Miami Hurricanes chief of staff Ed Reed says "as of now" he's continuing in that role at UM under Mario Cristobal.
Reed also said on the Great Dane Nation Podcast with Morten Andersen that in his current role at Miami he can’t coach but “I can give pointers … I push the envelope as much as I can without getting the University in trouble.”
Reed also shared his first public comments on Manny Diaz’s firing, saying “It is what it is at this point. Coach had some things he needed to change, and those things did not change. The higher ups, you know, wanted to make a change, man.”
The goal, of course, is to reset the program under Mario Cristobal and get things heading back in the direction it was when Reed was playing for national championships with the Canes.
“It takes a process,” Reed said. “We get the right coaches, right leaders, right attitudes from the kids, we can be back in that thing, can definitely be back. They have to want that, the kids truly have to want that in the locker room.
"I haven't seen that attitude since I’ve been around there. I know kids want to win, but it's there's cancers here, people saying this and doing certain things that you look at it like `that's not championship effort, championship mentality.' We haven’t had that. I don’t see it. I’ve seen guys quit in games. We've changed that toward the end of the year, guys that truly fight. But we need to change some things and now we've made some moves. We'll see if we can get that thing back to truly dominance, at least competing in playoffs and national championships, you know?"
The bottom line is UM players need to want it, do the right things on and off the field and trust the process.
“I know how much that matters to us and our success - you know what you’re doing off the field kind of carries over,” Reed said. “You know if you’re not handling your business off the field it carries over. If you’re irresponsible, you know - you’re undisciplined off the field - it’s going to show on the field.”
Reed also says what he tries to impress upon current Cane players is that film study is key. That's what Reed mastered at UM and in the NFL.
"I'm trying to get them to understand that," Reed said. "Film is not going to lie.
"An offensive coordinator, D coordinator, they are going to call that bread and butter (in crunch time). Things are going crazy, go back to your bread and butter."
Reed also touched on the 2001 national championship team he helped lead, pointing to how UM was viewed back then is similar to how 'Bama is viewed now.
"People say `Alabama, that's how you guys were,'" Reed said. "What Nick Saban is doing over there is crazy.
"We had a great coaching staff, great recruiters who brought people in - coach Chuck Pagano, Curtis Johnson who is the receivers coach with the Saints. He was a chess piece to the system that we had. We had Don Soldinger, Art Kehoe, Mario Cristobal was there for a spell, Mark Stoops. We had head coaches on the staff (as assistants). Greg Schiano, Randy Shannon. We truly had head coaches (as position coaches). Alabama has had head coaches on the staff - all those guys. ... Hats off to the guys on the staff, and we put in work."
