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Manny Diaz Press Conference Quotes: Wake Forest
11/25/2024 5:57:00 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 (8-3, 4-3 ACC) travels to Wake Forest (4-7, 2-5 ACC) on Saturday, Nov. 30 for the Blue Devils' final game of the season. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m., ET and fans can watch live on ACC Network.
HEAD COACH MANNY DIAZ:
Opening Statement:
"Good to see everybody. I want to start with this – the last time were together after the game, I wasn't aware of inappropriate gesture made by Maalik Murphy, our quarterback. I want to put a little context on that. That stems back to a practice in the middle of last week, when we were throwing post after post after post. We weren't completing it. It was again and again and again. At the end of that, there was a remark made in jest by Coach Brewer that if you throw a post for a touchdown in the game, you can flick me off. It was banter. It was a joke. Then, the emotions of throwing an 86-yard touchdown on the first play of the game [happened]. We talk about emotional toughness being a hallmark of our program and not letting our feelings dictate our actions. The feelings of joy and euphoria of that moment over road Maalik's rational mind. It's something that is unacceptable in our program. It doesn't represent who we are as Duke football. It certainly doesn't represent who we are as Duke University. That will be handled and disciplined internally. That allows us to move our focus back to what it should be on, which is the football on the field.
"Briefly recapping the win against Virginia Tech, of the 11 games we have played so far this year, it was, in my mind, our worst performance to date. We did so many things that in a normal game or normal circumstance would get you beat. We talk all the time about success versus excellence. We were successful, but we were not excellent. We were way below our standard. We did a lot of things, like four turnovers. We gave up a long touchdown pass, and a long touchdown run. We bungled a four-minute situation on offense. Penalties. A lot of things that are out of character for us. As a head coach, the 10 assistant coaches, everybody on staff and players, we had to take a hard look at why. Why did we perform that way?
"In a weird way, you're proud of the resilience and the fact that we were able to win the game, but that's not the way we want to play football. Virginia Tech gets credit. They certainly forced us to make mistakes. But we did things we had not done in the 10 previous games. Even in the games we'd been beaten, I thought we'd played better than we did Saturday night.
"This week, we have to get ourselves back to playing to what we believe our standard is and chasing excellence. We have to go on the road to play Wake Forest. This will be our third-straight Senior Day. This is a very old, experienced team. This is a team that went on the road at Miami this past weekend. It was very similar to our game at Miami. Wake was really bossing the game. But similar to our game, ran out of bullets and wore down. The final score probably didn't represent how close the game really, truly was. I have a lot of respect for Dave Clawson, his program and his staff. In all three phases, we have to get back to playing at a high level to have a chance to come out with a victory on Saturday."
On Saturday's mistakes…
"There were different things on different sides of the ball. I think what was most frustrating to us is one of things we really believe in is mastery through simplicity. We are going to do what we do. We can get really good at it. I'll give you an example – the back-shoulder throw to Eli [Pancol] for the second touchdown of the game. That's one of the plays of the year. The execution on that – the throw, the catch, the protection, the whole deal – is an 11 out of 10. That's really what we want to do. That's a play that we run again and again and again and again. We can do it very high level.
"What let us down was things we've done again and again and again. We just made errors that we just don't normally do. The turnovers are just one part of it. If it was something new or something different, you say OK maybe this is something we shouldn't have tried. But we believe our pathway to excellence is just being able to really master these certain skills.
"It doesn't always materialize big plays, either. There may have been a kickoff we tackled at the 26-yard line, and we felt like it should have been tackled at the 19-yard line. It was just not being clean or how we're supposed to execute. It was obvious. Players can see it. It's not about feelings. It's not about how we feel happy we won. The film shows what it shows. It's up to us to get it corrected."
On the opportunity to defeat Wake Forest, North Carolina and NC State in the same season…
"It has been discussed. The state championship is a goal of ours. Without divisions in the league and the way the schedule works, we'll play those teams every year. We cannot pretend to go make a run at the ACC without making run at our state. That's a big deal to us. We are the only team that has a chance to win the state this year. Our guys are aware of that.
"But I want to dial back to what we talked about as a team yesterday. We don't really talk about goals. We talk about standards. Our goal wasn't to win nine in the regular season. We didn't set out as a goal to win 10. It was about having a standard. Usually, when you play to the standard, it's funny how suddenly goals will become in reach.
"When UNC came here, the whole thing was about – can we find a way to beat these guys for the first time in a long time? How do we do that? You do that by playing to a standard, which we did in the second half and won the game. You have to refocus on that. We can only win one game this weekend. We can't win three. We can't win nine. There's only one offering. We have to double down on the things that win games because we didn't do a great job of that last Saturday.
"These rivalries matter because these are the people who you see at parties, in neighborhoods and functions. There are different flags in the front yards. It's always important to win at home.
"From a recruiting standpoint, these are the guys you are going to see on the trail. We have to do a great job recruiting within our footprint, which North Carolina is a big part of. These games matter. Winning in our state is something our guys fully grasp the importance of."
