Not long after being hired as Miami’s new football coach earlier this month, Manny Diaz made it clear he understood the task he’d face in his first game.
“243 days away,” he joked on Dec. 31 about the Hurricanes’ opener against Florida in the Camping World Kickoff.
For months, the Hurricanes have known their first game of the 2019 season — and now the first game of Diaz’s career — would feature a showdown with state rival Florida.
Now they know when they’ll face another in-state rival — Florida State — and when and where they’ll play the crucial Coastal Division games they’ll need to win if they want to get back to Charlotte and play for the ACC Championship in December.