# Manny Diaz: Building a Winning Culture at Duke, Leadership & Lessons From a Life in Football

An episode of [On The Line with Jim Pyne](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6794668286), 29 Sep 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2632213/episodes/19880278-manny-diaz-building-a-winning-culture-at-duke-leadership-lessons-from-a-life-in-football.mp3

Duke head coach Manny Diaz joins Jim Pyne on On The Line for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, culture, adversity and a life spent in college football. Diaz shares lessons from his journey through some of the biggest programs in the country, what he learned from the highs and lows along the way, and how those experiences have shaped the way he leads Duke today. Jim and Manny talk about building trust with players, establishing a winning culture, developing toughness, handling pressure and why relationships remain at the heart of successful football programs. It’s an inside look at the experiences and philosophy behind one of college football’s most respected coaches — and the lessons in leadership that extend well beyond the field. 🎙️ On The Line with Jim Pyne Support the show Connect with Jim Pyne Thanks for listening to On the Line with Jim Pyne. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a friend. Your support helps us bring you more conversations with the leaders, innovators, and game changers shaping sports, business, and entertainment. Follow Jim on LinkedIn and social media for updates on future episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive clips. New episodes released often!

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine.
[0:02] SPEAKER_00: I'm Jim Pine.
[0:03] SPEAKER_00: This episode is brought to you by PLS Aviation.
[0:06] SPEAKER_00: Private Aviation.
[0:07] SPEAKER_00: Perfectly executed.
[0:09] SPEAKER_00: Now let's get on the line.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Today on the line, we have the reigning ACC football champion for the Duke of the Devils.
[0:15] SPEAKER_00: A longtime football coach.
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: Coach.
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Coach Diaz.
[0:19] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
[0:20] SPEAKER_01: Good to be here.
[0:21] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good to be here.
[0:22] SPEAKER_00: So the ACC champion.
[0:24] SPEAKER_00: You know, look it up.
[0:25] SPEAKER_00: 1962 was the last time Duke won the football championship, right?
[0:29] SPEAKER_00: There were six schools that are still in it now.
[0:31] SPEAKER_00: Now there's 17 schools, right?
[0:32] SPEAKER_00: So as impressive as it was in 1962 to do it today, even more impressive.
[0:37] SPEAKER_00: So congratulations on that.
[0:39] SPEAKER_00: Tell me about that and how that what that meant to you and to the school, and it's going to be a great accomplishment.
[0:45] SPEAKER_01: It was a it was a really special moment.
[0:46] SPEAKER_01: Um the what the what I will never forget is being on the podium after the game, and we were in a they were in a TV break waiting to give us the trophy when they came back from commercial.
[0:55] SPEAKER_01: And and so it just kind of this moment of you're just sort of standing there and you're watching really everybody attached to Duke football, just in this mass celebration.
[1:02] SPEAKER_01: The players are all just roaming around, just hugging each other, families, coaching staff, coaching coaches' families.
[1:08] SPEAKER_01: And then you like look up in the stands behind, and you know, are you know it's all the Duke fans, you see our administration, just it's like everybody who's had a hand in Duke football just enjoying this moment of just pure joy.
[1:18] SPEAKER_01: And I'm just sort of standing there in awe of just watching, you know, how you know what all this means because I in my mind, all those people had a had a hand in it, you know what I mean, to get us there.
[1:26] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, these things don't happen without a lot of people being aligned in how to make it happen.
[1:31] SPEAKER_01: And so it was just it was a really neat moment.
[1:33] SPEAKER_01: And then I think the other thing from last year's team is it was such a uh a testament of staying in the fight, you know, and we we we had high expectations.
[1:41] SPEAKER_01: We had a team that in in preseason really felt like we could win the league or and and get to the championship game, and then bang, you start off one and two and don't play very well in your two losses.
[1:49] SPEAKER_01: And so here comes three straight conference games.
[1:51] SPEAKER_01: We're down 21 to 7 at home in our first league game, staring at one and three, and and you know, a far cry from from someone handing you a trophy.
[1:58] SPEAKER_01: And you know, we turn that game around and we and we win that game, and winning that game by double digits.
[2:02] SPEAKER_01: We win three in a row there, and okay, and then boom, another conference loss.
[2:06] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, it just it just you know, okay, but then we win another couple couple conference games.
[2:10] SPEAKER_01: We beat Clemson at home or on the road, first time I think it's 1980, you know.
[2:14] SPEAKER_01: So things are going well in the league again.
[2:16] SPEAKER_01: We got Virginia in our place, and you really have a chance to make a statement.
[2:19] SPEAKER_01: You win that one, it's not hard to see the pathway to Charlotte.
[2:21] SPEAKER_01: And we we just get destroyed.
[2:22] SPEAKER_01: We play so poorly.
[2:23] SPEAKER_01: So there were so many times for last year's team to to to surrender, you know what I mean, to say this was too big for us, maybe we shouldn't have been so ambitious, you know, like we could have just lowered our expectation and and we just we stayed in the fight, right?
[2:36] SPEAKER_01: And and you never know, you stay in the fight, and what ended up happening is we just outlasted other people.
[2:40] SPEAKER_01: You know, we we landed our we landed our you know ship at six and two, and when everybody else came into port, you know, we had the best six and two record of anybody else, and and that's how that's what got us to Charlotte, and and uh once we were there, we we we we played well and found a way to win.
[2:52] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no question.
[2:54] SPEAKER_00: Once in a lifetime, right?
