes trailed at halftime and needed a second-half rally led by Ward to pull off a comeback win.

Miami continues to struggle with consistency on defense and is allowing big plays to offenses that typically don't have much firepower. Duke scored seven plays of 20 yards or more after averaging four such plays per game on Saturday. This was the first time the Devils surpassed the 30-point mark against a Power 4 opponent this season.

It doesn't help that starting cornerback Jadais Richard left the field with a serious knee injury.

Ward will still get the green light to fire. He threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns against Duke and connected with Restrepo eight times for 146 yards and three touchdowns. There may not be a better QB-receiver combination in college football. Restrepo is now Miami's all-time leader in receiving yards and is tied for the lead in catches.

But Miami's offense doesn't always make things look easy.

Ward threw another bad interception Saturday — forcing the ball to the middle of the field — with his team leading by just eight points entering the fourth quarter.

“I’ll do it again — next time I do it, I’ll do the play,” Ward said. “I really don’t like plays like that. If you want to be a robot, why do you end up playing the quarterback position? If I do it again, the result will be better.”

Restraint and confidence are why Miami is where it is today – able to do something that hasn't been done in a long time.

Where will the Blue Devils be at the end of the season? In a bowl game, Diaz was praised for how pugnacious they were.

There's nothing wrong with that either. It's just not what The U's leaders were aiming for three years ago.

(Photo by Mario Cristobal: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)