ESPN Report: Penn State's Manny Diaz the 'Focus' at Duke

James Franklin said that Diaz took the Nittany Lions' defense to "another level" the past two seasons.

Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz is "the focus" of Duke's head coaching search, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Thursday, as the Blue Devils conclude their hiring process to replace former coach Mike Elko. If Diaz leaves Penn State, head coach James Franklin would replace both coordinators in the same offseason for the second time.

Diaz, in his second year at Penn State, has been on Duke's search radars for more than a week. At Penn State, Diaz built one of the nation's top defenses in 2023. Penn State leads the country in total defense, sacks, and fewest first downs allowed while ranking second in pass defense, rushing defense and turnovers gained. The Lions have held 17 consecutive opponents to 24 points or fewer, the longest such streak in the nation.

"We've been fortunate to play good defense here for a while, but I do believe that Manny has done a phenomenal job of not only taking what we been able to do here over ten years, but taking it to another level," Franklin said of Diaz before the Michigan State game. "Obviously we've discussed the slightly different style. This style you have the ability to be more suffocating, which we talked about in the past because there is just not a whole lot of gimme, free yards on the field with as much press coverage as we play.

I think he's done a really good job of teaching and promoting standards of what the standards of the Penn State defense are all about. I think he's done a really good job of teaching the defensive players how to view the game specifically on the defensive side of the ball, but also teaching football in general, which we spend a lot of time on. ...Manny has done a really good job of that, of teaching football, of setting standards of how we practice, whether it's a full-speed drill, jog-through period, and has just really, really taken the defense to a different level from a consistency standpoint."

Diaz, who came to Penn State in 2022 after being fired as head coach at the University of Miami, has said he wants to be a head coach again. Diaz told Mike Poorman of Statecollege.com earlier this year that he would do so only under the right circumstances.

"You can have a desire to be a head coach again, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to go jump at the first opportunity — especially with the lessons I learned at my last opportunity," Diaz told Poorman at Penn State football media day in August. "You want to take a job at the right time to take it. I think you can get a feel of that from what is happening here. ... When you’re in a great spot around great people, you don’t have to be desperate to just go anywhere."

Franklin, who recently hired Andy Kotelnicki from Kansas as his offensive coordinator, last replaced both coordinators following the 2015 season. He fired offensive coordinator John Donovan in November 2015, hiring Joe Moorhead in December, and promoted Brent Pry to defensive coordinator after Bob Shoop left for Tennessee in early January. Penn State won the Big Ten title in 2016.

Franklin said that both he and Kotelnicki were "very transparent" during their interview conversations, a process Franklin will repeat if he needs to replace Diaz.

"Me and Andy have talked I don't know how many times and I don't know for how many hours," Franklin said, "and I think one the things that was helpful for him as well as for is, it felt like we were both being very transparent in what he was looking for and what I thought we needed. And for him to leave a program and a guy [Kansas head coach Lance Leipold] that he'd been with for 11 years and had a very, very secure contract with, he had to feel good about what he was joining. And i needed to make sure to be thorough in what we were getting."

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