[2:55] SPEAKER_00: I I looked at you how old you are, I know how old I am.
[2:57] SPEAKER_00: Duke hasn't won in our lifetime, and that that's a great thing.
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: And hopefully some it's a start of something, a run here for you guys that you're building something special there.
[3:04] SPEAKER_00: And I you know, there I there's something that stood out to me too, the Virginia game.
[3:08] SPEAKER_00: You lost to Virginia at home at home, you said, but then to come back in the championship and beat him, right?
[3:13] SPEAKER_00: In overtime.
[3:14] SPEAKER_00: That's you know, I I've been playing the NFL for a while.
[3:16] SPEAKER_00: We said that it's always hard to beat somebody twice, right?
[3:19] SPEAKER_00: So you kind of if you beat them the first time like they beat you, they're probably wow, we could run that same player, same formations, let's do that.
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: They couldn't stop it before, whatever, right?
[3:28] SPEAKER_00: And you kind of lull yourself into thinking you could you're just gonna show up and beat them again.
[3:33] SPEAKER_00: But hats off to you guys, you came in and you're the champions, right?
[3:36] SPEAKER_00: That again, a great year for you guys.
[3:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Virginia was a really, really good team last year.
[3:40] SPEAKER_01: And I and on that night, the game here in Durham, I thought they were outstanding.
[3:43] SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, they played so well, and we played so poorly, you know, and you're right, it it's hard.
[3:49] SPEAKER_01: I I know from uh coaches and players feel two different things, right?
[3:51] SPEAKER_01: Um the coaches understand how hard it is to beat somebody twice.
[3:54] SPEAKER_01: As players, it's really, really difficult when you're beating someone 31 to 3 to really take them as an existential threat.
[4:00] SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
[4:01] SPEAKER_01: And so I reckon I mean Tony rightly won Coach of the Year in our league a year ago, and and deservedly so, but that's just so hard to get your guys to believe that somebody who you just so dominated could come back and beat you.
[4:11] SPEAKER_01: And we just knew our you know, our players have pride and they knew that that that was not themselves.
[4:16] SPEAKER_01: We were not ourselves that night.
[4:17] SPEAKER_01: So I suspected we were gonna play a lot better, and and and what ended up happening is we were able to exert game control.
[4:22] SPEAKER_01: We you know, our first drive, we went about nine minutes and held the ball, and and we just you know we we had the lead the whole night, and so we we were just always in that position of of of where they had to play catch up against us, and and so that was key to our ability to win that game.
[4:34] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[4:34] SPEAKER_00: Hey coach, you you your dad was the mayor of Miami, right?
[4:37] SPEAKER_00: A couple times talk to me about that growing up, because uh I know your history and you uh his leadership and what what he what you learned from him about leadership, you know, transferable skills and stuff to what you're doing now that I'm sure you emulated your dad and still do in a lot of ways.
[4:52] SPEAKER_00: What did he teach you and what did you see your dad do as as the mayor of a big city?
[4:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Jim, you know what's interesting.
[4:57] SPEAKER_01: So my dad was mayor from 2001 to 2009, two terms, he was term limited.
[5:03] SPEAKER_01: At that time, I was actually already in coaching.
[5:05] SPEAKER_01: When he got elected, and I was a GA at NC State.
[5:08] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, in my career, I ended up becoming a special teams coordinator and a defense coordinator during his term as as mayor.
[5:13] SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't quite like like I was a kid and and and and you know, and my dad was the mayor of the city.
[5:18] SPEAKER_01: Um my dad was an attorney in private practice, he had never held a uh political office until he ran for mayor in 01.
[5:24] SPEAKER_01: So it was uh it was a different perspective because I was already in the coaching world, and so we had we were able to have really you know deep, rich conversations about leadership, like you're saying.
[5:33] SPEAKER_01: And you know, certainly when you're in charge of a you know a city government and any form of government, it's a it's a humongous organization.
[5:40] SPEAKER_01: You are responsible for all of them, and yet they are not all accountable to you, right?
[5:45] SPEAKER_01: Because many of them will will have their jobs, you know, their lifers, you know what I mean?
[5:48] SPEAKER_01: And they'll have their jobs when you're when you're there or when you're not there.
[5:51] SPEAKER_01: So that makes it very difficult, right?
[5:53] SPEAKER_01: That's it's not like you know, people always say we swe, you know, let's make the government like a private practice.
[5:57] SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to make a government like a business because in the business you can come in and fire everybody and and make it yours.
[6:02] SPEAKER_01: And and and governments are not built for better or worse, they're not built that way.
[6:05] SPEAKER_01: But people who will h hold that role and still try to in uh inspire people, right?
[6:10] SPEAKER_01: Have a vision of what you want to get done because you you're you're you're you're convicted that it's the right thing to do and you have to do it.
[6:16] SPEAKER_01: In a way, I think that's actually more impressive where you were as opposed to where you can just control everything because you're the one that signs everybody's paycheck.
[6:23] SPEAKER_01: So I think I think that's a part of it internally.
[6:25] SPEAKER_01: I think externally, you're never really truly, I think, very similar to sports when you're in politics.
[6:29] SPEAKER_01: Of course, it's a very different political world today than it was back then, but you're really never able able to tell your true story, right?
[6:37] SPEAKER_01: Because if you really know what's going on, a lot of things of of the the real, real what's going on, you really can't say.
[6:43] SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
[6:43] SPEAKER_01: You're not at liberty to talk about.
