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Manny Diaz Press Conference Quotes: Florida State
10/14/2024 7:19:00 PM | Football
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke football head coach Manny Diaz, offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer and defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for the program's weekly press conference.
Duke (5-1, 1-1 ACC) returns home to welcome Florida State (1-5, 1-4 ACC) to Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Friday, Oct. 18. Kickoff is scheduled for 7p.m., ET and fans can watch live on ESPN2.
Tickets for Friday's matchup may be purchased online at goduke.com/footballtix or by calling the Duke Athletics Ticket Office at 919-681-BLUE (2583).
HEAD COACH MANNY DIAZ:
Opening Statement:
"If you closed your eyes on our practice field yesterday and today, you would have been able to hear the difference coming off the bye week. It's not that we practiced poorly before the bye, but there's definitely a renewed energy and enthusiasm amongst our football team. It came at an important time for us and our players were able to refresh themselves as much as possible midway through October. Of course, Florida State is in the same situation, so I'd imagine they've got the same boost in their practices that we have in ours. I got to watch a lot of really, really close games this past Saturday that were all decided by a handful of plays and were tight going down the stretch. I expect that same thing to happen here on Friday night."
On the team's self-scouting and what was evaluated:
"On Monday, we had our offensive staff watch all of our defensive plays and our defense staff watch all of our offensive plays and give feedback as if we were getting ready to play one another. You'll always see yourself through different eyes, right? But you have to be intimate with your reality, that's one of my favorite statements, and know what you do well and what you're not doing well. Why are you not doing it well? What can we do to improve those things? What can we do to accentuate the things that we are doing well and try to get more of that? It gave us a great opportunity to see everything. I thought the staff did a great job because sometimes you can get egos involved, if somebody starts speaking about my area of expertise and I don't like that, but our staff was phenomenal. Everybody just wants what's best for Duke football and that information absolutely helped us in terms of our preparation for this week and beyond."
On facing Florida State's quarterback and their group of pass rushers:
"You have to minimize putting yourself in obvious passing situations. This will certainly be the most talented group of pass rushers that we've gone against all year. Our line has done a good job in the first half of the season of keeping our quarterback upright, but they haven't seen anything like what Florida State has, and they do a great job because they play a lot of press man coverage with a quarterback. So with the quarterback sitting there, passing the ball, waiting for someone to come open, the odds of you winning for those one-on-ones against their four guys are going to be diminished. You have got to figure out ways to help keep that guy upright. I think that'll be the story, what offensive football team can best support their quarterback with run screens, they all do a phenomenal job in the screen game."
On the mental and physical reset of the team this week:
"I think that two of them go hand in hand. It is a physical break, first and foremost, which then helps you mentally. Last week was a tough week with their midterms, so academically, it's been difficult but we're now past that. We're on fall break, so we're able to move our schedule back. We asked you all to be here a little bit later today so our guys had a chance to sleep in, not wake up when their alarm clock still has the number five as the first number. Those little things help and that'll put a little pep in your step, not having to wake up before the rooster."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN PATKE:
On the energy reset of the team coming into this week's game against Florida State:
"It's been good. Over the last two days, they've had great energy. They had the weekend off to get their legs underneath them and just step away from the game for a little bit. Every week, you go in and scout and report, you tell them how we've got to stop the opponent and every week it's something. Then, you add in their academics on top of that. They never get a break. So, to step away from the game for three days, I thought we were really energized the last two practices. They know we have a great challenge ahead, something that has never been done here before and they know how talented Florida State is."
On what has stuck out the past six weeks of the season about the Blue Devils' defense:
"Resiliency. Every week I come in here and I talk about the defense and how resilient they are, no matter what has been going on in the game. Last weekend was the first time that we gave up a touchdown in the fourth quarter, that just shows how resilient and tough they are. The things we just detail, what we've been preaching all week is our details, details, details, but resilient group, tough, group play extremely hard. That hasn't been in question one game this year, of how hard we play and how we run to the ball, and we shouldn't have to. That should be the anticipation and major college football. But I'm proud of our guys. I think yards per play were top five in the country. Our past defenses are way up there. So we got to do a better job of stopping the run and limiting some of these explosives on the ground, but we face some quarterbacks that can run the ball, and that's always a challenge. It's 11 on 11 football."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN BREWER:
On Jordan Moore's performance so far this season:
"I think at times it's probably people identifying him as a threat in that world. We did target him in a pass interference call, so you don't see that show up in the stat line a lot in that world, but he's such a good player that he's always a focal point for us on offense, and then everything kind of feeds off of that."
On fitting the offense of the team:
"We've got to get we've got to get in rhythm and things that we do well early to get us going, whether it's easy completions, easy runs, play actions in that world, things to get, maybe our things that are a little bit easier for us and then once we settle in, we're rolling. Like you said, once we get a first down, it would have been hard to stop and move the ball right down the field like you saw in the third quarter of the Georgia Tech game and so it's just getting our guys settled in that world."
