Complete transcripts of the press conference below.

DURHAM – Duke University formally announced Manny Diaz as the next head coach of the football program in a press conference at KD and Sarah Lynn Kennedy Field at Pascal Field House on Saturday morning.
 
In Diaz's 26 years of coaching, three have been spent as a head coach and 15 as a defensive coordinator, including 10 at the FBS Power 5 level.


 
Duke University President Vincent E. Price and Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King each spoke about Diaz.

"Manny's career has been marked by a determination and dedication to the sport of football," Price said. "As a young professional, he stepped away from an emerging career at ESPN to pursue his dream of coaching, beginning as an unpaid volunteer at his alma mater, Florida State, and since that time, he has amassed an outstanding record."

King echoed Price's remarks, referencing his unwavering commitment to his craft.

"Of course, as President Price said, Coach Diaz has an unbelievable football mind and a track record of success that will allow him to hit the ground running here in Durham," King said. "He is well prepared to lead Duke football into our next iteration of success."
 
Diaz, 49, has coached in 21 bowl games, including two BCS national championship games, and led the Hurricanes to three consecutive bowl appearances during his time as head coach. Those bowl games were the 2019 Walk-On's Independence, the 2020 Cheez-It and the 2021 Tony the Tiger Sun bowl.
 
He most recently served as the defensive coordinator at Penn State University. During his time in Happy Valley under head coach James Franklin, Diaz helped the Nittany Lions to a 21-4 (.840) record and back-to-back bowl appearances, including a 35-21 Rose Bowl win over No. 8 Utah to cap the 2022 season.

"The passion for the student-athlete experience, to have the best student-athlete experience in the country is where we were aligned," Diaz said. "In addition to that, she [Nina King] mentioned it, collaboration and connection. Two things that I'm all about. In the time that I've been here, hearing the conversations with all of our supporters, some of our boosters, hearing their mindset, hearing what makes them tick, to hearing their backgrounds, and it continues the trend. The next person you meet is more dynamic than the next and more extraordinary than the last one."

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VINCENT E. PRICE REMARKS
"Good morning. I am delighted to join Nina King and the entire Duke University community in welcoming Manny Diaz as head coach of Duke football. Football is a tremendous source of pride not only here on campus, but also here in our hometown of Durham, known to many as the Bull City, and among our alumni and friends worldwide. As we build on our many successes, we're confident that Manny is the ideal coach to lead our program's future.
 
Manny's career has been marked by a determination and dedication to the sport of football. As a young professional, he stepped away from an emerging career at ESPN to pursue his dream of coaching, beginning as an unpaid volunteer at his alma mater, Florida State, and since that time, he has amassed an outstanding record. He's made his mark as a defensive coach and played a key hand in building nationally-ranked defensive teams just down the road here at North Carolina State. He knows the ACC well. Serving as defensive coordinator at Miami. Again, producing highly-ranked defensive teams before being named head coach for three seasons. Leading the Hurricanes, his team's achieved the second-best conference winning percentage in the ACC. This year at Penn State, Manny coordinated again one of the top defenses in the country. And we think the best is yet to come here at Duke.
 
With Manny at the helm of our program, we look forward to our team's successes on the field, in the classroom, in the community, and beyond. Manny, I know you've been at some other schools with well-known hand signals, but I think you will feel right at home as we welcome you with Bull City Pride. Welcome to Duke University. We are thrilled to welcome you, Stephanie, Colin, Gavin and Manny to Durham. So, let's go Duke!"
 
NINA KING'S OPENING REMARKS
"Good morning. Great to see everyone and thank you so much for joining us on this historic day for Duke football. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome our new head coach here in Durham. Manny Diaz is the perfect fit for Duke, and I want to share with you all why. When we asked our current student-athletes what they wanted in a head coach, we heard comments like 'someone who pushes them to be better every day', 'someone who values his players on and off the field', 'a player's coach', 'someone who is fun to play for' and 'a man of integrity.' Our internal search committee had many discussions on what we, as administrators, wanted to see in the next head coach. We knew we needed someone who embodied the values of Duke University: respect, trust, inclusion, discovery, and excellence. Someone who is committed to those values in athletic and academic settings. Someone who will create a bold vision and continue to elevate the Duke football program to be the very best that it can be. Over the past week and a half, we worked meticulously to find the right person to lead our football program. Manny emerged as a leader who embodied all of those characteristics and more.
 