[6:45] SPEAKER_01: And no different than you know, a team wins or loses the game, and you know, no coach can go to the podium and really explain what happened because a lot of times it'll sound like you know they're they're they're casting blame or they're they're putting in the wrong spot, you know.
[6:56] SPEAKER_01: So so you're again, you will be held accountable by people in the media who don't really understand why things are happening.
[7:01] SPEAKER_01: They'll they'll understand a third of it or two-thirds of it, but never the full the full picture.
[7:06] SPEAKER_01: And and that's okay.
[7:07] SPEAKER_01: And you've got to go out and you've got to you've got to still you know stand up there and and take the accountability from people who don't really understand why what's happening is happening.
[7:15] SPEAKER_01: That's why it you know it's taught me that you know, I try I try to make in my life very few judgments of things that I'm not an expert in, because no matter what you think you know, you don't know.
[7:23] SPEAKER_01: And we can sit here all the time and say, boy, if I was in charge, I would do it like this.
[7:26] SPEAKER_01: And you know what, you have no idea what whatever it is that you're complaining about, you have no idea what ideas have already been tried and tried and tested and worked and didn't work, and and uh so just try to do one thing really well at this point in my life, that's just coach football team, and and uh and so I learned that from him.
[7:41] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, doing great.
[7:42] SPEAKER_00: So it could take me back to the nineties, mid-nineties, you go to Florida State.
[7:45] SPEAKER_00: I I was in college, so I remember those years, they were an amazing football program, you know, winning Bobby Bowden.
[7:51] SPEAKER_00: They were national championships in ninety-three, then you were there in ninety-eight, ninety nine, right?
[7:55] SPEAKER_00: So had a role there and and they won a national championship.
[7:58] SPEAKER_00: I I was actually at the game in 1999.
[8:00] SPEAKER_00: I was gonna talk to you about that.
[8:02] SPEAKER_00: They played Virginia Tech, that's where I was in college, you know.
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, the the the most amazing thing about that game, I mean, you guys won a coach Bowden deserved to win.
[8:09] SPEAKER_00: He's a legendary Hall of Fame coach, but yeah, I tell you, Michael Vick, I mean, I I don't know if you remember the game, much he was he was amazing.
[8:17] SPEAKER_00: I I and I was uh you know, I was in the NFL at the time, I'm in the locker room before the game, in the team motel before, and then we're waiting and he comes down.
[8:25] SPEAKER_00: I had never really met, I met him once before, but he comes down to he was a little late for something, had his shoes over his shoulders, very nonchalant.
[8:32] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, is he ready for this game?
[8:34] SPEAKER_00: But to go out and see the kind of what he did, and you know, I think Peter Wark returned a couple kicks over a touchdown, and that was kind of the difference of the game.
[8:40] SPEAKER_00: But you know, Michael Vick, I unbelievable performance he had, but for you guys, you know, hats off for Zon the whole thing.
[8:47] SPEAKER_01: The old Superdome had that old school astro turf, you know, like that just that that bear rug.
[8:52] SPEAKER_01: We had two, I think it was two, it might have been three.
[8:55] SPEAKER_01: We had two guys for sure tear the race all just trying to tackle him one-on-one in space.
[8:59] SPEAKER_01: Non-contact injuries.
[9:00] SPEAKER_01: I mean, just him slipping his shoulder.
[9:02] SPEAKER_01: But the funniest story that I remember that game about Vic was, you know, you had a whole month to prepare for that game, and and uh, you know, Virginia Tech at that time, they were very simple on offense.
[9:09] SPEAKER_01: Michael Vick in this era of offensive football, forget about it.
[9:12] SPEAKER_01: Like now with like zone read and RPOs and QB run game, no one ever would have stopped the guy.
[9:16] SPEAKER_01: I mean, no one stopped the guy as it was anyway, but that was you know, hell, half the time he was under center in 1999, hardly even a running threat.
[9:22] SPEAKER_01: Well, we remember there was one time when Virginia Tech lined up in their I back formation, and if the X receiver, you know, cut a split down 100% of the time it was a play action pass, big post over, you know, I mean, the whole deal, right?
[9:34] SPEAKER_01: So you had a whole month.
[9:36] SPEAKER_01: So we made we had a check for it, you know, we were a man-free team, and that's a problem in man-free guys running across the field.
[9:41] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we were gonna pass it all off, and this guy's gonna take that guy, and this guy, I mean, it was like, you know, whatever.
[9:46] SPEAKER_01: So lo and behold, I think it was the first drop of the game, and the X lines up cut.
[9:49] SPEAKER_01: And I think we were tapping our helmet, and there the guys are, they're all tapping their helmet, you know what I mean?
[9:53] SPEAKER_01: They're like, wow, like the kids actually they saw it, they're doing it, they're communicating.
[9:56] SPEAKER_01: Takes a snap, drops back, play action pass, settles, and I'm telling you, the secondary, it's like an orchestra.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: I mean, everyone is perfectly passing it off.
[10:04] SPEAKER_01: It's like you're just sitting there, like a tears come down your eyes, a coach.
[10:06] SPEAKER_01: Like, you're so proud, like, man, they have really figured out we are the smartest coaches in the history of football, right?
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: Vic looks at all this and says, oh, no one's open, and he just takes off for about 50 yards.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: And at that moment on the headsets, it's like, hold on to your hats, boys.
[10:20] SPEAKER_01: It don't it don't matter whether we're covering or not, this dude right here is it is a different deal.