On what he's thankful for this Thanksgiving week…
"First and foremost, the people I'm surrounded by. My family, of course, but I'm thankful for this program, the leadership from President Price through Nina King and all the way down and then our players. The guys in the locker room are such a joy to come work with every day. They want to be coached hard. They want to be told the truth. I have a great staff of guys who I enjoy coming to work with. They do a phenomenal job with our players.
"Life is not complicated, right? It's health and people. You want to be healthy to enjoy the people who you get to go through it with. We got a great group that makes it fun to come to work every day."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN BREWER:
On the adjustments to be made from Virginia Tech…
"Obviously the turnovers were huge. The three interceptions really could have been four or five. We're an aggressive offense anyways and we've been aggressive the last six weeks. I think we've done a pretty good job at not putting the ball in jeopardy at times or trying to force things. We made a few mistakes and tried to push the ball into some territories it shouldn't have been pushed to. We also had some open opportunities that we didn't convert on. I think there were three or four plays that if we executed at a little bit higher level, we could've put the game out of reach in the third quarter."
On facing Wake Forest's defense…
"I think they do a really good job at keeping things in front. They're very similar to us, a play or two here and there and everything can change for them. If you watch them on defense, those guys play incredibly hard. They rally the football and they're opportunistic in the back end. They're a zone defense, primarily, so they make you execute. They're going to make us work the ball down the field, there's not going to be any layups. They're going to make us be disciplined in what we do and that's exactly what we train for."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN PATKE:
On continuing the physicality after a bye week…
"You have to take care of them, you have to get them back on the off week and limit the amount of hitting this late into the season. I think there was also a lot of emotion heading into the game, it was senior night, there was a lot going on and sitting around all day for a late kickoff. Everything was set up for us to come out and not be physical, but I think we showed a lot of signs of physicality. It was those little missed tackles that cost us. It set them up for opportunities to take some shots on yardage where they probably thought they had three downs. That 60-yard touchdown really should have been tackled on the 25-yard line. We need to be physical and limit those explosive plays."
On things to improve on from the Virginia Tech game…
"I think we had success, obviously we won, but what Coach Diaz always tells the team is that it's excellence verse success. I thought we played well at times and then other times we didn't play like we should have. We met a lot of our goals on defense but I don't think we tackled the way we do. We played 92 snaps and had 17 missed tackles, which were some big ones and ones that should have been made by some of our better players. Was that because of the bye week and we hadn't gone to the ground in two weeks? That's always the concern. I think they understood the message after the game that was to enjoy and celebrate the wins, but we can always get better. We put up our goal board and we did meet most of our goals, but then we look at the film and see how much better we could've played."
#GoDuke
Duke (8-3, 4-3 ACC) travels to Wake Forest (4-7, 2-5 ACC) on Saturday, Nov. 30 for the Blue Devils' final game of the season. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m., ET and fans can watch live on ACC Network.
HEAD COACH MANNY DIAZ:
Opening Statement:
"Good to see everybody. I want to start with this – the last time were together after the game, I wasn't aware of inappropriate gesture made by Maalik Murphy, our quarterback. I want to put a little context on that. That stems back to a practice in the middle of last week, when we were throwing post after post after post. We weren't completing it. It was again and again and again. At the end of that, there was a remark made in jest by Coach Brewer that if you throw a post for a touchdown in the game, you can flick me off. It was banter. It was a joke. Then, the emotions of throwing an 86-yard touchdown on the first play of the game [happened]. We talk about emotional toughness being a hallmark of our program and not letting our feelings dictate our actions. The feelings of joy and euphoria of that moment over road Maalik's rational mind. It's something that is unacceptable in our program. It doesn't represent who we are as Duke football. It certainly doesn't represent who we are as Duke University. That will be handled and disciplined internally. That allows us to move our focus back to what it should be on, which is the football on the field.
"Briefly recapping the win against Virginia Tech, of the 11 games we have played so far this year, it was, in my mind, our worst performance to date. We did so many things that in a normal game or normal circumstance would get you beat. We talk all the time about success versus excellence. We were successful, but we were not excellent. We were way below our standard. We did a lot of things, like four turnovers. We gave up a long touchdown pass, and a long touchdown run. We bungled a four-minute situation on offense. Penalties. A lot of things that are out of character for us. As a head coach, the 10 assistant coaches, everybody on staff and players, we had to take a hard look at why. Why did we perform that way?
"In a weird way, you're proud of the resilience and the fact that we were able to win the game, but that's not the way we want to play football. Virginia Tech gets credit. They certainly forced us to make mistakes. But we did things we had not done in the 10 previous games. Even in the games we'd been beaten, I thought we'd played better than we did Saturday night.
"This week, we have to get ourselves back to playing to what we believe our standard is and chasing excellence. We have to go on the road to play Wake Forest. This will be our third-straight Senior Day. This is a very old, experienced team. This is a team that went on the road at Miami this past weekend. It was very similar to our game at Miami. Wake was really bossing the game. But similar to our game, ran out of bullets and wore down. The final score probably didn't represent how close the game really, truly was. I have a lot of respect for Dave Clawson, his program and his staff. In all three phases, we have to get back to playing at a high level to have a chance to come out with a victory on Saturday."