#GoDuke
Duke (5-1, 1-1 ACC) returns home to welcome Florida State (1-5, 1-4 ACC) to Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Friday, Oct. 18. Kickoff is scheduled for 7p.m., ET and fans can watch live on ESPN2.
Tickets for Friday's matchup may be purchased online at goduke.com/footballtix or by calling the Duke Athletics Ticket Office at 919-681-BLUE (2583).
HEAD COACH MANNY DIAZ:
Opening Statement:
"If you closed your eyes on our practice field yesterday and today, you would have been able to hear the difference coming off the bye week. It's not that we practiced poorly before the bye, but there's definitely a renewed energy and enthusiasm amongst our football team. It came at an important time for us and our players were able to refresh themselves as much as possible midway through October. Of course, Florida State is in the same situation, so I'd imagine they've got the same boost in their practices that we have in ours. I got to watch a lot of really, really close games this past Saturday that were all decided by a handful of plays and were tight going down the stretch. I expect that same thing to happen here on Friday night."
On the team's self-scouting and what was evaluated:
"On Monday, we had our offensive staff watch all of our defensive plays and our defense staff watch all of our offensive plays and give feedback as if we were getting ready to play one another. You'll always see yourself through different eyes, right? But you have to be intimate with your reality, that's one of my favorite statements, and know what you do well and what you're not doing well. Why are you not doing it well? What can we do to improve those things? What can we do to accentuate the things that we are doing well and try to get more of that? It gave us a great opportunity to see everything. I thought the staff did a great job because sometimes you can get egos involved, if somebody starts speaking about my area of expertise and I don't like that, but our staff was phenomenal. Everybody just wants what's best for Duke football and that information absolutely helped us in terms of our preparation for this week and beyond."
On facing Florida State's quarterback and their group of pass rushers:
"You have to minimize putting yourself in obvious passing situations. This will certainly be the most talented group of pass rushers that we've gone against all year. Our line has done a good job in the first half of the season of keeping our quarterback upright, but they haven't seen anything like what Florida State has, and they do a great job because they play a lot of press man coverage with a quarterback. So with the quarterback sitting there, passing the ball, waiting for someone to come open, the odds of you winning for those one-on-ones against their four guys are going to be diminished. You have got to figure out ways to help keep that guy upright. I think that'll be the story, what offensive football team can best support their quarterback with run screens, they all do a phenomenal job in the screen game."
On the mental and physical reset of the team this week:
"I think that two of them go hand in hand. It is a physical break, first and foremost, which then helps you mentally. Last week was a tough week with their midterms, so academically, it's been difficult but we're now past that. We're on fall break, so we're able to move our schedule back. We asked you all to be here a little bit later today so our guys had a chance to sleep in, not wake up when their alarm clock still has the number five as the first number. Those little things help and that'll put a little pep in your step, not having to wake up before the rooster."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN PATKE:
On the energy reset of the team coming into this week's game against Florida State:
"It's been good. Over the last two days, they've had great energy. They had the weekend off to get their legs underneath them and just step away from the game for a little bit. Every week, you go in and scout and report, you tell them how we've got to stop the opponent and every week it's something. Then, you add in their academics on top of that. They never get a break. So, to step away from the game for three days, I thought we were really energized the last two practices. They know we have a great challenge ahead, something that has never been done here before and they know how talented Florida State is."
On what has stuck out the past six weeks of the season about the Blue Devils' defense:
"Resiliency. Every week I come in here and I talk about the defense and how resilient they are, no matter what has been going on in the game. Last weekend was the first time that we gave up a touchdown in the fourth quarter, that just shows how resilient and tough they are. The things we just detail, what we've been preaching all week is our details, details, details, but resilient group, tough, group play extremely hard. That hasn't been in question one game this year, of how hard we play and how we run to the ball, and we shouldn't have to. That should be the anticipation and major college football. But I'm proud of our guys. I think yards per play were top five in the country. Our past defenses are way up there. So we got to do a better job of stopping the run and limiting some of these explosives on the ground, but we face some quarterbacks that can run the ball, and that's always a challenge. It's 11 on 11 football."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN BREWER:
On Jordan Moore's performance so far this season:
"I think at times it's probably people identifying him as a threat in that world. We did target him in a pass interference call, so you don't see that show up in the stat line a lot in that world, but he's such a good player that he's always a focal point for us on offense, and then everything kind of feeds off of that."
On fitting the offense of the team:
"We've got to get we've got to get in rhythm and things that we do well early to get us going, whether it's easy completions, easy runs, play actions in that world, things to get, maybe our things that are a little bit easier for us and then once we settle in, we're rolling. Like you said, once we get a first down, it would have been hard to stop and move the ball right down the field like you saw in the third quarter of the Georgia Tech game and so it's just getting our guys settled in that world."
#GoDuke
Players Mentioned
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