On November 16th, Duke sat 5-5 after getting blown out by Virginia and preceded with a loss to UConn. One December 31st, Duke finishes the season with a Sun Bowl win over Arizona State, an ACC Title, a 9 win season, and possibly a top 25 finish.
The 42-39 win over Arizona State gives Duke their 4th straight 8+ win season and 3rd 9 win in 4 years. That was through the coaching transition from head coach Mike Elko to Manny Diaz.
Diaz did argurably the ACC’s best coaching job since mid-November outside of Miami’s Mario Cristobal.
Duke won at UNC, then beat a solid Wake Forest team, beat a good Virginia team for the ACC Championship, and of course Arizona State.
Manny Diaz and his staff also coached QB Darrian Mensah from being a good strong armed QB who struggled with accuracy on the move to one that could basically do it all. His mobility improved as the season continued, and while I wouldn’t call him dual threat you had to respect his legs far more than early in the year.
I’m going to pull this out of my Virginia article.
If Duke can win the ACC, and Virginia can have a top 20 11-win season – what’s the excuse for a whole bunch of other ACC teams and coaches?
It needs a slight edit. If Duke can win the ACC, and have another 9 win season… then yep what’s the excuse for other ACC teams and coaches?
They spent to get and now retain Mensah. Manny Diaz was a quality experienced hire. You think you had injuries? They overcame them too especially on the defensive side.
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and Diaz and his staff did an outstanding job to finish out the season.
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