COCONUT GROVE, Fla. — There are a lot of ways head coach Manny Diaz and strength and conditioning coach David Feeley have gone about changing the culture at the University of Miami since January, but one of the more creative ways involves the team’s dinner menu, The Athletic learned this week.
Each of the last two times players returned to school following breaks (before the start of spring football and then again on May 19 for the start of Summer Session A), Diaz has brought the team together for supper. Each time, there has been a distinct spread for players in Group A and another in Group B.
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“The guys who didn’t miss class, show up on time for everything and were good people even when the coaches weren’t watching eat like kings,” one player said Wednesday. “It’s basically all-you-can-eat lobster, seafood, steak, all sorts of luxury foods. They’re the winners.
“The losers get hot dogs and cold pasta.”
“It’s working,” another player said with a chuckle. “The number of guys eating lobster went up from the first time to the second time, but we’ve still got work to do. The goal is by the time we go into camp in July it’s at least 80 or 90 percent of the team eating like winners.
“Coach Diaz just wants us to be champs. To be honest, it’s not the worst meal. A lot of us grew up on hot dogs and red sauce on pasta. But that lobster, that seafood is obviously a lot better.”
Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz claps after the Miami spring game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. (Reinhold Matay / USA Today)
Diaz told former Hurricanes standout offensive lineman Leon Searcy on his Jacksonville radio show earlier this month Miami “had too many guys kind of OK with coming in second place on any given Saturday” during the 2018 season.
In order to change that mentality Diaz has made everything on and off the field a competition with incentives — both good and bad.
Feeley, meanwhile, has been Diaz’s enforcer during offseason workouts.
One major change Feeley has made is switching up the team’s summer conditioning test.
Last year, under coach Mark Richt and former strength coach Gus Felder, players had a 12-minute run on a treadmill. The test now, one player said, involves running 16 110-yard sprints in the summer heat.
By the end of June, players will take one final test that involves 30 110-yard sprints.
Feeley performed the same test with his players when he was at Ball State back in 2015.
Former Hurricanes players have long said what separated them from opponents during Miami’s glory days was their physical fitness and the fact they still had legs in the fourth quarter of many games.
“Feeley always says your legs don’t lie,” one player said.
Tight end Will Mallory said Wednesday he had a pretty good idea Feeley was going to switch things up when his eyes lit up hearing Hall of Famer Ed Reed speak at the Hurricanes’ alumni dinner in April “about how many 110s they were running back when they won a championship.”
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“Coach Feeley is gangster,” offensive tackle John Campbell said. “He’s got a lot of stuff cooking for us every day and we really have to be motivated and have our body hydrated. We have to drink water or its gonna show out there. From running 110s to being in the sandpit or lifting weights, we always got to be prepared for Coach Feeley.”
Those not on the court are out here throwing passes to kids. Check out Zion Nelson and @WillMallory_25 pic.twitter.com/Sd99hOebHd
— Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) May 29, 2019
Another way Diaz and Feeley have gone a different route than Richt and Felder is having offensive players and defensive players work out together.
“Before they used to do offense, defense separated. It was crazy,” one player said. “Now we’re trying to get everyone used to working with everybody. Last year, they just split up the groups. It was different feelings for everybody. There was a bunch of cliques, offense, defense. We weren’t bonding like we should have. Now we all feel like family. Coach Diaz makes sure we all get along.”
Another change: Players are far more committed to coming on days off to work out together.
Over Memorial Day weekend, there were more than 60 players who showed up to stretch and run. Team nutritionist Kyle Bellamy made protein pancakes for players.
“It was a good environment to be in,” one player said. “We know where we’re trying to get to. A lot of people don’t understand how much better we can be. We don’t even really understand it yet. But we understand how much we work. Our team is going to be better just because of how many people bought in. We were segregated last year. We’re coming together now. I don’t think anybody can beat us when we’re playing as one.”
— Freshman Zion Nelson, who was Miami’s starting left tackle in the spring game, has packed on another four pounds since the end of spring football and is now weighing 275 pounds thanks to some late-night Subway meals and protein shakes.
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He wants to weigh 285 pounds by the time Miami lines up for its season opener against the Gators on Aug. 24. Nelson arrived at Miami weighing 240 pounds back in January. He was a two-star recruit and Appalachian State commitment before former Hurricanes offensive line coach Stacy Searels began recruiting him in late November.
“I don’t feel any different,” Nelson said of his added weight.
#Canes out here looking like the Monstars against kids at Tucker Elementary in Miami. Check out @_jcamp74 dunking hard on these 8-foot rims. And @TheTateMartell and @RealusGeorge2 handing out assists. pic.twitter.com/1lJUclRTLo
— Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) May 29, 2019
Campbell, a 6-5, 310-pound former Rivals.com four-star recruit out of Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips in Miami’s 2018 signing class, figures to be Nelson’s primary competition to be Miami’s starting left tackle against the Gators.
He displayed some raw athleticism Wednesday with several dunks playing basketball on 8-foot rims with Tucker Elementary school students. Dozens of UM players made the short trek over to the Coconut Grove school as part of their community service work.
“(Space Jam) was one of my childhood favorite movies,” Campbell said after he, quarterback Tate Martell, fullback Realus George and freshman cornerback Christian Williams spent time hooping it up with the kids. “I played basketball growing up. I switched over to football. I can dunk (on a 10-foot regulation rim).”
— As for Miami’s quarterback battle, Mallory said all three scholarship passers in the race — Martell, redshirt sophomore N’Kosi Perry and redshirt freshman Jarren Williams — have been doing what’s been expected of them this offseason in terms of pestering receivers to go out and play catch.
“They’re all doing a great job of working together with 7-on-7,” Mallory said. “They’re doing a great job, all of them, with the scripts and running it and making sure we’re all on point. I mean it’s still pretty early, but they’re all doing a great job so far.”
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One Miami assistant told The Athletic last week, Perry, who won the QB award this spring, has a slight edge in the race because of his playing experience in 2018. But that coach cautioned, “it’s far from over. Each day this spring we thought one of those three guys was going to start separating themselves. They did for a day or two and then fell back.”
— The only player not expected to be ready for the start of fall camp, two Miami coaches told The Athletic over the last week, is redshirt sophomore linebacker Bradley Jennings Jr., who had surgery to repair a muscle in his hip. He is expected to return sometime in early September.
— The Hurricanes stand at 15 non-binding oral commitments in the Class of 2020 and nine in the class of 2021 and likely will not add any more recruits to either class until coaches host Paradise Camp next month.
(Top photo of quarterback Tate Martell: Manny Navarro / The Athletic)
