Duke Football Head Coach Manny Diaz discusses QB battle, team culture

uh with that being said I mentioned Manny Diaz head football coach for uh Duke is in the building here at ACC kickoff and he is throwing on the headset to talk to us right now uh Manny can you hear me are you good all right you can go ahead and grab a seat if you're more comfortable stand up whatever's up up for you um how does it feel to be back at ACC kickoff as a head coach feels great is it how you remembered it yeah there's there's a few more mannequins in the hallway uh dressed up in uniforms um oh it's exciting it's a it's a league uh a lot of familiar faces for me a lot of people that I know uh in this league uh six years at Miami six years at NC State three years at FSU so getting on 15 years of being in this league so there there's definitely a sense of familiarity and and uh I'm proud and honored to be back here as a head football coach for Duke do you have maybe any of those those three teams circled on the schedule the ones that you used to you know I know November 2nd you you have Miami is that one circled for you I saw the league was kind to put all of my old schools um on the schedule um including a couple former bosses but you know it's it's funny we've had a saying forever and ever and ever is that on game day the opponent's always nameless and faceless um and I know that sounds like coach beak but it really is you're you're you're playing against yourself you just are you're playing against what you're capable of and what you're doing um and once you start making the opponent something more than what it is it's important that I talk that we talk to our guys as a staff as we're going through training camp that we're teaching you techniques and skills that no matter who we play if we do this we will be successful therefore if all of a sudden we get to a game week and we're saying we're playing this team they're not that good oh wait do I not need to we're playing this team they're great and all I've got a history with this team a little extra this week yeah so what you're saying if it's a little extra this week then what happens the following week is it a littleit less you know what I mean um every week it's so hard to win this league every the games are always so close so every week demands everything you have and so um that will be the battlecry no matter who we are and where we're playing Manny Diaz Duke football coach connecting with us at ACC kickoff if the games are that close often times comes down to uh a two-point or sorry a two-minute Drive led by uh you know the the the quarterback the man on the team you brought a couple of them here to to ACC kickoff with you in Grayson Loftis and Malik Murphy um how is that competition developing and when maybe do do you think you'll know who's going to be the guy given the opportunity to win those close games I think you're exactly right I think with a two-minute warning rule coming in this here too I think you'll see even more close games similar to the National Football League um look we when when when Riley Leonard left last year there was sort of a um a dark cloud over the program The Players you just see the you know the wind admin come out of the saes after all the success the last two years bringing Malik in was important of not just stemming the tide but turning around momentum Malik was so crucial forget the people on the outside inside our locker room to realize like wait a minute we don't have to take a step back backwards this year and it was very quick after after your your regime took over it was actually great he committed on the day where that Duke was winning their bowl game um the great onended consequence is that what you would want as a coach is that competition makes everybody better and Grayson Loft has played his tail off during spring ball and our locker room truly believes that we have two quarterbacks we can win with and that's not the old if you got two you got none no no we have two guys you can win with now the question going into training camp is who can we beat everybody with or also who makes too many mistakes that we could lose to anybody with them playing um and that'll be really the challenge there's a it's it'll happen fast I mean basically our last scrimmage is probably major scrimmage is about two weeks before the the first game and you'll really want to know by then and if they you don't know for sure you'll know what little final details will come before you can decided you hinted at something that I think is is an interesting part for your program which is uh last year and you brought up Ry Leonard it was a really fun year right for us covering it there were some the Clemson game college game day it was it was really fun year which I'm sure you want to build off of but then also taking over a program it's almost a fresh start you want things done your way how do you balance those two kind of opposite feelings that are going to lead into this season well the first key was retaining David Philly in the weight room that that that was the whole key that was the whole key for me coming that's that's a key for our players and and and to the essence of your question is you look every coach could talk to you here this week and they're all GNA talk about establishing our culture and culture culture culture culture well when you have David Philly in your weight room the culture's already established culture is a fancy word that just means like what are we willing to do for one another well in our strength program the guy won strength coach of the year it's not just about pushing weights it's about how they run how they grind the discipline they have the leadership skills that they're forced to uh use on each other that is the culture so I think our players took a lot of comfort from the fact that they already knew what to expect coming back I took a lot of comfort knowing that no matter where I was um this summer I knew David Philly was getting our guys ready to go into an ACC season I I've always said that the strength coach is the only person that's never surprised by a breakout right there's somebody has a big season and everyone else is like where did this come from the strength coach is like well most of it came in you know June right that's exactly right uh so so if he's tipping you off who who's who's due for a breakout who who's showing up in the the the off season that we're all going to be absolutely flabbergasted by that that you guys will know is coming trying to pick a names that maybe aren't as as is obvious um JZ more those things they're like popular breakout right the guys like that I mean I mean obviously we expect huge years out of jaquez and all of our wide receivers um I'll mention a guy that you know because David fely just went through yesterday with our staff went through every player one one one by one just kind of every little detail what they did in the summertime what where they PR um you know everything and um VJ Anthony at defensive end is a guy that mentioned is is training in a in a at a whole different level of anything he's ever done position where all that matters explo and and defensive end in this in this scheme you know we had we had a first rounder and a second rounder at Penn State last year you get a lot of chance to make plays at defensive ends in the scheme so I think I think VJ and West Williams are very excited um about what they can do uh at defensive ends luckily we got the depth the guys like Ryan Smith and Michael ree you know behind him to back him up so I think they'll I think they have a chance not a lot of fans probably know about Kendy Charles coming from Liberty at D tackle I think he'll be a really important player for us um on that side of the ball we had a linebacker named Alex Howard um who started at Youngstown State went to A&M for the spring and and came here same thing so there there are some guys that probably names that that fans are not as familiar with another name that fans may be familiar with that I just think is Poise to do something really insane this year is Nicki dalol and a tight end um this is a guy that uh thought he was done playing football came back after spring um Can absolutely fly and with what we do in this offense um I think we can really really get some matchup issues and really you know give him the type of year it just we'll see but I I've got a suspicion that guy's going to catch a ton of balls well we we'll put the uh the marker on it we'll pay attention uh Manny Diaz head coach Duke joining us here you bring up he can do in this offense uh Jonathan Brewer uh not the most experienced offensive coordinator out there but he's he's implementing his system now what do you expect like can you describe what you expect from his offense well so I I was saying you interview for your job every day right so I sit in the quarterback meetings as a head coach coach uh my last two years I sat in a quarterback meeting with Jonathan Brewer in red Lashley um so I know how he thinks how intelligent he is his ability to portray information to the players um and watching the success we had on offense in 2020 and 2021 at Miami including when your starting quarterback goes down week four or five and you got to bring in a red shirt freshman that ends up tearing up and being ACC freshman of the year so and Johnny was a big part of that so he was ready M uh I knew you know I I I knew what I want to be on offense and I knew that Johnny was the best guy to lead us there so it's an offense that's going to be quarterback friendly I think when Duke has been great you look at the years with cutcliffe you know and you know the different you know what a great quarterback coach and quarterback Whisperer he was absolutely uh so I think a dookie should have great quarterbacks I just I think our school should attract great quarterbacks and so to bring in a guy like Johnny who's got an offense that the ball's going to be in the air we can throw it um but it's easy on a quarterback you don't have to do you know very difficult things the reads are simple so you can play fast go fast and that's again that's how van dijke had the year he had his first year and I think we can replicate that coach we appreciate you for stopping by good luck this season and and we're going to pay attention to all those breakout names fantastic thank you all