Manny Diaz emphasizes importance of TFLs on defense

As Manny Diaz takes over the Duke Blue Devils, the defensive-minded head coach has a couple of statistics that he’ll rely on to build his team.

While you can’t compete without a solid offense, unless you’re the Iowa Hawkeyes, it seems, defense will be the calling card for any team Diaz runs, and the Blue Devils should be no different. At ACC Media Days, the Duke leader explained why tackles for loss is a stat that his team will be banking on as the 2024 season approaches.

“It is in our building,” Diaz responded, asked if TFL is the unsung hero of defensive stats. “Again, we don’t just do it for vanity. There’s a lot of analytics, if you couldn’t create a negative play on a drive, the points per drive goes way down. It’s hard to overcome. By common sense, a negative play creates a long yardage situation. If you can create negative play on first down, you’re behind the chains on second down. The game is about avoiding third downs, or the down and distance on third down.

“It’s not complicated. The more we can leverage people into third down and long situations, the more the arrow turns. It’s like blackjack, you’re trying to turn the odds more into your favor when you’re sitting at the table. That’s why I think the TFL is something that enables us to do that.”

Evidently, Diaz believes being able to get to opposing offenses behind the line of scrimmage will be essential to Duke’s success. It sounds easy enough, and it’s something that Diaz’s defenses in the past have been able to excel at.

If Duke is to continue the success they’ve had over the last couple of seasons under the new leadership of Manny Diaz, accumulating TFLs is something the Blue Devils will need to do. Time will tell if they’re able to get the job done, but the ACC is wide open in 2024, and Duke’s defense will be hoping to propel them.

Manny Diaz reveals what Duke’s defensive identity will be this season

Moreover, Manny Diaz has a prior head coaching stint in his past at Miami, but otherwise, the new Duke leader has largely been a defensive coordinator, with his expertise centering on that side of the football. 

So, when Diaz was brought on at Duke, the No. 1 question for fans became: what will this new defense look like? For a guy who spent 13 straight years as a DC before accepting the Miami gig, Diaz certainly has developed a philosophy on defense. At ACC Media Days, he revealed his No. 1 goal on defense. 

“Well, the identity of this defense has traveled from Penn State through Miami, Mississippi State, throughout my entire career — we want to create a high volume of negative plays.”

Diaz continued, explaining why havoc plays are so crucial for having a good defense: “It’s important to us to lead the nation in tackle-for-losses. Those are drive killers,” he said. “There’s a reason behind that. That puts people in third down and long.”

And that sets the stage for a much higher potential of turnover: “No one turns the ball over more than they do on third down and long. Everybody knows that turnovers win. How do you create turnovers?”

For Manny Diaz’s defenses, it’s all about the havoc play, which he believes is attractive to players, since his system is fun to play in.

On3’s Alex Weber contributed to this article.