Manny Diaz previews 2024 Duke Football Fall Camp

just a terrific first day um great to get back out on the grass great to look like a football team I mean even just during stretch compared to our last day in Spring we have almost twice as many players uh on our roster right now than we did on on uh our last day in April so um you can tell that they're in great shape David Philly did a great job with them in the summer and then I thought our staff did a great job today at practice because of our numbers now we can practice in two spots at once getting a lot of reps to our guys uh there'll be a lot of great film to watch and we get to go again tomorrow so with that uh open up for questions um the off offensive line situation has changed dramatically since the spring um can you just tell us what you think about that group so far I know today wasn't in full pads well yeah you might heard me say it last week the biggest thing is we've added a ton of experience right um 10,000 snaps uh of college experience coming to the room so you have guys that this is not their first training camp they know what to expect they know how to prepare um this is still day one for a lot of them in art terminology and any time today you know we're not even in shoulder pads you're not going to really get a sense of the you know the physical aspect of it um but we look like a football team you know what I mean and uh and it's it's just brought a maturity level to that room that in you know in years past you would have had to get younger to get better and now we can uh we can do it in a way where we've got guys that have played is going two fields at the same time something you wanted to do in the spring and couldn't or is that something to do it's really hard to do in Spring because if you think about it you you've lost your graduating class and you don't have your full incoming class class yet um if you could you would but it's it's very rare but but certainly right now especially early on as our numbers will allow which it just it just makes your practice more efficient to get the same am of reps we have to stay out here you know for 20 30 minutes longer so U everybody benefits think you'll be a to do that for a week two weeks uh if if we always look at it like day by day you know we'll do it again tomorrow uh if we can get it Wednesday uh day three our first day with shoulder pads on and then we'll assess on the off day you know all it takes someone to you know break a fingernail and you know and if you're down a certain because if you can't do it at one position group certainly you can't do it at any of the position groups so uh you got to be smart in how you handle it coach you you and your staff did a great job in retaining the recruiting class that you had have you seen significant gains from those guys since you've been here well it's funny like half of them um you know you you you see the gains because they were here for spring practice and they went through a whole summer with Coach FY the other half of that class just came in uh um you know mid June so this was really their first introduction to to college football a lot of those guys were on the offensive line so they're just trying to you know figure their way out right there um couple of the guys on the defensive line couple linebackers whatnot a couple safeties so we're happy with the young guys we brought in the ones the ones that came in in the spring have done a great job accam lating to our program um you know Chase Tyler made a great catch in 10 of ones today on his first rep which you know it's always exciting to see a guy like that but all those guys know what's coming they're you know they're still young guys they freshman the wall the wall will be arriving shortly if I me get back on that question the last time I saw you you and your son were called over to the Cameron crazy was still behind me uh since that time you've seen a lot more of Duke University what have you seen from duke this helped you on the recruiting Trail and in the transfer portal well it's um one the people you know this place just has a gravitational pull that just attracts extraordinary people and you can't help but notice that um and every that you meet here is so collaborative in what's best for Duke to be excellent uh in all aspects so I just I can just tell by the people who have been through my office as recruits and their families um and um the people who can go to Duke want to go to Duke and so it's been a great thing to sell we we're we're we believe we have a chance to learn land the top recruiting class in school history this year um and then we hope to better that the following year and and every year and that's how it is I mean it's not complicated if you stack usually if you stack three great recruiting classes on top of one another you've got yourself a great program and that's that's our goal for not you know obviously we've we've been able to add some guys in the short term through the portal but our long-term success is going to come through great High School recruiting we're haveit we've all seen him play for T and I know you haven't but can you talk to us about or tell us about what impact he's had on this team what does it mean to you guys to have him back well one he he won you know coach ph's gave him an award as one of the top trainers in the in the in the weight room this this summer so you're adding not just a a a person who we think is a unique talent on the field that we believe in our offensive scheme can provide a lot of mismatches and a guy that can catch a high volume of balls but you're also adding another older experienced worker and someone who loves Duke right if if he had existed in the transfer Portal he' had to come here and have to figure out you know who everybody was here and what makes Duke unique this guy already you know literally bleeds blue um and was just walking around on our campus I think the you know maybe the the passion for the game had had kind of you know dimmed a little bit um and I think seeing the way that we practice spring hearing about the offense just you know through the friends on the team uh you know I it it sounded like it peaked at his interest to come back and we were you know we watched this film and again in some limited uh targets um we couldn't believe our our our our luck to see this guy was just walking around on our campus and wanted to be a part of our team so it wasn't a tough decision to let it come back no a guy his size and and strength that runs almost 22 miles an hour is those guys are hard to find when you have so much experience coming in post spring what kind of challenge does that presents combining those two groups of of players well that's why getting them here with a summer with Coach Philly program is so crucial because we're not going to change for them you know you know the word that coaches use all the time overuse all the time is culture but but here it's a real thing and it exists in our weight room so even before we had a practice today all those guys it didn't matter what school they came from they got to go through the the baptism through the Church of fely to understand what it means to play for Duke and then now they do that actually the practice is much easier to get acclimated to based off compared to what goes on in the summertime here what's that church feeling well it's got a lot of uh a lot of sacr sacraments to it you know I mean there's a sacrament of the track there's the sacrament of the squat rack um the power clean um all kinds of you know boxes agilities there's there's all kinds of things it's it's biblical there's seven it's Fus I think is the Original Latin term so um but yeah they they they get they get through there and and uh they are born again literally anything else for Coach coach is I was say last week at Pig game preview and Carrie you shared the story about your whistle and how you've had it for years now I'm just curious what it was like this morning waking up starting another year of college football another year as a head coach and kind of putting on that whistle that you've had for x amount of years and going back at it it's super exciting I mean this is what we love to do you know and uh there's a lot of things in our job description that are fun but they're not coaching football but in in essence we got into this to to coach football to you know have an individual get somewhere they can't go on their own to have a group you know be able to achieve things that they can't do on their own and and uh and today's and and then I always say this profession at your heart you're problem solvers right and so you want to have practice you want to have the problems because now you have a chance to get get it solved so we'll get a chance to watch watches film see all the things we don't like and then get to work with our with our you know our toolkit to get it solved you think every day we'll start with the ring the bell or was that special for today in the first no you know you want you want it to be kind of um random where they have to respond to it and they don't know but but yeah we' have had a hard time waiting much much further than that we almost did it in the building and and did one-on ones in the in the locker room so were you surprised no um you know that's a difficult drill for the offense they're really only allowed to run two two routes um but but again what we're looking for is it doesn't really matter what the score is when Jordan Moore and Chandler Rivers lock up to the last rep the score doesn't matter right because everybody's going through their ring the bell rep so there are two things going on at once it's it's how do you you know rate as a side of the ball um but also like can you the scoreboard is a liar right it just tells something that happened in the past it does not tell us what's going on right now so get the players to be present-minded and to understand that this is where we have to have our mindset and our Focus um and we can overcome a lot of sins of the past by just locking in on what's going on right now