Thoughts on Manny Diaz

[monarchofredland]

He is the new Miami DC. Most Cane fans all get furious at anybody who isn't 100% sold on the members of Richt's new staff. Therefore it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation on Canes boards about the pros and cons of Diaz as DC. Well you hear a lot about the pros of him as DC but little about the cons.....

Anyway I wanted to know what Mississippi State fans thought of him as DC and his scheme.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

Rut ROH
Buckle your chin strap

 

[HD6]

He's inconsistent, and he will put your teams in early holes they'll have to fight out of. But if you have good talent, his scheme can work and be effective.

 

[campshelbydog842003]

He is the new Miami DC. Most Cane fans all get furious at anybody who isn't 100% sold on the members of Richt's new staff. Therefore it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation on Canes boards about the pros and cons of Diaz as DC. Well you hear a lot about the pros of him as DC but little about the cons.....

Anyway I wanted to know what Mississippi State fans thought of him as DC and his scheme.

He did very well in 2010 when he had about 8 NFL players on his defense. He was very mediocre last year. If you recruit really well he will be fine. No matter how much talent you have it will take him at least a half of a quarter to a quarter to adjust to what the offense is doing. It's almost like he doesn't have a game plan for his opponent until he sees what they are going to do for a few possessions. Overall, I'm glad he is gone. Good luck.

 

[PBRME]

He's inconsistent, and he will put your teams in early holes they'll have to fight out of. But if you have good talent, his scheme can work and be effective.

Only thing that needs to be added is your wife/gf's eyes will sparkle when he strums his air guitar.

 

[Drebin]

He plays a mean air guitar.

I think the jury is still out. I was not a fan of Diaz during his first tour of duty, and I for sure was not a fan of rehiring him last year. If he doesn't have great talent up front, his defenses tend to struggle. The whole seahawk tackling thing last year really set us back early. But I say the jury is still out because I don't know how much of it was Manny, or how much of it was Manny executing what Mullen wants.

I think our new DC is a pretty massive upgrade based on what we've heard so far - but again, I can't say whether he will truly be able to do what he wants or whether Mullen is tying his hands some.

 

[klong-dog]

Be ready for your db's to be 10-15 yds off the wideout. Which always makes for an easy pitch and catch and several yards to spare.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

I always liked him. I was glad he came back. Just like any other coach, he does well with talent. We had a lot in 2010, and he did well, we were average last year, he did average. He will do great at Miami in my opinion, you'll be happy you got him.

 

[57stratdawg]

He's inconsistent, and he will put your teams in early holes they'll have to fight out of. But if you have good talent, his scheme can work and be effective.

I would agree with that. You'll give up 7-10 points early, but the opposing team won't get much after that until halftime.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

All this positive sentiment is a serious departure from 8 months ago. Interesting to read.

This is not directed at your post.

 

[121Josey]

I would agree with that. You'll give up 7-10 points early, but the opposing team won't get much after that until halftime.

Yeah, he made good and consistent adjustments. He didn't confine himself to half-game plans but adjusted as the opponent adjusted.

ETA: sorry "inconsistent" was a freudian slip

 

[monarchofredland]

Be ready for your db's to be 10-15 yds off the wideout. Which always makes for an easy pitch and catch and several yards to spare.

Well that was the same complaint made about our last DC, Mark Donofrio.

 

[aTotal360]

I think he relies on talent over scheme. He's pretty good at making in-game adjustments. He's aggressive with the front 7 and plays conservative on the back end. You'll get beat up dinks and dunks.

 

[missouridawg]

All this positive sentiment is a serious departure from 8 months ago. Interesting to read.

This is not directed at your post.

Tunes change when people think the replacement is better. 8 months ago, we didn't even know who Sirmon was. Now, before he has even coached 1 game as a lone DC, we all think he is fantastic.

ill echo some thoughts on Manny seen here... He struggles on the first few possessions of games. He adjusts really, really well. Go watch the Gator Bowl versus Michigan as evidence of this.

Mannys first tour here was very successful, but we had a ton of talent on that D. His second tour was less successful, but we also had less talent. He struggled against pass heavy spread teams last year (OM and aTM).

 

[Hoover Dawg]

He struggled against pass heavy spread teams last year (OM and aTM).

He didn't in 2010. He played Cam the closest of anyone, and got dirt-rolled by Bama and LSU, who simply out-manned us on the lines.

 

[GloryDawg]

He does make good adjustments.