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, it was it was a it was a really, really memorable game.
[10:27] SPEAKER_01: Uh, I would say like winning a national championship that early in my career has almost kind of put everything in reverse, you know what I mean?
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's to be on that stage and now to chase it uh the rest of my career has been has been kind of uh uh has been sort of the goal.
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no no question.
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, you you a communications major at Florida State, it's gotta help you with coaching, right?
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: Communications, talking to people, stuff.
[10:46] SPEAKER_00: And then then you took a job with ESPN.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: I always talk on the show about transition, right?
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: Former players, former coaches, business people.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: We all have to transition from one thing to the next.
[10:56] SPEAKER_00: You kind of reinvent yourself.
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: You you kind of went down a path of your ESPN.
[10:59] SPEAKER_00: What brought you back into coaching?
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: What did you realize?
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: Well, what did you think?
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: Because you you you did the you know, what what got you into coaching?
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: You had a job and then you you kind of went into coaching.
[11:09] SPEAKER_01: I I thought ESPN was the next best job to playing, and that's that's why I pursued that.
[11:13] SPEAKER_01: And and it it was an amazing job.
[11:14] SPEAKER_01: While I was there, I got attached to the NFL shows.
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: I was working on the NFL shows, and ESPN was very different in the 90s.
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, you didn't have the army of analysts, you know, there's just a few.
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: And uh Sterling Sharp and I became pretty close, and and you know, we would do the Monday night countdown show, and then we'd go to the about to dinner afterwards, and we'd just sit there and watch the Monday night game and talk ball.
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: And and he would always joke, he'd say, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get into coaching, you know, and I'm gonna bring you with me.
[11:34] SPEAKER_01: And I was like, How do me, a coach?
[11:36] SPEAKER_01: Like, how do I even become a coach?
[11:38] SPEAKER_01: But there was this seed that was planted, you know, and the more I was around the game, the more I was around the guys.
[11:43] SPEAKER_01: I loved my job at ESPN, and but I was like, man, I I think there's something better, you know.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: And the the the pivotal moment, it was 97 January.
[11:51] SPEAKER_01: We were in the Super Bowl, we were in New Orleans.
[11:52] SPEAKER_01: Ironically, we're just this was kind of freaky.
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: Like just two years later, we were there.
[11:56] SPEAKER_01: I was there on Fort State staff playing for the national championship against Virginia Tech, but two and a half years prior, we're covering Red Favre and the Green Bay Packers against Bill Parcells and the Upstart New England Patriots when the Patriots were nothing.
[12:07] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[12:07] SPEAKER_01: And uh and I went to an interview with Parcellus.
[12:10] SPEAKER_01: I had no official duties, I just wanted to be in the room with the guy.
[12:12] SPEAKER_01: And it was at that moment, sitting there just listening to him talk, I found myself wanting to be the guy answering the questions more than the guy asking the questions.
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: And it was just kind of that moment of like, if you if you're at ESPN and you're interviewing the Super Bowl coach, you have really made it.
[12:26] SPEAKER_01: Like that is you're at the top of your profession in TV.
[12:28] SPEAKER_01: And if if obviously you're being interviewed by ESPN at the Super Bowl, you've made it from a football stance.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: And I just asked myself if I could have the best of either world, which one would it be?
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: And it was obvious.
[12:36] SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'd I gotta go coach football.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: So luckily I was so naive, I didn't even know how it worked.
[12:40] SPEAKER_01: If I if I'd knew what what I was up against, I never would have done it.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: Um but I just had enough of that, like I said, just that innocence to just to just try.
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: And and that's you know, I went back to Florida State, and that's how it all happened.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, that's great.
[12:52] SPEAKER_00: And I looked up NC State, I remember 2003.
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: I was coaching, I was coaching with the Buccaneers, quality control, and went and worked out an offensive lineman, NC State, and Philip Rivers was there.
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: He was the quarterback, right?
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: And I know you're a defensive guy, defensive coach, but I I mean I I was at that workout, the presence he had, the the confidence, the command he had, we really stuck with me.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: I was like, wow, and you know, I played nine years as tough coaching, but I was like, that guy's a he's a good player.
[13:17] SPEAKER_00: He's gonna I bet he's gonna be pretty good.
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: And what did you see of him in college, coach, you know, practicing against him and how he carried himself?
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: Because you know, obviously he played he played last year, even like came off the couch.
[13:27] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, amazing.
[13:29] SPEAKER_01: What was really neat about Philip is we got we got the job in in January of 2000, really a week after the that sugar bowl, and uh he was a mid-year enrollee.
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like you know, Chuck Amato got the job in Philip.
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: They almost kind of arrived the same week.
[13:41] SPEAKER_01: We all kind of got there the same week.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: Seeing his development over four years of what he became, even how he played, you know, starting as a true freshman, was remarkable.
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I've ever been around anybody as competitive as Philip, and I know everybody's heard the stories of him in the NFL, but he was so intensely competitive, he was so intelligent, he would he would call out, he could just tell our guys on defense who was blitzing, he would just before the snap, he'd say, You're blitzing, and our guys would get so mad.
[14:04] SPEAKER_01: Our safeties would have to use dummy checks because of if he knew our terminology, and so if they just made their pre-snap, you know, words and terms, Philip heard it.
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: He would tell him, he'd say, I know what coverage you're in, and they get all they get all mad, so they had to like try to trick Philip.
