Sunday, September 8, 2013

Texas fires defensive coordinator Manny Diaz

A few short years ago defensive coordinator Manny Diaz was a hot name. His Mississippi State defense had manhandled Michigan and the electrifying Denard Robinson in the Gator Bowl.

Diaz parlayed his one year success with the Bulldogs into the Texas Longhorns defensive coordinator job and big things were expected with Diaz and all the blue chip talent in Austin.

Today Diaz has been relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator and has been replaced by former coordinator Greg Robinson who was an analyst at the Longhorn Network. This was after BYU shredded the Longhorn defense for 550 yards on the ground in a 40-21 loss to the Cougars. The Longhorns gave up 679 yards altogether.

 “Our performance on defense last night was unacceptable, and we need to change that,”Mack Brown said. “Greg will be here tonight and get with the staff and players to start preparing for Ole Miss. He will be running our defense immediately. We’re very fortunate that Greg has been around, watched all of our practice video and has a good scouting report moving forward. His familiarity with the staff and players should make for a smooth transition. He knows this place, did a terrific job in leading our defense before, and I’m excited to have him back on the field. We’re back at it and working hard to beat Ole Miss this weekend.”

Robinson last run with the Longhorns ended in 2004 when he took the Syracuse job. Robinson also served as Michigan's defensive coordinator for two seasons in which he was unfairly blamed for their performance despite having to coach a 4-2-5 scheme shoved down his throat.

“This is a tough deal for everyone involved, but I love The University of Texas, and Coach Brown has been wonderful to me,” Robinson said. “I’ll do anything I can to help him, so when he called, I told him I’d be there today. I know the staff, have a lot of respect for them and am excited for the challenge moving forward. I’ve been around the team a lot, watched all of their film and have been self scouting and scouting opponents since I came on board in July. Because of Longhorn Network, I’ve also been able to see these guys for two to three years and am very familiar with the personnel.”

Hopefully for Brown, Robinson can get this defense playing up to it's potential. If not it may be Brown whi gets the pink slip.

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