Former Penn State defensive coordinator [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] returned to the ranks of head coach when he accepted a job offer from Duke at the end of the 2023 season. Diaz, who previously was the head coach at Miami before taking on the role of defensive coordinator for James Franklin two years ago, made his head coaching debut with his new program Friday night, and it started off with a win.
Duke paced itself to a 26-3 victory at home on Friday evening against Elon, an FCS opponent. The Blue Devils held Elon to just 140 total yards of offense and forced a turnover. Elon was just 3-of-15 on third down attempts as Duke easily took care of their overmatched visitors in Wallace Wade Stadium.
Diaz had a record of 21-15 as head coach during his three seasons as head coach at Miami, but the Hurricanes failed to meet expectations overall and went 0-2 in two bowl appearances with Diaz on the sideline (Miami fired Diaz prior to their 2021 bowl game).
During Diaz’s two seasons at Penn State, the Nittany Lions had one of the nation’s best scoring defenses by allowing just 13.5 points per game in 2023 (3rd in the nation) and 18.2 ppg in 2022 (9th best in the nation). Diaz also helped mold a few NFL draft picks in his brief stay with the program.
Diaz replaced Mike Elko as head coach at Duke. Elko took the head coaching job at Texas A&M after the Aggies removed Jimbo Fisher as head coach. Penn State hired former Indiana head coach Tom Allen to be the new defensive coordinator. Allen will get a chance to unleash his defensive mind on Saturday afternoon when Penn State visits West Virginia to open the season.
Diaz will return to a Big Ten field next week. Duke visits Northwestern on Friday night in Week 2 for a Friday night matchup in Evanston.
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