The Return of Swag at the U

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…