Additionally, during my conversations with Manny, it was clear that he would prioritize the holistic student-athlete experience and continue the positive momentum around Duke football. Not only is he a thoughtful communicator, but he also leads with a collaborative mindset to build meaningful relationships and those relationships and connections are critically important to him. Through my conversations with those who know Manny, I learned he is a respected teacher and mentor of young men – all qualities that Duke values and Duke student-athletes deserve. Of course, as President Price said, Coach Diaz has an unbelievable football mind and a track record of success that will allow him to hit the ground running here in Durham. He is well prepared to lead Duke football into our next iteration of success.
 
With that, I am confident that Manny Diaz is the perfect fit for Duke University and could not be more excited. Before I invite Coach Diaz up here, there's a few people I'd like to thank – first and foremost, thank you President Price for once again entrusting me with this process and for your unwavering support. I'm deeply grateful for our partnership. To our search committee, Senior Associate Athletic Director and Football Administrator Art Chase, Deputy Athletic Director Heather Ryan, Deputy Athletic Director Todd Mesibov and Deputy Athletic Director Troy Austin, we've spent a lot of time together these last 10 days and I'm truly grateful to be on the same team with colleagues that bring their genius to work every day. Once again, we partnered with Daniel Parker and Parker Executive Search to bring the very best coach to Duke University – a big time thank you to Daniel and his team for their astute council and assistance in a thorough, strategic, and swift process from day one.
 
Coach Trooper Taylor, you have my deepest appreciation for continuing to be a rock within Duke football. You served as our interim head coach during a time that is critical to our student-athletes. You're a one-of-a-kind leader and I have the utmost respect for you and how you've kept our student-athletes, staff and recruits grounded during a time filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Thank you for keeping our team focused and prepared for the Birmingham Bowl.
 
Most importantly, a huge thank you goes to our student-athletes – our football players. You played a critical role in this process, your voices matter and we appreciate your thoughtful input and feedback as we work to get this decision right. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are Duke football. I couldn't be more excited for you to embark on this journey with Coach Diaz. There are so many others that have touched this process, both within athletics and the university, and please know that I am deeply grateful for your commitment and unwavering support through it all. Now, I am absolutely honored to have this opportunity to turn it over to the man we're most excited to hear from today. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the 23rd head coach of Duke football, Manny Diaz."
 
MANNY DIAZ OPENING REMARKS
"Thank you all. There is something about Duke. First and foremost, I want to thank God. I want to thank him for his unrelenting grace allowing me to be here today. What a privilege and an honor to stand here on the stage and to stand in front of all of you as Duke's head football coach. The anticipation for this moment over these last 24 hours, 48 hours, couple weeks, to be here and to be in front of the team yesterday, it has been as special. Everything that I thought it could be. I can't tell you how excited me and my family are to be here. To that point I want to introduce my wife, Stephanie, and my youngest son Manny. You will have to meet Colin and Gavin at another time. They couldn't be here today, but I want to share this, family is the most important thing in life. Get used to seeing them around here a lot. It is a family program, and we want to make sure they're a part of that. Stephanie is my best friend, my biggest supporter, I wouldn't be here without you. She's the best, and I love you. So, thank you very much for that.
 
There's something about Duke. So, the story begins really in the last couple of years. The first character in the story is none other than David Feeley, right? I would get on the phone with David and as David and this outstanding staff was here, he would begin to tell me there's something about Duke. Then you watched the season a year ago, 2022, and you watched the success that you guys had, and we would talk on the phone again and he'd say there's just something about Duke. And then like most of America home on Labor Day night this past year and Clemson comes into town, and you just see it happen. Again, talking about it afterwards and what is it about Duke? Well, fast forward now and after the season ends and all of a sudden, there is a contact from Nina and she says there's an opening at Duke so, would you be interested? Of course, you'd be interested because you've got this curiosity, right. You've got this intellectual curiosity. What is it, this thing, about Duke? Well, what happens in a process is that you begin to go through the people, and you begin to meet the people and you decide whether it's a fit. Nina mentioned that word when she was up here. The desire to have a championship culture, elite academic performance, and competitive excellence in all aspects of life. That's what I'm about as a coach. To me, that's what the student-athlete experience here is about.
 