 

[FlotownDawg]

If our D-line couldn't get pressure on the QB last year, you could almost guarantee a completion to a wide open receiver. See Arkansas game for example. He blitzes a lot, but if the blitz doesn't get there, you'd better have a lot of secondary talent to keep those completions from happening.

 

[Drebin]

If our D-line couldn't get pressure on the QB last year, you could almost guarantee a completion to a wide open receiver. See Arkansas game for example. He blitzes a lot, but if the blitz doesn't get there, you'd better have a lot of secondary talent to keep those completions from happening.

Not only does he blitz a lot, but he's so hell-bent on not giving it away pre-snap that we seemed to blitz from position, so our guy almost never got there. If we blitzed a safety or a linebacker, you rarely saw the guy creeping up pre-snap. It seemed like we almost never got there with a blitz.

 

[missouridawg]

He didn't in 2010. He played Cam the closest of anyone, and got dirt-rolled by Bama and LSU, who simply out-manned us on the lines.

Auburn was a run heavy spread team in 2010.

 

[johnson86-1]

He is the new Miami DC. Most Cane fans all get furious at anybody who isn't 100% sold on the members of Richt's new staff. Therefore it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation on Canes boards about the pros and cons of Diaz as DC. Well you hear a lot about the pros of him as DC but little about the cons.....

Anyway I wanted to know what Mississippi State fans thought of him as DC and his scheme.

Hard to say definitively because I'm not sure how much he adjusted what he wanted to do to match what Dan wanted to do.

He also has sort of a weird track history. Made a name as an up and comer at Middle Tennessee St. Did well there but obviously talent level is different. Came to state and was great for a year, but we had ridiculous talent. Went to Texas and did fine at first, and then things fell apart, but those issues were possibly more attributable to the mess their program was at the time. Went to La Tech and immediately had a good defense, but you're back to the question on talent. He came to MSU and was pretty mediocre last year, but we started off the year young and weak at safety, and by the time they got better, our best CB got injured and we had nothing to replace him with.

One thing I think you can definitely say is that your D is not going to underperform your talent. He has a tendency to start off poorly and make very good adjustments, and it more or less balances out. The only question I guess will be how he manages a D over time, since he hasn't been in any one place very long. I would think being from Miami that he will help your local recruiting. Overall, it's a solid hire and a great hire if Miami already has talent.

 

[57stratdawg]

I've posted this before, but its worth mentioning again, we played some serious offensive talent in 2010:

Cam Newton
Stevan Ridley
Alfred Blue
Ruben Randle
Aaron Murray
Randall Cobb
Julio Jones
Mark Ingram
Eddy Lacy
Ryan Mallet
Knile Davis
Denard Robinson

 

[patdog]

I was a big fan of his until last year. His teams tend to give up yards and points in the first quarter, then make adjustments and tighten up the rest of the game. Last year, he came back to MSU with this new "Hawk" tackling technique and we were just a poor tackling team all year long. I wasn't necessarily glad he left, but I wasn't sad either.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

That's true for every team in the country. Defensive Line is the most underrated unit in football.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

He is the new Miami DC. Most Cane fans all get furious at anybody who isn't 100% sold on the members of Richt's new staff. Therefore it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation on Canes boards about the pros and cons of Diaz as DC. Well you hear a lot about the pros of him as DC but little about the cons.....

Anyway I wanted to know what Mississippi State fans thought of him as DC and his scheme.

No matter what offense you face, prepare for a quarter to a quarter and a half of the opposing offense imposing their will. It's almost like he puts in the exact same defensive scheme he ended the previous game with and adjusts it as he goes.

Just get ready to weather a team running up yardage initially then score points when the defense eventually tightens.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

I've posted this before, but its worth mentioning again, we played some serious offensive talent in 2010:

Cam Newton
Stevan Ridley
Alfred Blue
Ruben Randle
Aaron Murray
Randall Cobb
Julio Jones
Mark Ingram
Eddy Lacy
Ryan Mallet
Knile Davis
Denard Robinson

Knile Davis straight gashed us too. We win that game if we can learn to tackle that guy.

 

[o_Dawg007]

He is the new Miami DC. Most Cane fans all get furious at anybody who isn't 100% sold on the members of Richt's new staff. Therefore it's almost impossible to have a rational conversation on Canes boards about the pros and cons of Diaz as DC. Well you hear a lot about the pros of him as DC but little about the cons.....

Anyway I wanted to know what Mississippi State fans thought of him as DC and his scheme.

