Home Customer Service Stay Connected Read today’s Edition Miami-Dade Favorites News Sports Politics Business Living & Entertainment Opinion Obituaries Sports Betting Shopping/Reviews Careers & Education Banking Home Services Coupons Special Features Press Releases Sponsored Content Classifieds Place an Ad – Celebrations Search Jobs Search Legal Notices Advertising SUMMER SOLSTICE SALE COLLEGE SPORTS Duke College Football Preview 2024: Key Players, Game Schedule, Season Predictions BY PETE FIUTAK COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS | COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS, ANALYSIS AND UPDATES UPDATED JUNE 22, 2024 3:46 AM DUKE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW 2024 It’s so crazy it just might work.Manny Diaz has enjoyed his share of defensive coordinator gigs.Very energetic, very fired up, and very, very good at his job as a defensive guru, he bounced around with Texas, Miami, NC State, and Mississippi State on his resumé, along with a year at Louisiana Tech and time logged in at Middle Tennessee.And now, after cranking up the Penn State defense over the last two seasons, he got this.He worked his way up to the Miami head coaching job in 2019 and was okay. No one’s happy about Hurricane football unless the head coach has a wayback machine to return to 1987, but going 21-15 in three years wasn’t good enough. But this fits. Duke is never going to win anything massive unless the rest of the world melts down, but get to around seven wins, go to a bowl, beat North Carolina and NC State once in a while, and everything will be solid.Diaz can do that.Former head coach Mike Elko proved it was possible to win in Durham again with two straight good seasons before taking off for Texas A&M. He did it by improving the defense instantly, and by making Duke the type of tough team that seemed to annoy everyone by trying hard.Diaz has to keep that formula going.There’s a TON of turnover – sorry in advance for how many times that will be brought up – but the schedule isn’t bad, the starting 22 should be okay in time, and if Diaz wins 21 games in the next three years like he did at Miami, he’ll be just fine.
