Some thoughts on Duke football.

Poised to make a big move?

Before basketball hits the stretch run I thought I’d take a final look at Duke football. Until spring.

After Mike Elko left Durham like a snake-oil salesman exposed as a fraud, a number of names popped up as his potential replacement. At least in the media.

James Madison’s Curt Cignetti? Sure worked for Indiana.

Jon Sumrall? Tulane is a good Duke analog. But he stayed put.

Jamey Chadwell? No thanks. Maybe Trooper Taylor as an internal candidate. Maybe not.

I’m not going to gas-light anyone. When Manny Diaz’s name popped up as a legitimate candidate, . I was underwhelmed. Sure, he had done a great job as DC at Penn State. But his stint at Miami was not a big success. At a program with far more resources and recent tradition than Duke, Diaz went 21-15 over three years.

Then I heard him speak as Duke’s new coach. There’s no place like Duke. Indeed.

Still, mediocre talents can make great speeches. But it was more than that. It was clear that Diaz had a plan, a roadmap to not only keep Duke football where it was but take it to the next level.

Elite academics still matter. Continue to sell Duke football as a 40-year committment. Be flexible with NIL and the portal. But use them. Wisely and well, but use them.

He had a great line on NIL and the portal: “we set out to sea and then we build the boat.”

Perhaps, most importantly, focus on the people. Win the locker room and keep it.

Diaz didn’t have a grace period. He had to put together a staff, hold together Duke’s recruiting class and most importantly perhaps, convince strength and conditioning guru David Feeley to stick around.

And put together a football team. In the aftermath of Elko’s departure, the portal hit Duke hard. Riley Leonard to Notre Dame. Just played for the CFP title. Brandon Johnson to Oregon, the number one team entering the playoffs. Aeneas Peebles to Virginia Tech. He became first-team All-ACC. Jordan Waters to just down the road at NC State. Plenty of others.

That’s just the portal. Duke had three players drafted, including offensive lineman Graham Barton, selected in the first round by Tampa Bay.

Duke was so short of offensive linemen that they couldn’t even have a spring game.

The outside world was not impressed. Duke was picked 11^th in the ACC by the media. The website 247Sports picked Duke to go 1-7 in the ACC and it wasn’t an outlier.