Duke hires Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz as head coach

Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz has been hired as Duke’s next head coach, the school announced Thursday night.

Diaz, 49, replaces Mike Elko, who’s now the head coach at Texas A&M.

Diaz previously was the head coach at Miami from 2019 to 2021 and went 21-15 before he was fired and replaced by Mario Cristobal. Before that, he was Temple’s head coach for 18 days in December 2018 before leaving for the Hurricanes.

After turning Penn State’s defense into one of the nation’s best in 2023, Diaz was a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to college football’s top assistant coach. The Nittany Lions (10-2) finished the regular season first nationally in total defense, ninth in opposing third-down conversions, and second in passing and rushing defense. They also finished first in sacks and second in tackles for loss, long a hallmark for Diaz’s blitz-heavy defenses.

James Franklin hired Diaz at Penn State on Dec. 11, 2021, to fill the hole left by longtime defensive coordinator and now-Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry. Diaz quickly became a favorite among Nittany Lions players and staff.

» READ MORE: Penn State defensive end Chop Robinson declares for the NFL draft

“This past month has been a hell of a year. I’ll tell you that,” Diaz joked in his introductory news conference at Penn State. “I didn’t know where I was going to go. I wanted to be organic and see what the best opportunity was and make sure it was a place where I could make sure I was around great people — like-minded people that were about the right things — and that we could win.”

Franklin has long been supportive of his assistants moving up to head coaching jobs. When asked this season about the prospect of losing Diaz, Franklin mentioned the need to avoid assistants leaving for “lateral moves.” He also said that Penn State has played strong defense for some time, but Diaz pushed it to another level.

“To me, that’s really the main focus. We’ve got to make sure that assistants don’t leave for assistant positions and coordinators don’t leave to be coordinators,” Franklin said last month. “If guys have a chance for a clear, obvious promotion, we want that for him.”

Penn State now has to fill a second coordinator position. Franklin hired Kansas’ Andy Kotelnicki as offensive coordinator on Dec. 1, filling the hole left by the in-season firing of Mike Yurcich one day after Penn State’s loss to Michigan.

The Nittany Lions are preparing to play Mississippi in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30 in Atlanta.

Duke (7-5) will play Troy in the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 23.