Quick 2 p.m. Friday note: UM announced its spring football schedule today, and Mark Richt has made a significant change from Al Golden's approach.

UM will no longer start spring practice before spring break and resume it afterward. Instead, UM will wait until after spring break to begin practice, then spread 15 practices over five weeks.

The spring game will be 2 p.m. Saturday, April 16 at Lockhart Stadium in Broward County because Sun Life Stadium is unavailable while renovations continue.

UM will practice every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday beginning Tuesday, March 15. All non-scrimmage practices start at 9 a.m.

There will be scrimmages on Saturday, April 2 (at Greentree) and April 9 at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach.

Richt had great success in Palm Beach County in his first UM recruiting class, and Oxbridge is the school of Travis Homer (the only running back in this class).

The Oxbridge scrimmage will be free and open to the public; the Greentree one will not be open to the public, UM says. And the spring game obviously will be open to the public.

FRIDAY BUZZ COLUMN

New UM defensive coordinator Manny Diaz explained his vision Wednesday, and if this were a campaign speech, he would have received a standing ovation from Canes fans -- even some players and parents -- who detested the read and react elements of predecessor Mark D’Onofrio’s defense.

But this goes beyond the promise to play an attacking 4-3 scheme, something Mark Richt made very clear the day he hired Diaz. This is also about playing the style that fits the talent of South Florida high school players.

“Historically, when you think Miami football, you think speed,” Diaz told me, after his group interview was completed. “[It's] what Jimmy Johnson revolutionized way back when -- we’re going to be undersized on defense, but we can fly and run and hit. To fly and run and hit, you have to play an aggressive style of defense. If you’re big, then you can hold point and you can absorb. This isn’t advanced physics. The smaller you are, the faster you have to play.

“The biggest crime I can have as a coach is to recruit speed and slow it down, because when you think of Miami, we should always be able to run. We should always be fast. When you’re fast on defense, things that are open [for offenses] don’t stay open for very long.

“Stylistically, that’s the style [new defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski] and I like to play anyway. But it does suit Miami because of the type of kid we’re going to find here. We may not necessarily be able to find the largest kids in the world, but the ones we can find that can run and strike, I think it’s up to us to put them in position to best do that. Stylistically, it fits us down here.”

That philosophy, which seems so simple and logical, was never articulated by the former staff. As former All-American center Brett Romberg and the parents of multiple UM players noted, the Golden/D’Onofrio system seemed better suited for a Northeast or Midwest team. Ex-UM defensive tackle Michael Wyche was the latest to vent this week about the former staff’s “bum ass defensive” scheme.

“Who doesn’t want to attack? It almost sounds cliché,” Diaz said. “There’s a running joke. Every new defensive coordinator you hire says, ‘We’re going to be more aggressive than the last guy.’

“Everyone is going to say that. It’s not just about that. But if you look historically, Missouri last season was second in the nation in tackles for loss [with Kuligowski on that staff]. We were ninth [at Mississippi State, where Diaz was defensive coordinator]. We want to make plays behind the line of scrimmage. The only way you do that is you’ve got to get your body across the line of scrimmage. The fact that we’re so aligned on that, I think our players are really going to pick up on that.”

Diaz added: “It’s not just going to a 4-3. It’s a mentality of the way we’re going to play blocks. We want our defensive line to penetrate. And that should sound familiar, because it was here in the ‘80s where that really became the trend in college football. We’re really not doing anything that Miami should not be used to.”

Diaz loves to blitz, and in his last four full seasons as a coordinator, his teams had 133 sacks, compared with 93 for Miami over that period.

“You can try on the front end to penetrate and create as many negative plays as possible, while at the same time on the back end, be as big-play averse as possible,” Diaz said. “Last year, at Mississippi State, we were [12th] in the country in fewest 20-yard plays allowed. We are big on not giving up the big play. A lot of things go into that, not just schematic. You’ve got to be a great tackling team. You lose games by giving up long touchdowns. It’s the quickest way to lose a game.”

He said his first priority is improving a run defense that ranked 105th of 128 FBS schools last season. “I don’t know [what the issue was] last season and I don’t really care,” Diaz said, adding he hasn’t watched tape of UM’s 2015 defense because he wants to give every player a clean slate.

“We are going to make sure we are defined by our toughness first,” he said. “And the toughest guys will play. We have got to at least represent what I think of with a Miami Hurricane defense. What I think of is toughness. We’ve got to get that back.”

The question is whether Diaz has enough talent to execute his vision. He has intriguing personnel in his front seven, led by Al-Quadin Muhammad, Chad Thomas and Jermaine Grace, but no clearly elite defensive tackle. The biggest concern is cornerback, where only one returnee (Corn Elder) has substantial experience.

“We will do some things to help them out coverage wise,” Diaz said, adding he will play both man and zone.

He said he doesn’t have a full grasp yet of how good this defense is.

“We’ve got some guys, but we can’t be defined by talent alone,” he said. “That’s all everyone has talked about – we’re talented, we’re talented. [But] we’ve got to… be productive, stop walking around patting ourselves on the back for being talented. Let’s learn how to be productive. And more than anything, let’s learn how to be tough. You’re hard to beat when you’re tough.”

In his nine full seasons as a defensive coordinator, Diaz’s teams finished in the top half of FBS teams on five occasions.

His Middle Tennessee State units (2006-2009) ranked 48th, 81st, 64th and 62nd in total defense. His defense at Mississippi State were 52nd (2010) and 55th (2015). His Texas defenses were 12th (2011) and 80th (2012), before he was fired two games into 2013 after Texas allowed 550 yards in a 40-21 loss to BYU. His 2014 Louisiana Tech defense was 54th.

New UM cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph, who went 35-6 and won two state championships at Plantation American Heritage, believes Diaz’s style will attract top local players.

“Manny has a way of simplifying things,” Rumph said. “Most defenses react. We’re going to attack and make them react to us.”

CHATTER

### Among NBA stars, the Heat might have no bigger fan than Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, whose team has lost to Miami twice this season.

“They’ve got length, they’ve got speed, they’ve got shot-making, they have rebounding and a shot-blocking presence [with Hassan Whiteside],” Nowitzki said. “They are good defensively. Goran Dragic is a great guard. They can beat anybody at home. They are right up there with anybody. They’ve got everything you need to be a great team.”

### With Rishard Matthews saying “there is a greater than less chance” he will be elsewhere next season, the Dolphins will be on the prowl for a reasonably priced No. 4 receiver. Matt Hazel said he received good feedback from the team and will be in the mix for a more significant role.

Miami also is investing time in developmental projects, including former UF and Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy, who worked as a receiver on Pittsburgh’s practice squad this season and took Miami’s offer instead of one from the 49ers last week. Murphy will be a receiver for Miami during the offseason program and also could be an emergency third quarterback if he makes the team.

### The Panthers’ biggest shortcoming? Their power play – they’re 25th in the league (scoring 17 percent of the time) and they’re last on the road (10.3 percent/ 7 for 68). So it was encouraging to see two power-play goals Tuesday at Washington. This column is being posted during tonight's Detroit game, but Aleksander Barkov's first-period goal, giving Florida an early 2-0 lead, also came on the power play.

### UM coach Jim Larranaga said he has been telling teams that guard Sheldon McClellan should be a first-round pick. One NBA scout we asked leaned more toward the second round but wouldn't rule out the first.

### With Joy Taylor leaving to be part of a new, not-yet-announced Fox Sports 1 program in Los Angeles, 790 The Ticket will consider both men and women to replace her.