If there's anyone in the world who should not be self-righteous about loyalty and commitment, it's Manny Diaz.
Diaz took the head coaching job at Temple, committing to lead the Owls for the next football season. But 17 days later, he changed his mind, backing off from his commitment to Temple to become the next head coach at Miami, replacing Mark Richt.
He couldn't follow through on a commitment to a school without considering his other options and ultimately landing elsewhere, but that's exactly what he's now asking his committed prospects to do.
From Manny Navarro of The Athletic ($):
“He told me once I’m fully committed, he didn’t want me to take any more (official) visits because Miami is the place to be and no other place is really worth visiting if you really want to be committed to the new Miami,” (Marcus) Clarke said Tuesday night.
“I was kind of shocked. … Usually coaches are like, ‘Go ahead and take your visits because you don’t get a lot of them.’ I do kind of feel like I still want to take my visits. I’m still thinking about it right now. But I do just want to stay humble to Miami. So, I want to see (the next) game, see how it goes.”
...
“We all went inside the meeting and Coach Diaz was talking to us and he went over that,” (Xavier) Restrepo said. “He doesn’t he really want anybody to take official visits and be in contact with other colleges because at the end of the day, if you’re committed, you should be 100 percent committed"
That's what Temple thought too, Manny.
Regardless of your thoughts on Diaz's decision to spurn Temple for Miami – after all, it was a much better opportunity at what seems like his dream job – it's hilariously hypocritical to ask something of your players you didn't do yourself just a few months ago.
