Some people say the play that ended Manny Diaz’s tenure at Miami was the fourth-and-14 his defense surrendered late in a tough-to-stomach loss to Mike Norvell’s 5-7 Florida State Seminoles last November.

They’re kind of right. Had Jordan Travis not found Andrew Parchment uncovered in Miami’s secondary, and the Hurricanes had held on to finish 6-0 following a 2-4 start, there’s a chance Diaz would still be Miami’s coach and someone else would be Penn State’s defensive coordinator. That probably also means Oregon wouldn’t have hired Dan Lanning to replace Mario Cristobal, and the dominoes in college football’s coaching carousel would have landed a bit differently than they did.

We know this much: Miami wanted Cristobal badly, and had the former Hurricane gotten cold feet over leaving what he’d built in Eugene, Oregon, Diaz for sure would still be Miami’s head coach.

Because there was no Plan B. Miami’s administration wasn’t going to call Lane Kiffin or Ed Orgeron or anybody else to be the Canes’ head coach.

They left Diaz sitting uncomfortably as they pursued Cristobal for one reason: Cristobal was 1A and Diaz was 2A. And Miami was willing to give Cristobal — and no one else — everything he wanted to come dig the Hurricanes out of two decades’ worth of mediocrity.

Ultimately, the months Rudy Fernandez and Miami CEO Joe Echevarria spent researching and strategizing their pitch to Cristobal — with the help of board of trustee members Manny Kadre and Jose Mas — led to a tense win-or-go-home weekend of negotiations with Oregon’s coach in early December.

“One way or the other, we’ll have an announcement on Monday,” Fernandez told The Athletic on Dec. 4, the day after Utah crushed Cristobal’s Ducks 38-10 in the Pac-12 title game.

“I don’t know how it’s going to go,” said Fernandez, Miami’s executive vice president for external affairs. “A week from now, we’ll either be celebrating or drinking heavily like I imagine Pat Riley was when he didn’t land Juwan Howard early in his career.”

The day after hearing Miami’s pitch, Cristobal, who won two national championships at Miami blocking for Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, told Fernandez and Miami’s leadership group in the late afternoon he was coming home. He bought into what he was hearing from friends, family and his former Hurricanes teammates for weeks — that Miami’s administration was serious about investing in football facilities, a stadium closer to campus and providing him with the biggest payroll for assistants and staff in the ACC.

“I was at a place where the facilities are through the roof, and this thing was so quick because the whole thing was, I would not or could not take a call before we were done with our season,” Cristobal, 51, told The Athletic. “But I think it was obvious to the powers that be, that the only way that there was going to be any talk is if it was real to the extent of hey, this has got to be at the highest level. The only interest is playing for national championships and being surrounded by people that want to play for national championships and for conference championships both.

“The commitment to resource our program is as good or better than any place in the country, and that’s to do it fast, strong and with an exclamation point. Part of that is reflected in the staff that we were capable of hiring and in our support staff that also is an investment.”