In his left hand, Manny Diaz clutches a comically massive Cuban-link chain necklace. In his right, he clings to another comically massive Cuban-link chain necklace. A local newspaper photographer's shutter snaps, again and again and again, until a relieved Diaz lays all that gold—roughly 13 pounds of gaudy South Florida bling, with green and gold sapphire pendants at the ends of each—on a table.
There's something about the pose that almost veers into self-parody, and Diaz, the 45-year-old first-year head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, is utterly aware of that. As he hurries down a hallway inside Miami's expanding football complex—past several lighted photos of a who's who of Hurricane alumni, from Ed Reed to Michael Irvin to Warren Sapp—he admits it still feels weird to be posing with these flamboyant creations of his, known as the Turnover Chains.