Manny Diaz on Duke’s ACC Title, Defensive Rebuild & Sustaining Success | Sports Illustrated

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at ACC Media Day joined by the reigning ACC champion Manny Diaz and the Duke head coach.

How nice does it feel to have to walk around with that on.

Say that again in my good ear.

Raining, yeah, reigning as ACC champion.

Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's fantastic.

It's, um, it's a proof of concept of what we're doing there.

Um, it is in last year, um, and so, as we all do here, there's optimism abound, but we all go again.

How much do you, have you had a time even to, to reflect on that kind of run last year?

Uh, you do.

I mean, obviously the, the, the offseason is in season, right?

Um.

But I think everybody in the program is excited.

Um, they understand that the process works.

And, and then Duke guys, they like seeing evidence.

And so we get a chance to do it again and, and, and see how we get a chance to build, understand how it happened, right, and how to be able to do that again.

Well, I mean, you kicked off quite a run there in Durham.

I mean, uh, the school sweeping the, the football, men's basketball, women's basketball title.

What is the, what is the mood there in Durham just in terms of all the success?

Well, we have great alignment.

I mean , it's a great time to be at Duke University.

I say that not just as a coach, I'm a, I'm a Duke parent.

I've got a son there.

Um, the school is, is, is outstanding.

Our leadership with our president, Vincent Price, our athletics director, Nina King, um, I said alignment wins.

You can see it all around college athletics and to pull the trifecta that we did last year, that's just not, that just doesn't happen.

And it just means that there's a lot of people behind the scenes that are doing the right things.

Are, are you, Kara Lawson, John Shire, are you guys sharing ideas?

Are you, are you talking with, with Nina King, your AD, in terms of, hey, we, we, we can do this, we can do that?

Well, we have to because , you know, these last couple of years.

have been so turbulent, right?

And so, you can't solve 2026's problems with 2024's answers.

Um, and we're all kind of fighting the same dragon even though it is on different courts or, or fields.

Um, and so to be able, the, the ability to be at a school with, with just such coaching acumen like, like John and Kara, um, in a way, you, it, it, it forces you to really bring it to work every day.

Uh, in terms of your current roster, I, I'm sure it's a lot easier in terms of knowing what you have going into the fall with only the one portal window.

Do, do you get a better sense of what kind of team you have going into the season?

You know, it's, it's interesting whether there's 11 is definitely better than 2, but, um, especially with us at Duke, we have a lot of grad transfers.

So a lot of times our guys, we don't really fully have our team until the summer.

Uh, spring practice, a lot of them are still finishing up at their old school.

So, you really don't know until you get to August, you know, and that's what's, you know, comical this time of year, we'll put together a list, predicted order of finish.

Um, if you look at what we did a year ago, as opposed to what people thought we would do, who our top players were a year ago, as opposed to who they thought, you just don't really know.

And, and I'm not saying that to bash people to make the list.

I don't know that the coaches really know, um, because until you get in training camp and sometimes even during the season.

You know, we played our best ball the last 4 games of the year.

Um, teams have a right to grow and develop.

The margins are so thin in the ACC.

How do you make sure that you're on the winning side more often than you're on the losing side?

Well, it's gonna be winning close games, as you said, and, and that was my experience even with my first go around in this league.

Uh, we have 8 4th quarter comebacks in the last 2 years, and when you win 9 games back to back, I don't have to be a math major to figure out what those 8, how those 8 matters.

So.

Um, so that, that happens for a reason though, right?

You got to be great in situational football.

You have to be great in the kicking game.

Um, you have to understand, you have to hold your nerve, right?

And I think what we proved a year ago is, you know, sports is not about perfection.

It's about persistence.

Um, we're going to make mistakes, uh, and usually the team that overcomes their mistakes the best is the one that wins at the end.

I, I know you're gonna get on me talking so much offense for, for a defensive guy.

Who, who's stepping up on the defensive side of the ball.

It's gonna be a great competition.

Uh, obviously, we took a step back on defense, not our standard.

Um, lost some really good players to the National Football League, which is, you know, that's ideally what we want to have happen, right?

Uh, two great defensive ends, both in camps.

Kevin O'Connor had an outstanding spring at defensive end.

He's a guy that's battled a lot of injuries, was a great special teams player for us a year ago, maybe you're ready to take that next step.

We get Nick Morris back, um, a big loss.

We lost him in game 2 of the season a year ago.

So, um, but we've got great competition in the secondary.

We brought 5 new defensive backs in.

Obviously, our past defense was our Achilles' heel a year ago.

Um, you can already see the difference just in the urgency, not just at practice, but how you attack a meeting, a lift, anything.

Uh, the best, the best coach in the world is competition, right?

Ass on bench, and, uh, and I think we'll have a great, um, training camp because of it.