So where does that begin? Okay, well that begins with the Duke administration. That begins with President Price. Wow, what a background. What a conversation we had. Just an extraordinary time to hear his viewpoint and his vision for this university. His greater whole. And specifically with all the chaos going on in college football, that his intention that Duke always competes for championships at the highest level in college football and his commitment to that made me feel so secure in pursuing this job. To excel at one thing, is to excel at all things. If we can be elite at anything, we should be elite at everything and that to me is part of what makes Duke, Duke.
 
Then you go on to a zoom call, Dean [Christoph] Guttentag, Dean [Gary] Bennett, Provost [Alec] Gallimore, Daniel Ennis, Mary Pat McMahon, and you're going through and you're looking at the bios, and the track records. We're talking about building spaceships going to Mars. I mean, every person you meet is more extraordinary than the next. Then just in the conversation and what Duke means to them, and what it's all about, you're just more and more interested. You're more and more engaged. Then it's about Nina and our relationship. For her to have the faith to even give me a call to get an idea of who I was and whatever type of man and what type of coach I am. But the more I spoke with her, the more I spoke with Art Chase, I didn't let up. The passion for the student-athlete experience, to have the best student-athlete experience in the country is where we were aligned. In addition to that, she mentioned it, collaboration and connection. Two things that I'm all about. In the time that I've been here, hearing the conversations with all of our supporters, some of our boosters, hearing their mindset, hearing what makes tick, to hearing their backgrounds, and it continues the trend. The next person you meet is more dynamic than the next and more extraordinary than the last one.
 
I hear words like galvanize. I hear words like people wanting to come together. Okay, so I've got all this in mind, and I think back, and I think of someone who I learned a lot from, and who was a mentor to me, David Cutcliffe. When I was a head coach in the ACC and we're on all the coaches calls and I saw the success that he had here. And then obviously, what Mike Elko did and the energy that he brought to this program and the wins the past couple of years, all these things go into play, right? But then it's ultimately got to be about the young men in the locker room. There's something about Duke. And as a collaborator, even though you're all here to hear me talk, I'm here to listen. I want to know what makes Duke special. I had an opportunity to have a team meeting in front of these young men yesterday, but I tried to get as many as I could in my office in the time that I had afterwards. There was one young man in particular who said something and then it finally clicked. The whole story. There's something about Duke story that finally made sense. And what he explained to me was this, he said, 'when we're on campus', and this is a direct quote, 'we are surrounded by the best people in the world'. I'll say that one more time, 'when we're on campus, we're surrounded by the best people in the world, and when we come back into our locker room we think we have the best locker room in the world.' And that's it. That's the something about Duke. That is the culture, that is the key. That's the most important thing and that is the thing to me right now that is so worthy of protecting. There has been a time of transition and as I told the team yesterday, when there's a time of transition, the human brain is built to separate us from the whole. To think of nothing but itself. And what we realize in this game, this is why I think we all love this game, it's a game where individual goals and individual achievement come through team success. If you want to be great, you need the team to be great. You need to pour into the team for you to individually get out of this game, what you want to get out of it. But you have to believe in something. You've got to believe in something that's bigger than yourself. And there can be doubt. Under the uncertainty that we've gone through over the last couple of weeks, doubt can creep in. The what, you believe in? You believe in Duke. You believe in the people at Duke. And it's not a one man show. I know there's only one person talking right now, but this program is not going to be about me. This is going to be about us starting in the locker room and everybody else. In college football alignment wins. And the most aligned staffs, the most aligned universities, the most aligned booster groups when everybody's pulling in the same direction, those teams win. When you don't have that, you can always look and see a reason why. For some reason, those teams always tend to struggle. I feel blessed that I am in a place that has pure and proper alignment. I want to thank, again President Price and Nina for that opportunity. Thank you both very much.
 
