Manny Diaz is not taking the turnover chain with him to Temple
Have no fear, Miami fans, Manny Diaz isn’t taking the turnover chain with him to Philadelphia.
Diaz was introduced as Temple’s new head coach on Thursday after spending the last three seasons as Miami’s defensive coordinator. The now-famous chain that Hurricane players wear after forcing a turnover was his brainchild. And he has no designs on taking it away from Miami.
“The turnover chain, I think will always belong to the University of Miami,” Diaz said at his news conference. “That was never about me to begin with anyway. That was a Miami thing that once it was born, it could never go away.”
Diaz is a native of Miami. His father, Manny Sr., was the mayor of Miami from 2001-2009.
The turnover chain became a hit in 2017 as Miami went 11-0 to start the season. Its impact has been felt across college football over the last 16 months as well. Many schools have started using turnover props. Some schools have belts. Florida State has a backpack. Oregon State even has a chainsaw.
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“As for all the other ones, like I say, we can’t talk. We weren’t the first to have a turnover prop. We happen to have the best one, OK, but because we weren’t first, I can’t really pass judgment on the other ones,” Diaz told NCAA.com earlier in the 2018 season. “Somebody, somewhere, is like, ‘It was us first!’ and I don’t even know who that is. I just know we have the best one, which we’re happy about. We don’t really pay a lot of attention to the copycats, but hey, that’s kind of the world we live in, right? Once something gets hot, everybody tries to do the same thing.”
Diaz will still serve as Miami’s defensive coordinator in the Pinstripe Bowl.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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