The Duke Blue Devils host their most bitter rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels, at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday in a game that always carries elevated personal meaning for the locker rooms.
However, while Duke football coach Manny Diaz hasn’t faced North Carolina head coach Mack Brown yet at this job, he already carries plenty of history with his counterpart.
Diaz served as Brown’s defensive coordinator back when the UNC coach led the Texas Longhorns in 2011-13. Texas won eight games in Diaz’s first season on the job and nine games in his second, allowing 22.2 points per game in 2011 and 29.2 in 2012.
However, Brown fired Diaz two games into the 2013 season after a 40-21 loss against BYU. The Cougars, led by quarterback Taysom Hill (yes, that Taysom Hill), ran for 550 yards and four touchdowns.
Diaz took another job as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech, and he eventually found his way into the ACC as Miami’s head coach in 2019. Brown took over as the North Carolina head coach that same season, and the two faced off three times before the Hurricanes let Diaz go in 2021. Brown won all three matchups.
Blue Devils fans also noticed this postgame handshake between the coaches after their final showdown in 2021 in which the now-Duke head coach’s body language looks less than enthused.
https://twitter.com/DukeMFFootball/status/1838022662754381883
In all fairness to the narrative juiciness of the above evidence, that was the third time Diaz had coached against Brown, and his Hurricanes had just lost after a last-minute interception in field goal range. I wouldn’t attribute all of the frustration to any tension in their relationship, especially given that Diaz likely knew his job was in jeopardy.
For his part, Diaz didn’t seem overly frosty toward Brown in his Monday press conference. He said he saw the Tar Heels coach at conference meetings earlier this summer and that the two were at a clinic together this year.
“We’ve known each other, obviously, for a long time,” Diaz said. “But you know, as we always talk about, on game days, I’m sure he’s trying to do the best he can for his guys and we’re trying to do the best we can for our guys. The game’s the game.”
With the Tar Heels reeling after a 70-50 loss to James Madison last week, the Blue Devils have a great chance for their first win over UNC since 2018 and Diaz’s first triumph over his former boss.