‘Timing matters’: Why Duke football’s hire of Manny Diaz is a study in contradictions
Just because Duke’s selection of Manny Diaz to replace Mike Elko doesn’t exactly set off fireworks in the football world doesn’t mean it’s the wrong choice.
Just because Miami was trying to hire a new coach before telling Diaz he was getting fired doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing a good job there.
Just because he gets a second chance to be a head coach when most great coordinators don’t – and Diaz is, by any definition, a great defensive coordinator – doesn’t mean he hasn’t earned it.
Diaz’s hiring at Duke is a study in contradictions, which probably says more about the state of Duke football in 2023 than it does Diaz. For the first time in decades, Duke is hiring from a position of strength, asking someone to maintain rather than resurrect, and maybe even stick around for a while.
“We have to flip the narrative,” Duke athletic director Nina King said as Diaz was formally introduced Saturday. “This is not a stepping-stone job.”
That changes the equation.
It also raises the bar.
There was little to lose when the Blue Devils rolled the dice that Mike Elko, also a great defensive coordinator, would be able to make the leap to running his own program. It felt at that point like what David Cutcliffe had built had been lost. Elko proved very quickly it was not.
But this is different. This is a chance to define what King called the “next iteration of success” for Duke football.
Diaz was already given that chance once, and it didn’t work out at Miami, so much so that the Hurricanes’ boosters went and threw money at Mario Cristobal to leave Oregon while Diaz was still coaching the team. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Diaz … or Miami.
On the one hand, if you can’t succeed at Miami, with all the advantages and resources in the world, how are you supposed to succeed at Duke, which for all of its recent success is still one of the toughest jobs in college football?
On the other, Diaz went 16-9 against the ACC during his time there. At Miami, that’s a fireable offense. At Duke, keep that up for a couple years and they’ll build you a statue next to ol’ Wally Wade himself.
It’s not like Miami football has distinguished itself under any other coach this generation, save that one year Mark Richt made it work.
If there’s a benefit for Duke here, it’s that Diaz has lived in that neighborhood and seen everything that comes with it. Not only will he know what Duke has to do to catch up, he’ll appreciate how many of the negatives Miami has that Duke lacks.
And his pre-existing relationship with Duke strength coach David Feeley, either the second-most important person or most important person in Duke’s two-year football turnaround, doesn’t hurt, either.
“You know, if you get another chance to do it again, you’re going to be better,” Diaz said. “The attitude is still the same, but make sure you do it in the right place. Make sure you do it somewhere where the alignment, where the support and expectations, all that (rolled into) one. That’s why I feel really good about the opportunity here. … Timing matters and I feel like this is the right place at the right time.”
Perhaps that makes him less likely to leave after two years than Elko, who for all his success, saw this as a step on the ladder? Because the other thing Duke needs now from its new coach is continuity. Elko pulled off an improbable reboot of Cutcliffe’s improbable rebuild, but that’s not something that can happen on a regular basis.
By hiring someone who’s seen the other side of things, Duke has an opportunity to show Diaz just how well he fits in Durham.
So, for that matter, does Diaz.
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This story was originally published December 9, 2023 at 12:58 PM.
