Manny Diaz Press Conference Quotes: Elon

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 opens the 2024 season against Elon on Friday, Aug. 30. The two teams square off on Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium at 7:30 p.m., with the game broadcast on ACC Network.

Opening Statement
"It's good to see everybody here. It means it's actually game week. It's finally here, and none too soon. We're really excited to begin to open up our season. Had a really good training camp, but ultimately, you just reach that point where you've got to go play somebody. You've got to go find out what you're all about. In our world, today is a Tuesday, even though it's a Monday on the calendar, with the game on Friday. So this morning, we had our second Tuesday practice for Elon. Got a lot of respect for those guys. I think Tony [Trisciani] and his staff do a great job. Certainly, Dovonte Edwards, their defense coordinator, does a really nice job. Dovonte was at NC State when I was there many moons ago. So, familiar faces. A team that has our full respect. I was actually surprised when the FCS top-25 came out that they were not ranked. I feel like they should be ranked, two top-five victories a year ago, and then bring a lot of experience back. When you have a quarterback who's playing in his seventh year, and if you look at his numbers the last five games, I think 1,200 yards with 12 touchdowns against no interceptions. I mean, that's as good as anybody anywhere. Four out of five starters back on an offensive line, a receiver that could play anywhere in our league. Same thing at safety – an All-American safety. So, they've got really good players. They've got familiarity in their scheme, which we don't. This will be our first time. Like all first games, from those that taught me, it's more about the basics that you do well. Season openers normally come down to conditioning, which our guys have great confidence in David Feeley that we'll be in shape to play a game. They come down to tackling, because we all have very limited tackling opportunities during the month of August. And then, tackling goes hand-in-hand with turnovers. Ball security comes at a premium. And nobody, I'm sure on either side, has tackled a quarterback. Nobody turns the ball over more than quarterbacks do. So, again, ball security, tackling, and turnovers goes hand-in-hand there. And then, finally, special teams, in terms of making sure that you're sound. You've already seen some examples from the Week Zero games of bad snaps over punters' heads, a muffed kick at the goal line. And it gave us some great video to show our guys in our special teams meeting yesterday of some things that have actually happened that we have a chance to coach off of and hopefully avoid some of the same mistakes. But, as I said, we're excited to go play."

On if the coaching staff plans to use multiple quarterbacks at all during the season
"We want to have a QB1 and one of that the whole way. You know, if we ever felt situationally there was an instance where bringing somebody in might schematically make sense, you're always going to do what it takes to move the ball and score points. But it's important that we have a quarterback, and that Maalik is our quarterback."

On what type of leader Maalik Murphy is in the locker room even though he's new to the team
"Yeah, I thought that was a great endorsement. I think it means that he has their respect. Part of why we named him the starter two weeks before the opener is because we felt like we had the information we needed to make a decision, and so that he could take that huddle and not think, 'Well, I can't overstep my bounds because I'm not sure yet.' I think he's growing into that role more and more. For all of the hype and whatnot, this is still going to be his first year in college football being the starting quarterback on a team and so I expect he will grow into that role as everybody else will grow into theirs. I think the leadership aspect is a big part of it. The biggest thing to me is understanding that everyone's eyes are on you, not just when things go well, but when things don't go well, which invariably they will. We had a great little situation in kind of mock game we played on Friday night where our defense created a turnover. The other team had gained a little bit of momentum and the defense created a turnover. Maalik came up on the next play and threw a beautiful post from about 50 yards out to Javon Harvey for a touchdown. That's the type of leadership people want to see - a response. I'm sure there will be plenty of adversity on Friday night that we'll get to bounce back from as well."

On if he learned anything from the mock game
"It's more for operations. We're not tackling that day because we're only seven days out, but you put everybody on the one sideline and you're playing against people who are trying to emulate the schemes of our first opponent. Then we always put ourselves down, 27-0, and we play 10-minute quarters. You're trying to create an urgency where you would imagine that the starters should be better than the backups, but now all of a sudden they need to be 28 points better than the backups. It gave us a great check of making sure that we were on point with our substitutions, whether we go from the punt team or to the punt block team or field goal, all those type things, and get ourselves game ready logistically and organizationally, as much as schematically.

On the different position names on defense and the potential difference in defensive schemes
"A 'star', a lot of people call their sam linebacker a 'star', and people have gone from calling it a sam because it's become a little bit more of a hybrid position. A potential safety type body, potential speedy linebacker type body, someone that can play in space. The game is turning into such a spread offense, they almost always have three wide receivers on the field, so people started calling that position by different names. Even a 4-2-5 can mean a lot of different things. Is the fifth guy more of a corner type body? Is the fifth guy more of a safety type body? In our scheme, we've always had the ability to just try to put our best 11 guys on the field, right? If our fifth DB is better than our third linebacker, guess what? We felt like we had one of the best nickels in the country at Penn State last year named Daquan Hardy, so we technically played a lot of 4-2-5, even though our structure is a 4-3. You're just subbing one guy for one guy, but all of our coverages still behave the same way. The 'vyper' position is basically what people would call their rush end. That's an end that often lies up to the boundary, can drop, can rush, and do those types of things. But it's way more fancy to call it the vyper, right? It sounds cooler, so put that on the bottom of your business card. But that's really all that type of stuff is. But I always think people get too much into 4-3, 4-2-5, 3-4, whatever. What really defines you coverage-wise or defense scheme-wise is what coverages you play and how does your front play. Are you attacking a one-gap style front? Are you a read-and-react, you know, two-gap, gap-and-a-half type front? And really how you cancel run gaps and how you play the coverage behind it is really what you are on defense. And there's a bazillion ways to line up, but you can do it in very different ways while you're aligned in the same demeanor."

