{"id":4830,"date":"2026-07-17T18:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4830"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:36:20","slug":"duke-football-coach-manny-diaz-sounds-off-on-darian-mensah-acc-tiebreaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4830","title":{"rendered":"Duke football coach Manny Diaz sounds off on Darian Mensah, ACC tiebreaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duke\u2019s Manny Diaz has to be one of the ACC\u2019s most expressive coaches, hardly holding back or keeping things close to the vest. He\u2019s opinionated. He speaks out.<\/p>\n

Read more NC State football named its new No. 1 this summer. \u2018He\u2019s a special young man\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

In a free-wheeling media session Friday at the ACC Football Kickoff, Diaz talked about Darian Mensah, NIL contracts, winning the 2025 ACC title, the NCAA\u2019s proposed five-in-five eligibility rule, the ACC\u2019s new tiebreaker rule, the current state of college sports and where things may stand, say, five years from now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you launch a rocket into outer space and you\u2019re still building it as you\u2019re going through the atmosphere, that\u2019s college football right now,\u201d Diaz said, smiling. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little bumpy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much has been said and written about Mensah, the quarterback who led the Blue Devils to the ACC title last season, said he was returning for another year, then bolted \u2014 after a legal standoff \u2014 to Miami to play for the Hurricanes. He had a two-year NIL contract with Duke but breached it by leaving after one year, leading to a legal battle and a settlement.<\/p>\n

Mensah, in an appearance Wednesday with the Hurricanes at the ACC Kickoff, said \u201cbusiness is business\u201d as a factor in his decision to leave. Mensah, who transferred to Duke from Tulane, reportedly was paid $4 million last season and should make more in Miami.<\/p>\n

Diaz has not said much about Mensah\u2019s departure since the transfer, but did Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the team handled it well,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cI think our guys, there\u2019s a closeness at Duke, that our guys believe that there\u2019s \u2018us and them,\u2019 and they want guys who want to be \u2018us.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the grownups who always screw it up, not the kids, and what they\u2019re being told. But it is what it is. You move on and solve the problems. That\u2019s what sports is: solve the problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz was asked if he believed Miami was involved in tampering in getting Mensah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an unanswerable question because ultimately what it came down to, and this is why it was never an issue for us, is you can only say what you can prove,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cSo to me, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why our issue was never with any other school. Duke was very consistent. The whole issue was simply about a contract that we felt had to be honored, And it wasn\u2019t honored, and what\u2019s the ramification of that? That\u2019s what happened, and all parties were satisfied, and all parties moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke linebacker Luke Mergott said the decision by Mensah was disappointing \u2014 to a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely sad, but it\u2019s not like there\u2019s hate or resentment,\u201d Mergott said Friday. \u201cIt is what it is. It\u2019s the game right now. You\u2019re going to lose people. That\u2019s the game, so ..\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is another way of saying, business is business.<\/p>\n

Diaz, left looking for a replacement quarterback in the portal, said there was no time to be sad or upset about the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotion doesn\u2019t help solve it,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cTo me, it was like what do we have to do and who\u2019s available and how do we solve this right away? And to solve it as quickly as we did, I thought, was massive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils solved it by bringing in quarterback Walker Eget from San Jose State. Eget, who passed for 3,051 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, has been rehabbing a leg injury but should be ready for preseason practice in August, Diaz said Friday.<\/p>\n

Read more RDU airport celebrates a nearly full house of restaurants, many with local ties<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s highly intelligent in how he sees the game,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cIt\u2019s like having another coach on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in what we do on offense. We believe in the quarterback running the offense. We\u2019ve won nine games with very different quarterbacks the last two years. Both set school records. Whoever it is, we have to play to our strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils were 9-4 in 2024 with Maalik Murphy as QB, Diaz\u2019s first season as coach after Mike Elko left for Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

Duke, 9-5 last season, was 6-2 in the ACC and won the tiebreaker \u2014 on conference opponents\u2019 win percentage \u2014 to take the second spot in the ACC championship game against Virginia.<\/p>\n

And then won it. The Devils took a 27-20 overtime victory, one sealed on an interception by Mergott, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. That gave the school its first outright football title since 1962.<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils, despite being ACC champions, were not selected for the College Football Playoff. The ACC avoided being shut out of the playoffs completely when Miami was selected, advancing to the national championship game before a loss to Indiana.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, the ACC has revamped its tiebreaker rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will come down to body of work,\u201d commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday. \u201cWho you play, when you play, the games you win, conference and non-conference, will matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked a lot about it, used a lot of consultants, did 10,000 algorithms of different scenarios. It warranted that kind of time and commitment so that we can position ourselves to put those two best ACC teams forward. \u2026 I feel incredibly strong that we have gotten to the right place, with unanimity with our membership, on what this new tie-breaking policy states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said he did not like the unavoidable narrative that the two teams that reach this year\u2019s title game will be \u201cmore deserving\u201d of being in Charlotte \u2014 an obvious slight at what Duke accomplished last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy every metric, we were 100 percent deserving of being here in Charlotte by the most objective metric ever, which is strength of schedule based off win and losses,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cTo use nonconference games in determining it, that\u2019s not the competition we\u2019re in. We\u2019re in a competition to determine, of the 17 teams, which is the best. We won that a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have been in the playoff. Miami should have been in the playoff. In my mind, that should have been the story from a year ago, not how can we keep Duke out of the playoff. Our champ should always be in the playoff if this league is what we think it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz, like many coaches, has concerns about the future of college football. Costs are rising. Rules are changing. Lawsuits are many.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what wrecking our game right now, finding one judge who will agree with whatever you want him to agree with,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n

Diaz sees the current college sports system as \u201cunsustainable,\u201d but is unsure on what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

Read more RDU airport celebrates a nearly full house of restaurants, many with local ties<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the million-dollar question, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duke football coach Manny Diaz reacts to Darian Mensah's exit, ACC's tiebreaker revision, Blue Devils' title run, plus thoughts on NIL, college football future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nDuke football coach Manny Diaz sounds off on Darian Mensah, ACC tiebreaker - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4830\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Duke football coach Manny Diaz sounds off on Darian Mensah, ACC tiebreaker - 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