Miami football will host Duke and Manny Diaz in 2024

The Miami football team will host Duke and new head coach Manny Diaz in the 2024 season. Diaz was the Miami defensive coordinator from 2016 through 2018 and head from 2019 through 2021. In three seasons as the Miami head coach Diaz led the Hurricanes to a 21-15 record. Miami finished the 2020 season 17th nationally.

Diaz has spent the last two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Penn State under head coach James Franklin. Penn State led the nation in 2023 allowing 223.3 yards per game. The Nittany Lions were third nationally allowing 11.4 points per game, third in run defense allowing 69.67 YPG and 153.6 passing YPG.

Diaz replaces Mike Elko who was 16-9 in two seasons at Duke. Elko left to return to Texas A&M where he was the defensive coordinator from 2018 through 2021. Elko replaces Jimbo Fisher who was fired last month in his sixth season as the Texas A&M head coach. Diaz was 2-1 versus Duke as head coach at Miami.

Miami was 6-7 in the first season under Diaz. Louisiana Tech embarrassed the Miami football team in a 14-0 Independence Bowl win in 2019. After firing offensive coordinator Dan Enos and replacing him with Rhett Lashlee, Miami had its best season under Diaz in 2020. Miami finished the 2020 season 8-3.

The fate for Diaz at Miami was likely sealed after a 2-4 start in 2021. Miami rallied winning five out of its last six games to finish 7-5. The one loss was to Florida State. Miami was unable to compete in the Sun Bowl against Washington State after a Covid outbreak. Cristobal was hired on December 8.

Diaz will be able to get a good start on recruiting at Duke with already established networks in Florida and the Southeast. Under Diaz Miami signed the 27th-ranked 2019 class that he helped recruit. Miami signed the 17th-ranked class in the first full group of recruits under Diaz in 2020. Miami signed the 11th-ranked 2021 class.

The 2022 class was ranked in the seventies nationally when Diaz was fired and replaced with Mario Cristobal. Miami rallied once Cristobal was hired and the Hurricanes signed the 16th ranked class per the 247 Sports composite rankings. The 2024 ACC Football Schedule will be announced on  January 31.