Anonymous ACC coach encourages people to look at Duke in 2025 over North Carolina

As far as college football next season in the state of North Carolina, UNC is obviously the biggest story with their hiring of Bill Belichick. That said, other coaches in the ACC are focused on the northeast end of Tobacco Road based on what they’re seeing in Duke.

Athlon Sports included anonymous quotes from coaches in the league about the other programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke came up as one that’s being overlooked with what all that’s happened this offseason with their in-state rival, North Carolina.

“North Carolina got all the talk, but this is going to be a fascinating program to watch down the road,” one anonymous ACC coach said of the Blue Devils.

That starts with Duke coming off of a 9-4 season, tying for their second-most wins in school history, in its debut campaign under Manny Diaz. That tied the Blue Devils for the ACC’s fourth-best record, overall and in conference play, last fall.

However, of the anonymous remarks, what continued to come up was the program’s investment in NIL. That’s helped them to bring in a Top-35 recruiting class and a Top-25 class in the transfer portal, namely Tulane QB Darian Mensah who got a package reportedly worth a couple million dollars, to try and post a similar record in 2025, if not better, as they did in 2024.

“They’re all-in on NIL, and (QB Darian) Mensah was a big investment for them. If he’s as effective as he was at Tulane, they could be a title contender because that defense is absolutely legit,” a coach said. “They’re returning almost everyone, and last year was some of Manny Diaz’s best work of his career.”

“They’re recruiting high schools better than anyone’s seen from them, too,” said another. “Combined with their NIL, it’s a safe bet they’re going to be able to hang on to these guys.”

“This is a program that’s all-in on football in a way we’ve never seen,” one more said.

It could be easy for Duke Football to slip to the side, whether because they’re at a basketball blue blood or because their biggest rival made the biggest coaching hire of the offseason. But at least among their ACC peers, other league coaches aren’t overlooking Diaz and the Blue Devils, especially given what they’ve already seen from Durham.