So, as we mentioned, what matters right now? What matters right now is the current team. We've got to keep that current team together. There's great talent. There are great people in that locker room, and we've got to build on that. The first order of business is that they have to go win a bowl game. They have to finish the season in the manner that it deserves, in the manner the guy that are going out, the graduating seniors, deserve to go out as winners. I want to echo Nina's comments on the current staff here. Trooper Taylor and the rest of the guys, I had a chance to meet with yesterday. A phenomenal job. Many of those guys are in a level of uncertainty that they don't deserve to be quite honest. We understand that as coaches in this profession, we all sign up for that. I look forward to meeting with those guys one-on-one and assessing their potential for a future here at Duke as we get down the road.

Certainly, from a recruiting standpoint we're in an era where time is of the essence. We believe we have an outstanding recruiting class that we need to finish and get across the line here at Duke. Signing day is a week from Wednesday and we all know the reality of the portal. We're not here to tear down what's been done, but at the same time, we're not here to sustain what's been done. The growth that's happened in the past years, we've got to continue to grow on that. To do that we've got to be active, and we have to make sure that we are selective. We have to pick the right type of people in the portal that can help us win. Because we're trying to build off what's happened and get right into it. That'll be again, one of the most urgent and elite topics that we've got to attack.
 
From an on-field standpoint, defensively – I have to take a pause right here. I've got to again, thank first the players who I had a chance to say goodbye to Thursday night at Penn State. Those people, those young men the opportunity to mentor them the last two years and as a teacher, anyone who teaches knows, you get taught by the young men in the same way that you teach them and they taught me so much. They aspired to be great. They viewed pressure as a privilege. They made it their abject purpose to be the number one defense in the country and that's a big statement, but somebody's got to finish first. Somebody's got to come in first, right? And they decided they wanted it to be them. I'm thankful for the defensive staff that we had there. When you talked about alignment wins. If there was a coaching staff in the country that had more fun than us this past year, I'd love to see it. It's almost to the point where it shouldn't even be allowed. But some great men in that room, and I think the players picked up on that, as I will forever believe that alignment and chemistry wins. Then again, a thank you to James Franklin, for bringing me to Penn State. Letting me get a feel for what that culture was, what it meant to be a part of the tradition of that program.
 
And again, to allow us to have the success we had defensively the last couple of years. But to that point, if we're talking about defense, we're talking about attack. We're talking about aggression. To me the point is to get the other people to mess up. You have to try and force mistakes and get them to lose football games. And we know what does that. Turnovers. The surest indicator of winning and losing – how do turnovers? Turnovers happened in most long yardage situations. How do you create long-yard situations? You've got to create negative place. That's the avenue for playing great defense. That's what we're able to accomplish this past year. The reverse is true on offense. So, on offense you've got to create explosive plays. After a turnover it's explosive plays. So again, our offensive identity we want to be explosive, we want to be able to push the ball down the field, we've got to see playmakers and we've got to be quarterback friendly. So overall, you see a team that you want to watch play. You want to see the passion that we play with. We should look like we're the most excited team to play. And part of that guys, is how we practice out there. We've got to practice with passion. We got to have fun playing football. There's a lot of stuff in college football that is not always fun, but Saturdays, that's special. And when people come to watch us play, we for sure have to look like we're the ones having more fun than anybody else to the point where they almost think we're a little deranged because you know, with Feeley we probably are a little deranged.
 
We've got to show toughness. Great toughness. That's not just physical toughness in this game. To me, that's mental toughness. You want to root for a team that's resilient. You want to root for a team that's never out of the fight. You want to root for a team that never gives up. It's hard to be relentless. Then you want to root for a team that when the best is required, they step up. Competitive excellence. And that's what's going to define us and that's who we want to be. And so we want to put those things together. We're true to who we say we are, we feel good about who we are and we're aligned. You've got a bunch of guys that trust each other and that's when you play fast. And that ultimately is our goal as a coach. So, to me, I'm humbled hopefully, to be the next part of there's something about Duke. And with that, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today to address you."
 
