Manny Diaz reacts to firing of James Franklin at Penn State

Manny Diaz has been fired before as the head coach of a power program. That’s why he knows exactly how it can go the way that it did for James Franklin, who he recently worked for, at Penn State.

Diaz reacted to Franklin’s firing from yesterday at his press conference on Monday. He sent his thoughts to all those affected by that decision up in University Park, and went on to say that Franklin is just a casualty of the ever-changing landscape right now in college football.

“Yeah, well. Yeah. It’s fascinating you say that. First of all, I just, you know – thinking a lot about the guys up there in State College, staff and players. You know, a lot of the coaches that are there that I worked it, all the guys on the defensive staff were all still there. I know how hard they worked. I know how hard James worked. I know no one care more about getting Penn State to the top than James Franklin did,” said Diaz. “It does say a lot about where we are in college football right now that, three weeks ago, they could be number two in the country, 16 days ago they were leading the number two team in the country, or whatever, in overtime.”

“This is going to happen more. I just, I don’t know that we’re fully aware of how our sport is changing, as rapidly as its changing,” Diaz continued. “You can’t build these massive conferences. Like, we’re just going to lose games more. It’s just what’s going to happen. And, we’re talking, in our conference, about having, you know, scheduling sort of tiered towards who finished at the top. It’s common sense. The more you put people at the top and they’re going to play each other, someone is going to lose the game. It’s just going to happen…I just, I think we’re in a strange place in this sport. Because, if you can have a bad three weeks and it can go that quickly, it just lets everybody know we’re not where we used to be.”

With that, Diaz also had to address his expected candidacy for the job in their coming coaching search. He was more so focused on his current program, though, as he highlighted how he has been there and done that before as far as the phases that almost all coaches go through – and how the Nittany Lions reached that final phase by Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve already been through it. Look, there’s three things you go through when you’re a coach. You’re in the honeymoon phase, you’re in the please don’t leave phase, and you’re in the please leave now phase, right? And, what I just told you is it can change in three weeks,” Diaz said. “You have got to be present of where you are. And, the second you start thinking about what’s next, you’re about to get it.”

Again, this is an experience that Diaz is familiar with. That’s as Miami fired him in December of 2021 after three seasons spent with the Hurricanes, where he was 21-15 (.583) at The ‘U.

Diaz is also familiar with this specific situation. Five days after his firing in Coral Gables, Franklin hired Diaz to be the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator, a role which he held for two seasons in University Park. Penn State once again had two of the better defenses in the country in his two seasons there, averaging 15.9 points per game and 285.6 total yards allowed per game while posting 1.9 turnovers and 46 sacks a campaign as a unit. That led to him getting his next head coaching job where he’s currently at with Duke, where Diaz, back again in the ACC, is currently 13-6 (.684) overall.