Duke head football coach Manny Diaz met with the media to discuss his team's upcoming home game against NC State.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Yeah, Manny, now that you've had a couple practices, what have you liked about the team's response and what you've seen from the guys so far?
We've been back to work. Our guys know that we have a good football team. Got great work today on situational football, third down red zone. They're very intentional about it. I think the coaches are doing a really good job of not just game planning but demanding a high level of execution. So, we're just looking to take another step this week.
Yeah, it was going to be kind of one of my follow-ups. You mentioned in the preseason this was a really intentional group and went about their work in an intentional way. That hasn’t waned in the face of two losses?
No, because, who you are as a person shouldn't change just based... We talk about this all the time about when you have expectations and then you get negative short-term feedback. And that's all this is. This is negative short-term feedback. And does that make you change your standard? If it does, then you're not who you say you are. And that's not who these people are. And, this is part of the lesson of becoming a big-time program is going through some of the things we've had to go through the last couple weeks.
Yeah, Manny, with NC State, you got started as an assistant coach at State 20-some years ago with Chuck Amato. Obviously, he's had some health issues recently. Can you just speak a little bit to what he meant to getting you started in the coaching profession?
Yeah, I'm not here without Chuck Amato. Going back to Florida State, I mean, I basically just knocked on his door because I knew he ran the day-to-day operations in that program for Coach Bowden and just offered him my services. And, he gave me a pathway in the building, which back then, staff sizes were so small. And then once I was in, I was able to secure a position at FSU, and then he, you know, he felt strong enough to bring me here, learned so much from him, not just in terms of the program building. Certainly just defensively, just coaching 101, was like a mentor to me and got to see firsthand some really valuable lessons on program building during his time in Raleigh. So, like I said, when people can overstate the importance of a person in someone's life, I cannot overstate that I am only here because of Chuck Amato.
Yeah, sir, I have a two-parter. First, playing off Chip's question, you have this NC State background. How happy are you to see this become an annual game again with two local rivals?
Yeah, this should be an annual game. I think it was when I was at State is when the league went to divisions when we added, you know, Virginia Tech and those people, and so we stopped playing Duke. I think it's great for the Triangle. I think it's great for the area. It's great for the state of North Carolina. And then it gives all of us, I'm sure in all four programs, we have the same thought that, you know, whatever goals and aspirations you are, it has to start with winning at home. And so, but, again, it's going to be a formative challenge because they're off to a great start. They've already won two in-state games. So I'm sure that's something that they take a lot of pride in as well.
And then my second question, sir, in the scout and the buildup for this one, is there anything in the tape that maybe stands out where State has drastically improved or getting better at?
Well, I mean, there's a lot of things. I mean, first and foremost is players improve over time, right? I mean, they had to thrust a very young quarterback into a very difficult situation a year ago. And you can see now just the, a full off-season program, stronger physical development. You can see mental development. Certainly they're running the football much better, they're committed to running the football better, but they are really, really talented. I mean, a lot of their talented players on offense are young guys, and so young guys are going to get better. It's just sort of what happens. And they're doing the things to win close games, which is what we talk about, what this league is. It's just they were a really good team a year ago that lost some really close games. And sometimes in our league, that's just what defines what people look at as a highly successful season. And they say, you're not a good team if you don't win them, and sometimes that's not true. That's just, that's the difference between winning eight, winning nine, winning six, whatever it is. So we expect to be in a ton of those going forward. I'd imagine they're the same way. So I think you'll see two teams that are very comfortable with this being a one-score game in the fourth quarter.
Yeah, Coach, I appreciate the time. A little bit of a different question. You're in the middle of it right now. Obviously, college football is a 12-month sport. I wonder for you and, more importantly, maybe for your other coaches, how do you make sure that this job doesn't eat you up and that guys can relieve that stress in a way that keeps them both healthy physically and mentally?