MANNY DIAZ Q&A SESSION WITH MEDIA
On the experiences learned from being a first-time head coach at Miami and what that means to run a successful program
"Yeah, like anything you learn so much. If you're a first-time starter, the first time you're a position coach, first time you were a coordinator, but there's really nothing like being a head coach. I mean, even just now the familiarity of the job itself. The last 24 hours since touching down here in Durham. So, you're aware. I've joked it's like parenting. The fact you're born on this planet means that you obviously have parents somewhere, you get to watch your parents and you think you have some sort of idea of what it's like until you bring your firstborn home and then it's like, 'whoa, where's the instruction manual for this thing, right?' I think after your first year as a head coach, I think you get your sea legs underneath you a little bit more. I felt that our second and third year at Miami, I thought we were on the process on he way of building a really strong culture. The 12 ACC wins the last two years. We won, four out of five, to end the last season, so we felt like we were on the way. We understand again, you're in this profession, you understand what it is, but you're always learning. It's just like what you would demand from the players. You're always learning, you're always expecting that anytime you play a game you unpack it. What can we do better? And so there are a lot of things, plus going through the culture at Penn State. That if you get another chance to do it again, where are you going to be better? But the last part to your question is this, if you had a chance to do it again, make sure you do it in the right place. Make sure you do it somewhere where alignment, where support and expectations all melt into one and that to me is where I feel really good about this opportunity here. I feel really good about the support we have, and I feel good about the timing. I think people are energized to make Duke excellent and I feel that sometimes timing matters and feel like I'm in the right time at the right place."
 
On regrouping from being let go at Miami and what your next steps would be
"It was very quick because I think James Franklin called me an hour after getting fired in Miami. I mean the body wasn't even cold at the funeral. I have to credit, Stephanie, she really encouraged me to get back on the saddle. Because you don't know where your next opportunity – you don't even know what level it's going to be at. I do believe in this. I do believe that, God's steers you to where we need to be and when we need to be there and I think some of the lessons learned at Penn State made me a better man and made me better coach for sure to be here now."
 
On if there was anything he took from a CEO role while at Miami and Penn State
"Yeah. The other thing that is extraordinary when you talk about even two years ago, five years ago at Miami, college football is hardly the same sport as it was five years ago. I mean, December is nothing like it was December of 2018, you know, my first go around at this. So you have to be constantly evolving, because our landscape is constantly evolving. So yeah, I mean, like I mention before you're always learning, you're always evaluating what are the best ways to do things. I've been blessed to work with a lot of great head coaches, and to see James and see his program where it was, going on year 10 or 11. Where the players understood what was established, you know, we talked about the power of belief, where everybody knew what the core values of that program was, and the players can seek comfort in that because, it wasn't going to change day to day. So, I learned a lot from that experience and learned a lot from the culture of those guys in that locker room."
 
On how a place like Duke can continue to sell the program as an elite student-athlete experience
"We will go as far as we believe we can go. I believe that. There's a great saying I love, which is that 'what you believe is more powerful than what you can prove.' You see that all the time in our country. I think how far we can go is in direct relation to what we believe we can accomplish. How we see ourselves. If we see ourselves as incapable, we will be incapable. If we see ourselves as capable, then we can accomplish anything. Now here's the key. The key is once you set what the northstar is, now be obsessed with improvement. We talked about it with the players yesterday. Be obsessed with mastery. We're on a lifetime long journey to master our craft, to master who we are as people. So that gets us obsessed with improvement. So now we have the northstar out there but now all we're trying to do is plus one ourselves. If I can be plus one of what I was yesterday, plus one on what I was a year ago, those are the steps that get you to where you want to get to. Even using this past year as an example. There was nothing we could do on the first play of the first game this season to finish number one in the country in total defense. It was a journey. It was a series of practices, workouts, meetings, down after down, quarters in the games, and at the end, someone said you did this better than anybody else, but it was a journey to get there, and we couldn't be thinking about the end. We had to think about all the steps along the way to get there."
 