[14:15] SPEAKER_01: But the funniest Philip's story is he's now done playing at NC State, he's played all four years, he's prepping for the draft because he's smart.
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: He instead of going to train with some guru, he just trained in our facility uh for the draft.
[14:25] SPEAKER_01: And it's like it's March, so we had our building had a racquetball court in it, and we decided as a staff, we're gonna have a March Madness racquetball bracket.
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: You know, me and everybody's gonna play racquetball and whatever.
[14:34] SPEAKER_01: So we set up like a bracket.
[14:35] SPEAKER_01: I think it was like 16 of us.
[14:36] SPEAKER_01: We did it as Sweet 16, and it was in the in the strength coach's office.
[14:40] SPEAKER_01: And so Philip walks in and he says, What's this?
[14:42] SPEAKER_01: And we're like, Oh yeah, we're having a March Madness racquetball tournament.
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: And he looks at it and he goes, He goes, Where am I?
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: We're like, Philip, like the draft is in four weeks.
[14:49] SPEAKER_01: Like, you're not gonna play racquetball with a bunch of slappies like us, right?
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Oh, hell no, like put me on there.
[14:53] SPEAKER_01: And and and uh it was a three-hour argument, like over the next three hours, like like of like, how are that?
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, just screaming.
[14:59] SPEAKER_01: So finally, like, you know, like some GA gets taken off, and like Philip Rivers is is in the bracket, you know, and lo and behold, it ends up being him and me in the semifinals, and all I'm saying to myself is I'm gonna hit this dude with a racquetball in the eye.
[15:10] SPEAKER_01: It's gonna his draft stock, like you know, Mel Kuper's gonna report that you know, an undisclosed injury, Philip Rivers is gonna follow the first round because of my idiot self.
[15:17] SPEAKER_01: So luckily that didn't happen.
[15:19] SPEAKER_01: The rest is history, as they say.
[15:21] SPEAKER_00: No, it's unbelievable.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: No, I great.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: That was interesting too.
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: And Kirk Signetti was on that staff, right?
[15:26] SPEAKER_00: The coach.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: You know, he I see him from afar, don't know him.
[15:30] SPEAKER_00: Like, seems like a kind of a scientist type guy, football guy, cerebral thing, and you know, obviously great success last year.
[15:37] SPEAKER_00: Tell me about him, what what he was like to be around and you, you know, your experience with him.
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Kurt, uh, it's been fun to watch his success the last couple years.
[15:45] SPEAKER_01: He's got a, you know, what you see is kind of what you get with Kurt.
[15:48] SPEAKER_01: You know, he is he's a ball guy, he's highly, highly intelligent.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: You know, you could see that way back when, you know, the recruiting was such is such a different thing now than it was then.
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I I would have loved to see Kurt had been an offense coordinator at NC State, and it never happened for him.
[16:03] SPEAKER_01: But, you know, you know, coach quarterbacks, could just you could see a guy that could do it all.
[16:06] SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, everything that you need to know about Kurt is just the idea of leaving Alabama to go be a head coach at the level he went to, and and that self-confidence.
[16:15] SPEAKER_01: There are so few people in this profession that would bet on themselves like like Kurt did, to take a pay cut the whole the whole nine to go do that.
[16:22] SPEAKER_01: I think that in a weird way, that's the coolest part of the story.
[16:25] SPEAKER_01: More so than the finish and what's happened at JMU and and and at Indiana.
[16:28] SPEAKER_01: Like, like that part of like, you know what, if it matters to you enough to be a head football coach, go be a head football coach.
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: But wait, I w no no did no power force school hire me.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: No, that's not what we're saying.
[16:38] SPEAKER_01: Well, no, no, no, D1 school hire me.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: No, that's not what we're saying either.
[16:41] SPEAKER_01: Just go, if you want to be a head coach, go be a head coach.
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: And uh and what I know about this, you know, the little I know about this job now is that you know, it gives you a chance to make mistakes that the public eye doesn't see.
[16:50] SPEAKER_01: It gives you a chance to refine things.
[16:51] SPEAKER_01: And if you look at a staff in Indiana now, you know, having the coordinators he's had there now that they've been together for seven, eight years, that's unheard of, unheard of here.
[16:58] SPEAKER_01: And so that just means that there's something happening, you know, right on the inside.
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel blessed here at Duke.
[17:04] SPEAKER_01: We've had our three coordinators here for the three years I've been here.
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: That's three.
[17:07] SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: When you talk about going on seven, eight years, I mean, I mean, the the the continuity with that and how a staff translates their vision to the players is is really extraordinary.
[17:17] SPEAKER_01: So uh I'm really happy for Kurt, his wife Manette, he's got a great family, and uh it's fun to say that yeah, we were we were one-time coworkers.
[17:24] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's great stuff.
[17:25] SPEAKER_00: I mean, adversity coach.
[17:26] SPEAKER_00: I know you had some in Texas, Miami, different things.
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: How do you how do you deal with adversity?
[17:31] SPEAKER_00: People listening, you know, everyone deals with it.
[17:33] SPEAKER_00: We've all dealt with it, we're gonna deal with it again in our life.
[17:35] SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things you do when you when adversity comes into your life?
[17:40] SPEAKER_01: Well, it's gonna come in this profession, it's gonna come.
[17:43] SPEAKER_01: I mean, it it's uh I think the greatest lesson I had in that was my second year as head coach at Miami was the COVID year, right?
[17:48] SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was just a daily dose of adversity.
