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Monday with Manny: The App State game upon further review

On Monday afternoon, upon further review of the game film off Miami's narrow 25-23 escape against Appalachian State, coach Manny Diaz shared his perspective.

The bottom line?

"App State, disappointed in our performance, we did a lot of things to allow them to win the game in the fourth quarter,” Diaz said. “Not disappointed in our effort, resilience.

“We won the turnover battle, the explosive play battle, dominated field position. It simply came down to scoring opportunities. We had the red zone five times, came away with 20 points, that’s 53 percent of the available points. And we had eight drives that penetrated their 40, averaged three points a drive. … A lot for us as coaches to fix.”

Diaz, of course, is doubling as the defensive coordinator.

And he weighed in on that side of the ball.

Diaz has praised the run defense these first two games, although the showing has been pretty average in the stat book. This past game App State had 127 rush yards and a TD, and that's with minus-26 yards included for a botched punt snap that was batted out of the end zone. Take away that play and the team averaged 4.0 yards rushing per attempt.

"Defense we held them to 3.3 per run, 4.5 yards per play,” Diaz said. “We had a couple of drives with (bad) communications in the back end. Our eye discipline at DB, the explosive plays we allowed in the back end were a couple of miscommunications.

“They had some opportunities, didn’t have the opportunities we had.”

There were over 20 missed tackles recorded by Pro Football Focus, so that remains an issue on all levels of the defense.

“A team, what you do is improve on the week before,” Diaz said. “We tackled much better this week than the week before. We have to make sure we’re sound in communication. That’s our line of focus this week.”

Up front Nesta Silvera was back in a starting role after missing half the preseason with injury.

“That’s what put him behind the other two - we have three quality (tackles),” Diaz said. “Nesta did play one of the bet games he’s played at Miami on Saturday.”


In the back end it was Tyrique Stevenson who had the pass breakup on App State’s last gasp fourth down stop.

“You feel Tyrique’s presence on the field,” Diaz said.

Could freshmen safeties James Williams and Kam Kinchens play more moving forward?

“They will play more,” Diaz said. “It was a tight game, we had to see through the victory. Those guys are getting snaps on special teams, can learn from those experiences. I thought Gurvan (Hall) and Bubba (Bolden) both played well, had some mistakes, communication errors that cost us. Both those guys made major strides from where they were a year ago.”

The mental state of this team right now?

“It was hard on everybody in the program (losing to Alabama),” Diaz said. “It did feel a little like it shook us a little bit, so the resiliency to find a way to win that game (against App State), that was a hard one to win. We have to get better to not put ourselves in that situation. But college football it’s find a way to win. So that’ll give us some confidence.”

Up next is Michigan State.

“They started the season as well as anyone in the country,” Diaz said of the 2-0 opponent. “Much improved team from what they are a year ago, dynamic running backs. They have three wideouts, all really, really good. Couple of tight ends that can attack, you, the quarterback can make plays with his arm, feet. It’ll be a great challenge for us on defense.

“Their defense is tough, physical, hardnosed, multiple. We have to match their toughness, physicality.”

* Diaz said RB Don Chaney is out for the year but that WILL Keontra Smith could return around UM’s bye week off injury.

* What’s holding back DT Leonard Taylor from getting into games?

“LT is learning, learning what to do,” Diaz said. “He has four veteran guys in front of him, but he’s making strides every week in practice. Expect to get more reps as the season goes on, he has a bright future ahead of him.”

* Of Al Blades, who hasn’t played much, Diaz said, “Al we’ll feature more. Al did a great job on special teams.”

* Of being able to go out and visit high school football games again, Diaz said, “Recruiting is about people. Miami’s a big city but a very small town at heart, a chance to go around to all different types of contest around. This is our first time to get out in the evaluation period. It’s about seeing people, make some evaluations, different types of evaluations during the game. A lot of times it’s the stuff between the plays, see demeanor, coachability, body language on the sideline.

“It was great to get out, our staff loved it. Saw a lot of high quality football.”

* Asked why he and lots of teams defer when winning the toss, Diaz said, “You’re trying to play for field position right off the bat. Get a stop on defense - put it on your defense to go out there, get a three and out. Now your offense is closer to the end zone. But you’re trying to get that make it or take it possession. You can try to get a score right before halftime and coming out get a score.”

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