On the alignment with administration to continue to build and invest here at Duke
"I think that's a lot of the conversations that Nina, President Price and I had in terms of committing to each other. And what is the vision? I mean, what are we trying to accomplish here. Once you hear the stated goals, referring back to the last question, that we don't see any reason why we can't be elite. I keep getting back to if you're elite at something, you can be elite at anything. And if you're not, then it is a choice to settle for being second best, you know, and so to me, I don't think our young men deserve that. Ultimately it is what they believe behind you. We've got to get the locker room to ignite that belief in what it means to be Duke. In the fact that we can see it going much further. I do think from what I've learned in the 24 hours since I've been here and speaking some people outside the program, I think people are stirred up. I think people now are energized and realizing that Duke is not about one man, and we appreciate his efforts. But this is a collective effort and people are now ready to step forward. I keep using the word that's got me excited – galvanized. When I hear people talk about being galvanized, they recognize that the time is right. We have the right people and it's time to go and that's why I stand here as a servant of everybody that's in touch with Duke football, to get everybody on the same page because this ain't just like, 'hey, watch the head coach do it. No we're all in this together."
 
On how he's seen the NIL era change since being in Miami as a head coach
"Yeah, NIL is like most things, we set out to sea and then we start to build the boat. So, it has changed, it's going to continue to change. Market dynamics are going to continue to weigh on it and obviously there was a story that came out this week. I don't know if it's the same as it was like two years ago. I don't know that anybody can predict exactly what it'd be like two years from now. I do know it helps our game. I do know it helps our young men and I do know that we need to be competitive in it. I do know that that we've got people who are excited about that and excited about that opportunity. But like I said it's just a new normal. So, to your point about what it was like two years ago when I was the head coach, I mean it just was in the infancy stage then and it's still evolving. So, we've got to stay agile. We got to stay flexible because, every six months it feels like it zigs and zags. You just got to try to stay in touch with it."
 
On what he wants his time at Duke to be about and the barometer for being successful
"I mean, we're already asking legacy questions. The press conference wasn't bad, right? 1-0, there's James Franklin. All you can do is go one and zero today. That's actually pretty funny. I will assure you of all the things I've been thinking about what I want to be remembered by or whatnot is far down on the list. I will say this, to me like any coach, it's going to be about relationships. All those guys behind you like I told them yesterday at some point, someone's going to tap you on the shoulder and say, that's it for football for you. You want them to look back at this time of their life and understand that a role of a coach in their life is somebody that sees even more greatest than you see in yourself. And have that type of transformative relationship with the young man. I know a lot of guys on the staff in the back that have done that over their careers, and you get guys when they're 20 years old, but then they get older, they get to be 30 or 40, they become parents, and they understand the impact that you've had in their life. So that and going along with that in terms of measuring success, that is success. You know, success is affecting the people that God puts us together to have a chance to impact and influence. For the program, like right now, I said to me the directive from the top is that we can compete with anybody. We know that's a process because everybody's trying to win. Until we find out a way that two people can play and both win. There can only be one at the end of the year. So, as I mentioned, we see what the ultimate goal is and now we just we look at the next step ahead and just focus on improvement."
 
On what the priority of his first days at Duke are going to be with the ever-changing lifestyle of college football
"Those guys first. Absolutely first. First is our locker room. First are those guys that have already done it for Duke. That already have belief in Duke. Whatever turbulence that we've gone through in the beginning of this month, that we can right that and we can stabilize that. Understand that if we keep this team together that we've got a platform to build on. So that's the most important. Second, we engaged the recruits that have committed to us, and we expressed our commitment to them. Ask them to stay together. Again, that's why I say there's something about Duke hasn't changed. You know what makes this place special, what they committed to is all still here, if not better. And then we get those guys to sign as you mentioned in 10 days. Then, there's really, you know, with the way the portal works there's not a signing day for the portal. So, whether it's our guys, to get our guys back in the fold. The players on the outside who we believe can help us. There is an urgency with that, it's not necessarily in the same timetable as the recruiting class. So, to your point, it's all happening at once. That's what didn't happen five years ago in December. So you've got to be prepared to fight the battle on all fronts."
 
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