Duke football coach Manny Diaz built one of the fiercest and most formidable defenses in college football back at Penn State over the last two years. The Nittany Lions allowed 13.5 points (the third-fewest in the country) and 247.6 yards (the second-fewest in the country) last season.
In Diaz’s eyes, a large part of that success came down to tackles for loss forcing opponents behind the chains. He went into more detail during his Wednesday press conference at the ACC Football Kickoff.
“If you can create a negative play on a drive, the points per drive goes way down,” Diaz said. “The game is all about either avoiding third downs or what the distance is on third down. Football’s not complicated.”
During a later appearance on ACC Network, one host asked Diaz to talk about his defensive talent. The new Blue Devils head coach couldn’t stop naming names.
“Our defensive end room is very deep,” Diaz said. “They could be the strength of our defense. We think Wesley Williams could be a star, VJ Anthony is a whole different guy than he was a year ago, great set of skills.”
Diaz also highlighted members of his back seven, notably 2023 leading tackler Tre Freeman and upperclassmen defensive backs Chandler Rivers and Jaylen Stinson, but it’s clear success for Diaz starts up front.
“If you can roll eight on that front line, and we’ve got some questions on who seven and eight are, but if you can roll eight and keep those guys fresh, all of the best defenses we’ve had have usually started from there,” he said.