My opinion (and some of this comes from University of Texas buddies as well):

Good at making adjustments
Pretty good at schemes

Concern about the overall defensive basics.. Meaning that his teams over the last several years were in position but didn't tackle well. There were some basic techniques that didn't seem to be driven through the position coaches or either they were teaching the wrong techniques.

 

[monarchofredland]

My opinion (and some of this comes from University of Texas buddies as well):

Good at making adjustments
Pretty good at schemes

Concern about the overall defensive basics.. Meaning that his teams over the last several years were in position but didn't tackle well. There were some basic techniques that didn't seem to be driven through the position coaches or either they were teaching the wrong techniques.

The poor tackling is something I've read repeatedly is a problem with Diaz. On the flip side he's one of the best DCs in the country at getting sacks and turnovers. It certainly seems like he runs very high risk/ high reward type defenses.

Pretty much the exact opposite of Al Golden's defensive staff, which allowed opponents to 5 and 10 yard the ball down the field at will. But I'm not sure that either an extremely conservative or extremely risk taking defense is necessarily a good thing. There is a happy medium and I'm not sure Diaz is at the happy medium.

 

[AlCoDog]

I think he's a prick and an average DC. His tackling technique got us 1 fumble recovery last season. As others have said, a great d-line is necessary for him. Of course, that helps any DC out. He doesn't suck and isn't great. He'll do well with Kiami talent, and the fact he appears to be at his dream school.

 

[monarchofredland]

Well if the d line is a big necessity for him it's a good thing we hired Craig Kugliowski of Missouri. Who is regarded as probably the best defensive line coach in America by most people.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Ha Ha, you might want to go review our turnover stats from last season.

On the flip side he's one of the best DCs in the country at getting sacks and turnovers.

 

[Drebin]

Well if the d line is a big necessity for him it's a good thing we hired Craig Kugliowski of Missouri. Who is regarded as probably the best defensive line coach in America by most people.

He is regarded as such maybe by people in Missouri and Miami.

 

[mcdawg22]

All this positive sentiment is a serious departure from 8 months ago. Interesting to read.

This is not directed at your post.

I don't like his sorry ***. He'll bolt for the first opportunity given. He gives up a shitload of yardage playing soft man. You don't have t play aggressive D until it is 3rd down or the opposing team is inside your 30. Oh yeah, we had ONE 17'n fumble recovery last year.

 

[campshelbydog842003]

He is regarded as such maybe by people in Missouri and Miami.

Missouri has an outstading dline every year with subpar recruiting rankings. Not saying that he is the best dl coach in America, but I can see where the people in Miami would be excited about that hire.

 

[monarchofredland]

He is regarded as such maybe by people in Missouri and Miami.

Actually Mizzou people pretty much all regard Kugliowski highly. Best in the country might be a bit of an exaggeration. But they all think he was great.

I'm a lot more concerned about the Diaz hiring since Texas fans all think he was godawful and MSU fans seem sort of lukewarm about him.

 

[Digging dog]

I liked his hand signals once somebody referred to it as the "tall lady boobie squeeze".

 

[FlotownDawg]

At La Tech, his defense led the nation in turnovers, but last year, we only had ONE fumble recovery all season, and had very few forced turnovers in general. Part of that comes down to turnovers being partly lucky. It's best not to rely on them.

 

[Drebin]

Missouri has an outstading dline every year with subpar recruiting rankings. Not saying that he is the best dl coach in America, but I can see where the people in Miami would be excited about that hire.

I'm not saying he's a bad coach. He's probably a helluva coach.

My only thing is saying that "most people" consider him "the best d-line coach in America" is maybe just a tad over the top.

 

[Joe Schmedlap]

He's pretty good and should do a more than adequate job at UM. He gives up early scores but then makes very good adjustments. He's home in Miami, so he shouldn't bolt for the first $2 raise. He was good his first time around at State (had lots of talent as has been pointed out repeatedly). Last year, not so much. Less talent and I susoect he was micromanaged by Dan Mullen. I don't think it is a coincidence that all our DC's eventually perform the same way.

I wish him well. I also think we may have possibly upgraded with Coach Sirmon.

 

[Palos verdes]

My honest opinion is that you'll be looking for a new DC, if not next year, the next. His scheme is soft and ineffective against spread offenses. You will need an offensive scoring machine to keep up with a lot of teams.

 

[RocketDawg]

I think he'll do fine at Miami. He apparently spent most of his time at MSU wanting to get out of Starkville. I can't really blame him for doubling is salary to go to Texas, but he was paid just about the same as at Texas last year and immediately hit the road. He should be more stable in Miami because he's from that area and seems to be happier in a large city than a small town (can't really blame him for that).