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: Um because when you drove to work, I mean, I remember driving to work during that season and just saying, what's not gonna happen today the way that I'm expecting it to happen today?
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: It was just there was gonna be something.
[18:02] SPEAKER_01: Somebody was gonna be out, somebody was gonna get pulled, somebody it just it just was always gonna be something.
[18:06] SPEAKER_01: And so you never could spend a moment, I think the whole key to answering your question, you could never spend, you could never waste a second bemoaning, wishing things were different.
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: You just had to get on with how things were.
[18:18] SPEAKER_01: And the way that you know we were all given the mandate that year was, hey, we're gonna play football, march a team onto the field on Saturday, and whether you've got three healthy running backs or one healthy running back or whatever it is, just you know, get them on the field and put a helmet on them and so we can sell this to TV.
[18:31] SPEAKER_01: So it was a great lesson of, hey, don't tell me what you wish you had.
[18:35] SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you what you have, and you go find a way to make it happen with what you have.
[18:38] SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's what I it's kind of what I love about this profession.
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: Um, I think people that that get stuck by adversity spend too much time wishing things were different.
[18:47] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we have four we have eight fourth quarter comebacks here at Duke, which means that we talk a lot about adversity and overcoming it because that means that games don't go the way we want to.
[18:55] SPEAKER_01: We'd rather not be losing going to the fourth quarter, but something happened and it's we can sit around and wish it didn't happen, or we can just go find a way to solve the problem given what we have at the moment we have it.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: And and uh and I just I I think there's a lot more power in taking that approach than than being the victim and and hoping that someone else comes and saves your ass.
[19:11] SPEAKER_01: Because in this profession, no one's coming to save your ass.
[19:14] SPEAKER_00: No, no question.
[19:15] SPEAKER_00: Then you then you move to Penn State coach, and uh James Franklin's there.
[19:18] SPEAKER_00: He was the head coach, you worked with him, he had a great run there for a couple years.
[19:22] SPEAKER_00: Tell me about James.
[19:23] SPEAKER_00: He's now the head coach of Virginia Tech.
[19:25] SPEAKER_00: He's come in, he appears to have done a good job recruiting or or stole all Penn State's recruits and a bunch of other guys, and he's done a good job.
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: Tell me about him, how he was to work with, and what do you expect out of him out of Virginia Tech?
[19:36] SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, it was great for me because when you go from three years of you know being a head coach at Miami, you know, where where you, you know, it's like it's like being on the treadmill and you're running at like top speed, and then you, you know, you go back to being defense coordinator, you can like put that thing down a little bit, you know.
[19:50] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying that it's easy to be a defense coordinator, but compared to like the demands of a head football coach, you know, it it's it's different.
[19:57] SPEAKER_01: And and to go to a program like you know, like what James had, where it's established, they'd been there for so long, everybody in the building understood the expectations, you know, some up with a cignetity and and and and just longevity.
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: You know, that was a big piece of the puzzle.
[20:09] SPEAKER_01: Everyone knows everyone in the program knew James, you know, knew how he wanted things, knew the day-to-day.
[20:13] SPEAKER_01: But they were coming, but it was also a peculiar situation.
[20:15] SPEAKER_01: They had lost six out of eight games the year before.
[20:18] SPEAKER_01: I had won five out of my last six and got fired in Miami, and they had lost six out of their last eight uh in 2021.
[20:23] SPEAKER_01: So it was a little bit out of crossroads right there.
[20:26] SPEAKER_01: But I think James's superpower is his consistency.
[20:28] SPEAKER_01: You know, he knows who he is and he's the same guy every day, and the players really like that because when you come in and you know, an entire organization, when you're the head football coach, if if if you're you know, the old saying you're the guy that sets the weather, right?
[20:39] SPEAKER_01: And if if no one can really predict what the weather is, right, it's hard to know whether to bring an umbrella.
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: If it's gonna rain every day, that's fine.
[20:45] SPEAKER_01: But well, we're raincoach, right?
[20:46] SPEAKER_01: But if if all one day you're sunny and then nothing happened, the next day you're stormy, you know, that gets that gets a little bit hard to to create consistent performance.
[20:53] SPEAKER_01: And so I think, you know, I like I said, I think that's where he excelled.
[20:55] SPEAKER_01: I you know, I think Virginia Tech and Penn State, there's a lot of similarities between those two programs, just you know, geographically and and and from fan bases.
[21:02] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I imagine that there'll be a solid connection.
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: And and look, anybody, you know, I you know, I'm a fan of the ACC.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: You know, I see this league, you know, continue to to prosper and and to be able to challenge as as one of the top leagues in the country.
[21:14] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, Jim, you you know, you know firsthand when when when Virginia Tech is rolling, it's that's that's a that's a premier program in this conference with a great game day atmosphere.
[21:21] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I'd be surprised to see him, you know, you know, do anything but but but but get the get that place rolling again.
[21:27] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no question.
[21:28] SPEAKER_00: I personally I'm hoping that.
[21:29] SPEAKER_00: I mean uh love Duke and talking about Duke, you know, high, high academic school, you know, one of the top few schools in the in the country, right?
[21:35] SPEAKER_00: Especially power four when you put it with football.
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: You know, the challenges for you uh recruiting and and doing something in today's world, but you know, it you won nine games the last two years, unbelievable, it's great.
[21:47] SPEAKER_00: And you you're building something great there.
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: But talking about the challenges, uh you know, how you approach that being Duke versus being another school or a not such a high academic school.