On Saturday's mistakes…
"There were different things on different sides of the ball. I think what was most frustrating to us is one of things we really believe in is mastery through simplicity. We are going to do what we do. We can get really good at it. I'll give you an example – the back-shoulder throw to Eli [Pancol] for the second touchdown of the game. That's one of the plays of the year. The execution on that – the throw, the catch, the protection, the whole deal – is an 11 out of 10. That's really what we want to do. That's a play that we run again and again and again and again. We can do it very high level.
"What let us down was things we've done again and again and again. We just made errors that we just don't normally do. The turnovers are just one part of it. If it was something new or something different, you say OK maybe this is something we shouldn't have tried. But we believe our pathway to excellence is just being able to really master these certain skills.
"It doesn't always materialize big plays, either. There may have been a kickoff we tackled at the 26-yard line, and we felt like it should have been tackled at the 19-yard line. It was just not being clean or how we're supposed to execute. It was obvious. Players can see it. It's not about feelings. It's not about how we feel happy we won. The film shows what it shows. It's up to us to get it corrected."
On the opportunity to defeat Wake Forest, North Carolina and NC State in the same season…
"It has been discussed. The state championship is a goal of ours. Without divisions in the league and the way the schedule works, we'll play those teams every year. We cannot pretend to go make a run at the ACC without making run at our state. That's a big deal to us. We are the only team that has a chance to win the state this year. Our guys are aware of that.
"But I want to dial back to what we talked about as a team yesterday. We don't really talk about goals. We talk about standards. Our goal wasn't to win nine in the regular season. We didn't set out as a goal to win 10. It was about having a standard. Usually, when you play to the standard, it's funny how suddenly goals will become in reach.
"When UNC came here, the whole thing was about – can we find a way to beat these guys for the first time in a long time? How do we do that? You do that by playing to a standard, which we did in the second half and won the game. You have to refocus on that. We can only win one game this weekend. We can't win three. We can't win nine. There's only one offering. We have to double down on the things that win games because we didn't do a great job of that last Saturday.
"These rivalries matter because these are the people who you see at parties, in neighborhoods and functions. There are different flags in the front yards. It's always important to win at home.
"From a recruiting standpoint, these are the guys you are going to see on the trail. We have to do a great job recruiting within our footprint, which North Carolina is a big part of. These games matter. Winning in our state is something our guys fully grasp the importance of."
On what he's thankful for this Thanksgiving week…
"First and foremost, the people I'm surrounded by. My family, of course, but I'm thankful for this program, the leadership from President Price through Nina King and all the way down and then our players. The guys in the locker room are such a joy to come work with every day. They want to be coached hard. They want to be told the truth. I have a great staff of guys who I enjoy coming to work with. They do a phenomenal job with our players.
"Life is not complicated, right? It's health and people. You want to be healthy to enjoy the people who you get to go through it with. We got a great group that makes it fun to come to work every day."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN BREWER:
On the adjustments to be made from Virginia Tech…
"Obviously the turnovers were huge. The three interceptions really could have been four or five. We're an aggressive offense anyways and we've been aggressive the last six weeks. I think we've done a pretty good job at not putting the ball in jeopardy at times or trying to force things. We made a few mistakes and tried to push the ball into some territories it shouldn't have been pushed to. We also had some open opportunities that we didn't convert on. I think there were three or four plays that if we executed at a little bit higher level, we could've put the game out of reach in the third quarter."
On facing Wake Forest's defense…
"I think they do a really good job at keeping things in front. They're very similar to us, a play or two here and there and everything can change for them. If you watch them on defense, those guys play incredibly hard. They rally the football and they're opportunistic in the back end. They're a zone defense, primarily, so they make you execute. They're going to make us work the ball down the field, there's not going to be any layups. They're going to make us be disciplined in what we do and that's exactly what we train for."
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR JONATHAN PATKE:
On continuing the physicality after a bye week…
"You have to take care of them, you have to get them back on the off week and limit the amount of hitting this late into the season. I think there was also a lot of emotion heading into the game, it was senior night, there was a lot going on and sitting around all day for a late kickoff. Everything was set up for us to come out and not be physical, but I think we showed a lot of signs of physicality. It was those little missed tackles that cost us. It set them up for opportunities to take some shots on yardage where they probably thought they had three downs. That 60-yard touchdown really should have been tackled on the 25-yard line. We need to be physical and limit those explosive plays."
On things to improve on from the Virginia Tech game…
"I think we had success, obviously we won, but what Coach Diaz always tells the team is that it's excellence verse success. I thought we played well at times and then other times we didn't play like we should have. We met a lot of our goals on defense but I don't think we tackled the way we do. We played 92 snaps and had 17 missed tackles, which were some big ones and ones that should have been made by some of our better players. Was that because of the bye week and we hadn't gone to the ground in two weeks? That's always the concern. I think they understood the message after the game that was to enjoy and celebrate the wins, but we can always get better. We put up our goal board and we did meet most of our goals, but then we look at the film and see how much better we could've played."
#GoDuke
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