Offensive Coordinator Jonathan Brewer

On the efforts of Que'Sean Brown during camp
"[Que'Sean] has been, first off, an unbelievable blocker on the perimeter for us. With his height being shorter than normal he's able to get underneath defenders pads well. But it's probably more of his instincts or guts he has going to block. And then, the vertical ball. He's hard to get hands on. He did a great job of slipping guys and getting vertical, airing outside to catch the ball outside his shoulder. He made plays down the field and he can go, he can fly. That showed up a lot in camp."

On what stood out from Maalik Murphy to him for Murphy to earn him the starting quarterback job
"I think it's just overall comfortability with the offense. When things start clicking, you start seeing holes, you start knowing where guys are running to. I think you start to get the mastery of things and you're not just saying, 'Oh, where do I have a guy running?', you're reacting. That's what I saw from him the last two weeks of camp, it was a guy that [went from] 'Okay, where are guys running to', to a guy who could react and get the ball to where it's supposed to go, fast."

On helping Murphy manage expectations entering the season instead of throwing on a cape and being Superman
"Well, he kind of is like Superman. He's such a big dude. He's got such a big arm, he's so talented. The big thing that I told him is something I learned from Dan Orlovsky, is just be a boring quarterback. You don't have to go out there and do anything spectacular. Just get the ball where it's supposed to go. And I just keep telling him that over and over again, just be a boring quarterback. Go out there and if it's supposed to be a checkdown, it's supposed to be a handoff, it's supposed to be a spot, just do that. You don't have to do anything else. And then naturally, in the game, a play will show up and you have to sidestep and throw a great one-on-one ball and that's where your talent will take over."

On what he thinks the strength of the offense will be this season:
"Speed. Play fast. I can tell you that, get ready to play fast. That's just what we have done on offense the past 10 years and I can tell you that we will play fast."

On handling substitutions and rotations when playing fast:
"Well, if you sub players in and out, they'll hold the snap for you. Our guys have got to be able to play six, seven plays in a row. We're a vertical throw team, so guys have got to be able to run vertical options, run back, get set, run a run play, block for a spot, run again vertically down the field and that kind of stuff. For them, it's more of when it's your time to go, you go. When you're off, get a breather, and then you're back in. That kind of deal."

Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Patke

On if the defense has to develop more depth with how fast the offense wants to play:
"Depth is always important, especially now in college football people play more snaps because of the tempo of the game. Offenses are really good and stay on the field. Obviously, we get to see it every day in practice. So, our conditioning has to be there. And when I hear play fast, we've got to play fast as a defense. So to be able to do that, you have to have great depth and be able to trust in guys to roll in the game where a guy's not playing 60, 70, 80 snaps a game. Because no matter who you are, when you start playing that many snaps, you're not going to play that fast and we're going to demand that we run the ball and play with great aggression. So, we've got to have great depth.

On how he thinks the true freshmen can make an impact on defense this season
"I think those guys need to play, depending on how the season goes, how a game goes. There are so many circumstances of when they'll get in the game but I do see them playing this year. And that will help us in the future. There's nothing like game experience. We can practice all we want. But until those guys get in the game, a game situation, make a play or get a play made against them, and to see how they react, see how mentally they can handle it. I always say young guys, they're physically ready. Coach Feeley's done a great job physically having our guys ready. Mentally, are you ready to get in the game and see the situation, handle the situation, now you're in the red zone, whatever it may be. But I think those guys should play and will play this year."

On how the defensive line wants to play up front
"Yeah, we want to play vertical up front. We want to be disruptors. We want to play two yards in the backfield. When you talk about the [tackles for loss] and the sacks and all this stuff that Penn State and Texas State led the country in last year, it stems from how aggressive we play up front. Again, it's a mentality. It's something that's trained. And to train that, you have to have reps. And in fall camp, I thought we had plenty of reps to get it done. And it's still a learning curve. Nobody's perfect right now. We're continuing to learn. There's nothing better than game experience to see a measuring stick of where we are with that."

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Manny Diaz Press Conference Quotes: Elon

Players Mentioned

Que'Sean Brown

Javon Harvey

Maalik Murphy

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Manny Diaz Press Conference Quotes: Elon

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Players Mentioned

Que'Sean Brown

Javon Harvey

Maalik Murphy

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