Everything Manny Diaz said as Duke football opened fall camp

Duke football opened its 2026 fall camp on Wednesday as the Blue Devils look to repeat as ACC champions. Head coach Manny Diaz spoke with the media following practice. Here is what he had to say.

Opening Statement

Probably the most humid day of the entire calendar year in North Carolina. Our guys did a good job persevering. We were able to practice some inside, some outside. They helped us sustain our energy through the course of practice. And now we're here. And it's the first day you're only in spider pads. So really hard to evaluate. What you want to see is that things look clean, the team knows what to do, which I thought both sides in our punt unit did a good job of that. We'll have one more day like that, and then the shoulder pads come on Friday, and it'll resemble more like actual football.

A lot of pass defense today?

Yeah. I mean, it's going to be your emphasis when you're not in pads. And I think you can see even just from today that there's a sense of purpose every time that ball's in the air from our secondary. There are no jobs claimed in the secondary. So everybody understands that every time there's a ball thrown, someone's got a chance to earn playing time this year. And there'll be ups and downs over the next three weeks, but I think that's the ones who are the most urgent day-to-day will probably be the ones that'll roll out their first against the twos.

Interested in adding any fifth-year guys?

Well, let's see if that survives appeal as well. And who in the country isn't already at 105? And there's a lot of nuance to that. We like what we have in our locker room right now. So I'm just going to leave it at that.

Update on the quarterback situation

Dan and Walker both took reps with the first group today. That's the first time that Walker's seen somewhat of a rush since last season. So you've got one guy who's got a lot of promise who hasn't done it yet. One guy's got a lot of production who's just getting into our offensive learning, but there's also a lot of new names and faces that weren't really there in March and April too. So like our past defense, our passing offense will be something that my suspicion will improve week by week, day by day. And I think that's a great challenge, right? Because any good day for your past offense is a bad day for your past defense and vice versa. One of the ironies: we went back and looked a year ago when we went ones-on-ones in our main scrimmage last season, we didn't even score a touchdown against our defense until the fourth quarter.

So like I said, trying to gain wisdom or evidence of what it's going to be like sometimes in training camp is a little bit misleading because how the season ended up would have told a different story. So you're really looking more for individual performances, right? Because when you get to prep week, then you have a chance to really build a team and put it all together.

Any timeline on quarterback decision?

If it's an hour before a kickoff, that'd be great. If it's anything earlier than that, that'd be great too. But we have to see, and we just have to get through this training camp.

Thoughts on the defensive line?

I like the group we have there and I like the identity that they forged in spring. Like I said, when the pads come on, it'll have a chance to continue that. But what I like is the best defensive lines that I've been a part of my career, I've been really blessed to be around some extraordinary players, but the best ones were the ones that function the best as a unit, as a group. Even when I look at us in 24 as opposed to 25 and our four guys acting as one when that happens, and then you can go too deep where you have one through eight, usually that's when we play our best. And I sense that. Like I said, we'll have to make sure that's our identity in August. But I like what we have. I like the contestants we have for the roles that are out there.

On the linebacker room and Luke Mergott

Yeah, we think that's one of the strengths of our football team. You mentioned Mergott. Getting Nick Morris back is huge, but two young guys that just absolutely popped in the spring where William Felder and Bradley Gompers; it's almost hard to imagine how they don't have a massive role on our team. We still have Kendall Johnson back fully healthy, who really made some nice plays for us a year ago. And then you have a competition right with our defensive backs. Are we going to be a five defensive back team? Does that mean we take a linebacker off? It's a massive battle. And so I love where we're at back in the way that those guys are going to push each other.

Any different feelings going into this year after coaching so long?

It's a bunch. Yeah. It's always awesome. Actually, you know what the best part is? Because you finally get to fix stuff. Because practice, it's just two and a half hours of just failure. I mean, there are some successes, but the successes don't need instruction as much as the failures do. And so it's nice to finally have something to fix. I mean, that's what we are. We're problem solvers as coaches. You get something now on tape, so now you can go in there, and you can actually correct things and then start the process of truly how good of a team can we be? We were a better team in November and December than we were in September of last year. And that's to me a sign of a good coaching staff, of good teachers, but more importantly, good problem solvers and correctors.

On positions battles he’s excited to watch

If the secondary is one, then certainly our receiver room is another one. The mixture of transfers with our young players that we're developing that we really, really think highly of. I think that'll be an important deal.This team just has g...

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