Manny Diaz Ready For Big Ten Opponent

Duke Football dominated in its first game of the season, earning a 26-3 victory at home over Elon. Now, the Blue Devils head to Northwestern to take on the 1-0 Wildcats in its first power conference matchup of the season.

Despite there being some issues in need of addressing, Diaz sounded excited and ready to face Northwestern in his press conference today.

In a game that saw several electric passes downfield from Maalik Murphy connecting with different receivers, it's a part of the offensive scheme that Diaz had been focusing on in the preseason and was excited to see come into fruition in his debut.

"Offensively, you could see our desire to push the ball down the field and we showed our guys, just a matter of inches separating us from an extraordinary amount of explosive plays. But that is our identity, that's who we want to be."

With a mobile quarterback like Murphy who can get out of the pocket mixed with a plethora of receivers with gifted speed and breakway ability, such as Jordan Moore and Eli Pancol, Duke fans should be expecting many more deep shots down the gridiron.

Northwestern hasn't been a football powerhouse in recent years, even getting dominated by the Blue Devils last season, 38-14. But, with a new head coach and quarterback, it will be a whole new ball game. Since the loss at Duke, the Wildcats are 7-3 and scored 45 in its regular season finale against Illinois last season.

Diaz touched on the big opportunity for his program to gain some momentum.

"It'll be a great challenge for us in all three phases. Having seen our players understanding who they are and having gone against them the last couple of years. It's going to be what you expect playing on the road in the Big 10."

One of the aspects Diaz highlighted time and time again during his press conference was the chemistry his guys had on the field. Even with some missed throws or missed opportunities, everyone on the field was doing the right thing.

"I was very impressed at how few mistakes we made, and that if we didn't do things perfectly, if we missed a catch by the fingertips, well, that's a technique that we can improve forever and ever and ever. But if the guy was running the wrong route, now we've got a fundamental problem because he wasn't in the right spot."

See quotes from his press conference here.