Blake James stands behind Manny Diaz after bowl debacle. Here’s everything the AD said

The Miami Hurricanes’ 14-0 loss to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the Independence Bowl was the sort of loss which gets coaches fired. It was the first time Miami was shut out since a blowout loss to the Clemson Tigers in 2015, which preceded the firing of Al Golden. The Hurricanes’ last bowl embarrassment before Thursday — a loss to the Wisconsin Badgers last season — preceded Mark Richt’s abrupt retirement.

Blake James said this bowl loss hasn’t caused him to waver in his faith in Manny Diaz, though. The athletic director briefly spoke following Miami’s shutout loss in Shreveport and was asked whether he still has faith in his coach. His answer was brief and straightforward: “Yes.”

James spoke for less than two minutes in the bowels of Independence Stadium as he stood outside the Hurricanes’ locker room. Less than 12 months earlier, he made his defense of Richt on Twitter following a blowout loss in the Pinstripe Bowl. He called the 33-point loss “unacceptable,” but said, “Richt is alongside me in that commitment to excellence.”

Three days later, Richt retired. Before the end of the day, Miami hired Diaz away from the Temple Owls.

Diaz, who was the Hurricanes’ defensive coordinator for three seasons before spending less than a month as Temple’s coach, overhauled the entire offensive staff, but the Hurricanes (6-7) didn’t get significantly better. Their average yards per game climbed from 358.8 to 367.9 and their average yards per play ticked up from 5.6 to 5.7. Miami won three in a row from the end of October through the beginning of November, then lost three in a row to end the season with a losing record for the first time since 2014 — and two of those losses were to Conference USA teams.

“Disappointing finish to the season,” James said to begin his impromptu diagnosis of the program. “Obviously look forward to better things in the future.”

A few moments earlier, Shaquille Quarterman touted the youth of the roster as a reason for optimism moving forward. The linebacker said an offseason of growth will help spur a turnaround in 2020.

James echoed the senior when he was asked what is missing from the program.

“I think you just heard Shaq say it. It’s a young team,” James said. “They need to continue to develop. We have some very young guys that were put into difficult situations this year. I think there’s some real challenges offensively with our lack of production. I think that has created a number of challenges throughout the year. I think you just heard Shaq say they need an offseason. There’s some guys that need to continue to get bigger and better, and if we’re going to succeed in the ACC and on the national level, we have to execute on both sides of the ball at a much higher level.”

Major changes could be in store for the offense soon. Before the game against Louisiana Tech (10-3) began, the Associated Press reported offensive coordinator Dan Enos, who arrived in January to much fanfare, had agreed to part ways Miami after just one season. The university hasn’t yet made any official announcement and James declined to comment on the report, too.

“No comment,” he said.

In July, James told The Athletic he expected the Hurricanes to return to national contention in 3-4 years. He was asked about the timeline again in Louisiana and didn’t give a straightforward answer about how expectations may have been changed by this season, and, particularly, the way it ended.

At the same time, he threw his support behind Diaz and said he would “continue to provide whatever resources we need” to get Miami back to the level it expects to be.

“I think you can look at it a number of ways. Are they where we want them to be? No. I don’t think anyone that has any type of feeling for this program looks at how this year went and says, Yeah this was OK,” James said. “Obviously, a disappointing finish tonight to a very tough year. With that said, we’ve got a lot of young guys that are with us right now. We signed 18 great young men. A number of them will be starting with us in January. I’m going to do everything I can to support Manny in his commitment to getting our program back to the top. I’ll continue to provide whatever resources we need to have our program competing ultimately for ACC and the national picture.”