[21:58] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: I think um I think the turning point for Duke was when David Cutcliffe came here and I and I think what Coach Cut recognized is that if you coach here and you want Duke to be something other than Duke, you're gonna be sad every day, right?
[22:09] SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna bemoan the fact that you can't recruit this wide cohort of players because they don't have the the the academic uh grades to get into Duke.
[22:18] SPEAKER_01: So if if if that's what you want, y every day you're you're gonna walk in this place, you're you're gonna be mad.
[22:22] SPEAKER_01: And but if you if you go the opposite and you say we're gonna let Duke be the star, right, and we're gonna be excited to recruit kids that that can get into Duke, it's like the whole world changes.
[22:32] SPEAKER_01: Um, because what you begin to realize is that parents who raise their their their sons uh with high standards and and have really, really high grades value a Duke education and they value a Duke degree.
[22:41] SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's I think that was the the the foundation of success.
[22:45] SPEAKER_01: I think what has happened with the change in college sports in the last four or five years, as we've gotten into the poor era, is that we have something that where where now most schools are just strictly transactional, right?
[22:56] SPEAKER_01: I'll give you this and you'll come play football here, and that's really the only attachment to the school is kind of this deal, right?
[23:01] SPEAKER_01: I still think Duke is transformational.
[23:03] SPEAKER_01: I know like coaches say that and that sounds cheesy.
[23:05] SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not me that's transforming it.
[23:06] SPEAKER_01: I I hope I do, but that's but Duke does, right?
[23:09] SPEAKER_01: Like if you if you go to school here for four years, that's going to affect you later in life.
[23:13] SPEAKER_01: It just does.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[23:14] SPEAKER_01: And so I think that gives us something that we can sell now that's more than just a deal.
[23:19] SPEAKER_01: And I think that also allows our players to want to stay here, and that gives us a chance to retain a lot of our top talent because they will they they like it here.
[23:28] SPEAKER_01: They fit in here for more reasons other than just football, and they understand that if they do graduate from Duke, that's a big deal, right?
[23:33] SPEAKER_01: And that's something that their future self will thank them for, uh, even though they're getting offers to go places, you know, every offseason.
[23:39] SPEAKER_01: So so you know, that doesn't mean it's easy, it's not easy, but you know what?
[23:42] SPEAKER_01: No job is easy.
[23:43] SPEAKER_01: I like you said, of all the ones I've been at, Miami, Texas, anywhere we go, Penn State, I was like, oh, that's that job is there's no easy jobs.
[23:50] SPEAKER_01: Every job has its own set of challenges.
[23:51] SPEAKER_01: And again, like you said, from the inside that you can't see it.
[23:54] SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, and and we're not we're we're we have our own, but but what we have is we've got an aligned staff, we've got a great president, an AD.
[24:01] SPEAKER_01: I want to see Duke be excellent at football, and that and that gives us a chance uh to compete every year.
[24:06] SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
[24:07] SPEAKER_00: And when you're building culture, you touched on a lot of it there in any organization, a team, a school.
[24:12] SPEAKER_00: What are the key things you you do to set the you're the leader?
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: How do you build culture?
[24:17] SPEAKER_00: You hire great staff underneath you, and then bring in the right guys and recruit them, of course.
[24:22] SPEAKER_00: But anything particular, any nuggets you do to when you're building a culture?
[24:26] SPEAKER_01: Well, you have to be really specific on one of of self-awareness.
[24:29] SPEAKER_01: You if you try to build a culture that somehow, somehow isn't really tied into who you are and what really matters to you, it's gonna fall apart because you know, words like culture and those type of things, they they the only way they stand the test of time is that you can't have it any other way.
[24:43] SPEAKER_01: Right?
[24:43] SPEAKER_01: So like if you read somebody else's book and say, you know what, these things matter to me, or or or it won't he won by doing this, you know, and you go in in the first meeting and you say, This is what we're gonna be, you know, if those things don't really, if if you don't live and die by those things, people are gonna, they're they're gonna, you know, I always say there's it's a battle of persistence, right?
[25:00] SPEAKER_01: People are gonna test the things that you really hold dear to your heart.
[25:03] SPEAKER_01: And if you hold them dear to your heart, you will be up for that test anytime because they're that important to you, and you'll double down on it.
[25:08] SPEAKER_01: But if it's something that, you know, again, that sounds good, you know what I mean, that you think it sounds like what a coach would say, eventually you'll give it up.
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: You just will.
[25:15] SPEAKER_01: And then once people realize that, then they'll say, well, this guy's not, you know, he says it's important, but it's it his actions betray him.
[25:20] SPEAKER_01: So the way I like to look at it, you know, and and I I try to give everybody a test, you know, is that when when you when you when you decide what matters for you, right?
[25:29] SPEAKER_01: You know, like or how do you want to be known or what is important to you, I think people usually they usually say the traits that they want how they want to be viewed by others, right?
[25:36] SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, who doesn't want to be kind and you know what I mean and and have a good personality and and have positive attitude and those type of things.
[25:43] SPEAKER_01: But those may not be the things that really, when it comes down to it, that truly matter.
[25:46] SPEAKER_01: What I what I always say is if you want to know who you are, reverse engineer it.
[25:50] SPEAKER_01: So if I called you, Jim, if I if I what five things could I call you that if I if I said this about your character, that you would want to fight me?
[25:58] SPEAKER_01: Right?
[25:59] SPEAKER_01: That's who you are.
