The worst part, the very worst part, of this crazy sports writing job — worse even than a 17-hour trip to Edmonton — is accompanying decent people as the elevator goes temporarily down on their good careers.

The Duke Blue Devils missed a chance to beat a ranked team in a 28-27 overtime loss to SMU. Now, Duke travels to play another ranked team, the Miami Hurricanes, who Manny Daiz once coached.

It has been nearly three years since Manny Diaz last stepped foot in Hard Rock Stadium as a coach, nearly three years since his tenure as head coach with the Miami Hurricanes came to an end as UM opted to hire Mario Cristobal to replace Diaz after his three-year run at the helm of the program and six years overall on the coaching staff.

The game between No. 5 Miami and visiting Duke on Saturday afternoon feels a bit personal. That's because of the presence of Manny Diaz, a Miami native who is in

Diaz calls it “youthful naivety” now, but in retrospect, it was a bold move to leave what had long been his goal to work as a sports journalist. He attended Florida State University, where he was a communications major and sports editor of an alternative campus newspaper and traveled across the country to cover Seminoles football games.