You can only control what you can control. When it comes to Manny Diaz's standing in the Power Four coaching hierarchy, he finds himself situated at No. 30 among some 68 coaches. Diaz enters year three in Durham with an impressive 18-9 (11-5) record. Duke won the ACC a year ago, and took care of business in the Sun Bowl after ruining Virginia's dreams for a College Football Playoff appearance.
In his rankings article, CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli made a salient point why he only has Diaz at No. 30.
"You can look at Manny Diaz's ranking and say, 'Now wait just a dang second here, this man just won the freaking ACC at Duke, and he can't even crack your top 25!?' You'd have a point. The counter, though, is that he did win the ACC, but with a 7-5 regular-season record and losses to Tulane and UConn."
We could counter this blurb by saying that Tulane made the playoff, and UConn went 9-4 last season.
Either way, it probably serves Duke fans everywhere to keep the focus off Diaz for a bit and keep the main thing the main thing. Duke has had a great last few years on the gridiron, but let's be real with ourselves here. The football team does not carry anywhere close to the gravitas of the basketball program. In time, its best head coaches always get poached rather quickly by a superior operation...
Mike Elko left for Texas A&M after the 2024 season, and Steve Spurrier returned to Florida in 1990.
Duke will need to keep Manny Diaz on the down low to prevent poaching
Diaz being in the same neighborhood as Clark Lea at Vanderbilt, Brent Venables at Oklahoma, Brent Key at Georgia Tech, and Sonny Dykes at TCU is good company to have. Those are all well-respected head coaches across the Power Four, all at jobs where you can win double-digit games if everything goes according to plan. However, there are teams out there where their head coach is not up to par...
As painful as it may be, there is a team in-conference Duke fans should be mighty worried about losing Diaz to. That would be his alma mater of Florida State... While the Seminoles have had a disastrous last two seasons under Mike Norvell, they did win the ACC two years ago, and should have made the playoff in 2023-24, if we are being honest... They have money issues, but it is Diaz's home.
People tend to forget he was a student assistant under Bobby Bowden when Florida State was in its early days of competing in the ACC. Diaz may hail from Miami, but he is the guy Florida State will likely try to hire, especially if Norvell does not work out. Let's not overlook how Miami pulled the rug out from under him a few years ago when he was calling the shots for them. Diaz has never looked back.
Read more: Manny Diaz has Duke positioned to land key offensive target ahead of official visit
So if this upcoming year in ACC play is anything close to last season, Duke could be in the mix for a conference championship and a playoff berth As for Florida State, it will be trying desperately to achieve bowl eligibility. Should FSU fail, that should be the end of the line for Norvell in Tallahassee. If Diaz wins nine games for the third year in a row at Duke, it will become a bidding war for his services.
Ultimately, Diaz already has Duke operating at as close to its optimal level as a football program only two years in. Yes, he benefited greatly from Elko being a dynamo in Durham before him, but these are two coaches people have respect for in the industry. Norvell used to have some, but he is running out of time. So instead of playing Stanford on the CW, Diaz may leave if the dollars and cents make sense.
It may be paradoxical for Duke to remain low-key good under Diaz, but that is how he will stick around.
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