[26:00] SPEAKER_01: Right?
[26:01] SPEAKER_01: So like uh, you know, like like Jane, like one of James uh core values was a positive attitude, which is a great, a great core value, right?
[26:06] SPEAKER_01: But you might be an introvert, right?
[26:08] SPEAKER_01: I may not see a great positive attitude every day.
[26:10] SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm not debating whether his thing or whatever, if I came up to you and said, you know, I I haven't sense a positive attitude today, you know, like well, you might just be an introvert, you might not be a very buoyant, you know what I mean, whatever.
[26:20] SPEAKER_01: That I may not, you that may not be something that you that you want to fight me over, you know.
[26:24] SPEAKER_01: But if I if I question your toughness, right, does that bother you?
[26:27] SPEAKER_01: It you know what I mean.
[26:28] SPEAKER_01: If it does, then that probably is something near and dear to your heart.
[26:30] SPEAKER_01: So like like I like so that's what we try to challenge my staff, uh players.
[26:34] SPEAKER_01: If if uh if it doesn't ha evoke that type of response, it's probably not that big a deal to you, no matter what you think.
[26:40] SPEAKER_01: Again, like you want how you want to be perceived by other people, you know, we're all we're all bit wired differently.
[26:45] SPEAKER_01: So I think that's what really matters.
[26:46] SPEAKER_01: I think you can't build a culture w without really understanding who you are because the only way it survives is is that you've got it, you've got to police it every day, and and you're not gonna police things that you don't really that you don't really care about to that extent.
[26:56] SPEAKER_00: Sure, no question.
[26:57] SPEAKER_00: I uh has similar answers with other guys that uh on different takes on this, but you know, I to your point of the you get in front of the rooms that you're in front of of the guys, right?
[27:06] SPEAKER_00: The football guys and they come from all different backgrounds and stuff.
[27:10] SPEAKER_00: If you if you're not authentic, I think what you're saying, and you're not really you, they're gonna smell it quickly, and they're that you're not gonna get their respect's not gonna come to you.
[27:18] SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be like, God, this guy's a fraud or this guy's so to your point, yeah.
[27:21] SPEAKER_00: You gotta be authentic and be who you are.
[27:24] SPEAKER_00: So last couple questions, Coach.
[27:25] SPEAKER_00: Like, what's some of the best advice you've ever gotten?
[27:28] SPEAKER_00: Like it could be from your dad, so an old coach, any anybody, best advice you you've ever heard in your life.
[27:35] SPEAKER_01: You know, there's um you know, there's the silly one, you know, you know, you you know, love what you do, you never work a day in your life, you know.
[27:41] SPEAKER_01: I think that's I don't think that's exactly like true, you know.
[27:44] SPEAKER_01: I got there's there's one real simple one that I really like.
[27:46] SPEAKER_01: It's that those that can do, you know, and what that means is that that can that can mean all types of things.
[27:51] SPEAKER_01: That can mean generosity, that can mean financially, that can mean, you know, how you help others, you know what I mean?
[27:56] SPEAKER_01: Like, like if you those that can do, you know what I mean, if you can do it, you should do it, you know what I mean?
[28:00] SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just a little nudge of a reminder of how to step up in situations.
[28:04] SPEAKER_01: And and also to not judge those that can't step up in a situation, you know what I mean?
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, if you've been given an ability, if you've been given a position, um, if you've been given you know something else, that you know, I I do think that's it's uh it's neat to recognize because if if those that can don't, then who will, right?
[28:20] SPEAKER_01: You know, so I just I think it's a neat little reminder.
[28:23] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's great.
[28:24] SPEAKER_00: And last one, like you got children, you got your grandkids someday, you got former players, different people, you know, twenty, thirty, forty years from now, how do you what if they're gonna hate Manny Diaz things come up?
[28:34] SPEAKER_00: What what do you hope they say?
[28:37] SPEAKER_01: You know, about the right things, you know.
[28:39] SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, cared more for the the person than than just the football player and and more than anything that that what we learned and and how we tied into the things that happen on a football field are the exact same things that that happen in life.
[28:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, the goal the goal of this program is is to give freedom, you know, freedom of all the things that restrict high performance.
[28:57] SPEAKER_01: And and and in my mind, those things that restrict high performance don't just affect a linebacker that affects you know being a father or husband, anything else, you know.
[29:04] SPEAKER_01: So we like talking about you know the things that no one likes talking about and recognizing what's hard and naming the enemy and and and giving the guys the tools how to fight it.
[29:11] SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, hopefully, hopefully those those things are remembered.
[29:14] SPEAKER_00: Great stuff.
[29:15] SPEAKER_00: No, I appreciate it, coach.
[29:16] SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, congratulations again on last year.
[29:18] SPEAKER_00: I know football, we put it behind us.
[29:19] SPEAKER_00: It's all about this year, and best of luck this year.
[29:22] SPEAKER_00: Hope you won another one.
[29:22] SPEAKER_00: You build something great there, and it's an impressive deal.
[29:25] SPEAKER_00: And uh thank you.
[29:26] SPEAKER_00: I'll have you on again sometime again.
[29:27] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the time.
[29:28] SPEAKER_01: You got it, Jim.
[29:29] SPEAKER_01: Yep, I enjoyed it.
[29:30] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for thanks for having me on.
[29:31] SPEAKER_00: You got it.
[29:31] SPEAKER_00: Take care.
[29:32] SPEAKER_00: See you, coach.

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