The Duke Blue Devils had nothing short of a tumultuous off-season, headlined by former head coach Mike Elko leaving for Texas A&M, and star quarterback Riley Leonard going north to Notre Dame.
Manny Diaz was hired as the Blue Devils’ new head coach in December, wasting no time implementing his style of football on the team. When asked what Duke’s defensive identity would be, Diaz replied “We want to create a high volume of negative plays. It’s important to us to lead the nation in tackles-for-loss. Those are drive killers…it’s a playmaking defense.”
The biggest question mark surrounding Duke is the starting quarterback position. Grayson Loftis and Texas transfer Maalik Murphy will split reps in fall camp, but have developed a good relationship off the field.
“It all just came natural. I think from the first moment we introduced ourselves in our meeting room, it was all about us having good chemistry…we push each other to be the best player, and push the other guy to be the best player in an informal way.”, said Loftis.
Manny Diaz is a familiar face in the ACC, serving previous stints as a coaching assistant for Florida State and the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Diaz noted his time as an understudy to the late coach Bobby Bowden, citing how he helped his development immensely. “Over the first decade of my career, three jobs, really taught from the Bobby Bowden way. I think the guy won more games than anyone ever. It was like getting a Ph.D. in what it takes to be great at football.”
Duke looks to rebound after a tough off-season, hoping to show Blue Devils supporters that this new regime can still compete in this conference.