I'm curious, with so many new faces on the back end, are you got a guy who looks at your defense and wants to build back to front, front to back?

How, how do you kind of view that, especially in this day and age?

They're also tied together, right?

Um, you know, your, your, number one, your ability to stop the run.

It always, it always starts with that.

You have to make people throw when you want them to throw.

Um, but if you can't hold on to the football, right, if you can't make a quarterback holding the football, there is no pass rush, right?

And historically, if you look at the scheme, no matter what school we've been at, we've always been really, really good in, in affecting the quarterback.

We've been really good at, at defending passes down the field.

Um, so we recognize that we were not as good at that a year ago.

So I think you gotta have both, right?

You got to take the quarterback off the first look, and then you got rush.

I, I liked us in spring ball.

I felt that we rushed as a unit better than relying on individual brilliance.

Um, and look, the best defenses I've ever been around, it's been 11 guys working as one.

I know that the, the headliners get the headlines, that's why they're called headliners.

Um, but when 11 guys do their job, um, we, you know, we're pretty hard to move the ball on.

Is there somebody, maybe an underclassman, maybe a freshman you got coming in that, uh, we haven't been talking about, but, uh, you're expecting big things this fall?

That's a great question with the young guys, right?

Um, cause you really wanna see them, you know, perform.

I, I know it's safety, uh, a, a name, Andrew Pelichata is a young guy who really impressed us in the spring and even just talking to some of our players here, um, at, at media days, like, hey, who are the young guys that you, you see stepping up and, and he's a guy that's an example.

And then there are others.

We, we, look, we're still, the reality is we're still only 2 years into this program, right?

And recruiting the way that we're recruiting.

Uh, we signed the best class in school history a couple of years ago.

Those guys were only entering their 2nd year.

So, um, we're very proud of the success we've had the last couple of years, but this was never built to be 25 as being like the apex of this program.

And so, as those guys continue to matriculate in the program, our recruiting is going really well this year.

Um, that's where we want to get to the sustainable success.

Have you been able to notice a bit of a bump just, uh, from winning the title last year?

Well, winning the title.

And, and the fact that, look, you know, I would say kids have very short memories, right?

If you're 16 years old, you hardly remember anything when you were 12, right?

So now Duke having 4 straight years of success, right?

It's really all they remember.

So you can see in terms of who we attract, um, the families that we attract.

I think we're still unique in this current landscape where we attract people that want more than just sports, right?

They understand the value of a Duke degree and, and , and finishing at Duke and not just being a transactional football contract.

This is still a transformational school.

Um, and that gives us the ability to develop.

We're gonna be a developmental program.

We think we've got the best strength coach in the country, which I know every coach says that, but, but our, our, our, our proof is in the pudding.

And, um, and so I think we're unique, and I think that's why we're all excited about the project we're, we're working on here.

Does the new eligibility standard and, and the changes around that, uh, go to 5 years, does that impact you at all in terms of how you look at that?

Sure, it impacts everybody, um, because there's going to be an extra class of, of portal guys available .

Now, again, this depends on how all the billable hours take, you know.

You know, after they get done with it.

Um, but if it were to come to pass, one, it helps coaches and roster management.

You don't have to worry about a guy only playing 4 games or guys wanting to protect your eligibility.

You got, you get what you get.

Um, it's all hands on deck.

I think that's better for development because now you can really focus a guy in on a, maybe on a special teams role or a backup role and not worrying about quote-unquote, wasting a year.

Um, so I think it's gonna be better for the game, it's gonna be better for the players.

Um , but there is a difference now in roster management because you will have older guys available and, and because of the portal, you know, is a fifth-year guy better than a high school guy, right?

And so you got to decide as a program where that lever is and how much you want to go into portal recruiting as opposed to high school recruiting.

When, when it comes to success for this upcoming season, how, how would you kind of define it?

I define success the same way I would every year, which is that for this football team to meet its potential, right?

And that is a journey.

Like last year's team, did it meet its potential in September?

No, it didn't.

Did it in October?

Not really.

Um, it showed signs.

Um, but when our back was against the wall to finish with 4 straight wins and to, to win the state, and then to win the league and then to win the bowl game.

Um, that's what it's about.

And then I think that's really as a coach, with all the turnover now on rosters, you're just not gonna be a finished product on Labor Day weekend.

You're just not going to.

Now, you gotta win those games.

We don't have preseason games in college.

Um, but you gotta get your guys to maximize their potential.

If that happens in the team.

Maximize its potential.

And, and that really to me, now, how is that defined by what kind of trophies to hand you at the end of the year?

That depends on what your ceiling is, uh, but you want to get your guys to play as good as they can.

Well, we'll be excited to see that for the Blue Devils this coming season.

Manny Diaz, thank you so much for stopping by here at ACC Media Days.