Yeah, that's a fascinating question, Brian. So we are a big believer in terms of not grinding down our staff and coaches. In fact, right now, we just walked off the practice field, and, from 10:30 until 12:30 every day is our personal time. I don't want anybody in the office. I want people, I want guys lifting weights. Sometimes the staff will play basketball. You can go for a walk. You can do something, but you're not going to do work. And, we've seen it this year. There's been some major health scares with some prominent coaches who we have a relationship with, some guys on our staff who have a relationship with that person. And I also believe this. I believe that the better physical condition we're in, the better mental condition, the better teachers will be, the faster thinkers will be, the better to analyze will be more available for our players. And so I just think there's a lot of things in terms of work-life balance that it's never going to be a 50-50 balance, but you can try to push it as much as the restraints of the job will allow you to allow these men to be the best versions of themselves and, by the way, still be good husbands and dads at home when they can see their children before they go to sleep. That's just something we believe very strongly in.
Is there a specific thing that you like to do to get away that calms you down or gets you away from it, I guess?
Yeah, I mean, depending on the day of the week and how the schedule goes, it's either, I mean, to me, it's either running or lifting. So as soon as I hang out with you, I'll be in the weight room now, and then as the week goes on, if we have a little more time, then I can go for a run. So, and I think that's as much, again, that's as much mental therapy as it is physical therapy.
Coach, defensively, as you prepare for NC State, in the last two games, their defense in the second half have only allowed seven points in both the last two ballgames. What has stood out, what do you think kind of attributes to that defense in the second half of NC State as you prepare on Saturday?
Well, I think they're just doing a good job of seeing what people are doing against them, right? We've kind of dealt with the same thing. You get into the season, and in games one through three, you're kind of sure what you're going to get, but you're not exactly sure what you're going to get, and I do think there's, offenses can have a little bit of an advantage in that time because you practice for something, during the week, and then you get in the game, and you're not necessarily seeing what you practice against, and now in the era of iPads and being able to see it, you know, usually what offenses come in with, you know, the more times the kids see it, the better they get, more comfortable in terms of defending it, so I think they've just done a good job with that, and, and being able to shut people down in the second half.
And to follow that up, Coach, do you prepare any differently for a player? I believe Sabastian Harsh is suspended for the first half of your game Saturday. Do you pretty much prepare your team as if he's going to be there from the beginning, or is that any kind of different from a coaching standpoint?
No, because once you start talking about that, then, again, a player will view that as that their best is not okay. So we have a lot of respect for both of their defensive ends, but it doesn't really matter who you play against. If you don't take the right proper pass set, if your hands are not in the right place, if you don't strike, if you're out of balance, it doesn't really matter who's rushing against you. You're going to be in a negative situation. So, we've played really good defensive ends so far this year. I think this group will be no different, but it's still just the mindset always has to be the game requires your best. It doesn't really matter who you play, and, the better player you play against, the more they punish your mistakes. So you don't really control the player you play against. You get a chance to control the mistakes that you make and try to limit the mistakes. No one's going to play perfect, but you try to limit them to not allow players like the ones that they have to impact the game.
Manny, looking at the defense, maybe some of the things that you did last season that allowed you to be successful aren't quite happening this year. And I know in the preseason, some of your guys talked about just being excited in year two of the system to take another step and hasn't quite happened yet. Are there a couple of things that you can pinpoint that can help get you back to being better on third down? I know we talked about the takeaways last week, but in terms of what you can fix to get back to being a little more consistent there?
Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Our third down defense is what's really betraying us. We're getting people into long yardage situations, and then we're allowing conversions, which keeps them on the field. We've given up a lot of touchdowns on drives this year where we had somebody in third down long. So not only does it allow points, but it keeps our offense off the field and it's allowed people to keep us, keep the ball out of our quarterback's hands.
Now, what goes into that, there's a lot of different things that go into that. Again, the style of offense that we've played against, how people have schemed up against us. We certainly missed some of the guys we had in our secondary a year ago, but it's time for some guys to step up.
I think everybody will be, like I mentioned with NC State, in their second half defense, I think everybody will be more dialed in in terms of what people are going to try to do to attack you as the year goes on.
NC State will be more dialed in to who we are, and we’ll be more dialed in to who they are. But I think that's where it all begins. Our run numbers are actually better than they were a year ago. It's our pass defense that's the biggest change. And I actually am excited to play against a passing offense as talented as this this week because I think it does give our guys a great ability to step up and be counted because, like as I mentioned to the previous question, if you make a mistake, this is the quarterback and the skill group around him that can punish you.
