Duke’s Manny Diaz Reveals True Feelings About His Team

Diaz's Thoughts

• "We feel like there were some shots down the field that we can be more consistent hitting on offense," Diaz explained.

• "Defensively, our explosive pass plays [allowed], you look at our numbers defense where our yards per attempt on defense isn't normal for what we've done through the years. Run defense up front, we feel like we are improving. I feel like we've gotten better from where we were a year ago."

Finding success in football involves all three phases of the game, which include special teams. Diaz understands that and believes that has been one of the strong areas for the Blue Devils this season.

• "The four phases - our two coverage teams and our two return teams - I'm really proud of the jump we've made on special teams," Diaz said. "I don't think a team is returning a kickoff past our 20-yard line in about a month. In an era where you can fair catch [at any part of the field] and take it to the 25-yard line (touchback), people aren't even getting to the 20-yard line."

• "I think we're fourth in our conference in punt returns. Punting the ball, the [number] of punts we've had downed - we've only given up 13 punt return yards the whole season in seven games - is extraordinary," Diaz said. "We're pinning people deep when we are punting the football."

The field goal unit has left a lot to be desired, which was apparent in the loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Week 8. Diaz revealed that concern on Monday, and wants that issue resolved as soon as possible.

• "Where we've not been the unit, we want to be is our field goal team. I feel like specialists are kind of like quarterbacks - everyone's got to play well around the specialists for them to have success," Diaz continued.

• "We've had two kicks this year where the snap has been high and inside on our holder, and those should still be able to be put down for us to kick. Those are happening in key games."

"In a new era of college football where games are going to be tight, everybody's kind of the same, you just can't be leveraging points and throwing away points with your field goal unit."

"That's really one of the storylines of what we feel like has happened. We got to play better around our place kicker, but we also feel like we have to open up competition at that spot to get the team where we feel like we're more consistent."

This sentiment is obviously important when taking into account Duke's opponent in Week 10, which is the Clemson Tigers. Points cannot be left on the board against a team of Clemson's caliber.

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