Duke's Manny Diaz listed among top-10 ACC football coaches
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USA Today ranked all 17 ACC head coaches ahead of the 2026 college football season, and Duke’s Manny Diaz came in at No. 7 after leading the program to an ACC Championship Game victory.
The third-year head coach entered the rankings behind Georgia Tech’s Brent Key, Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, Virginia Tech’s James Franklin, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Miami’s Mario Cristobal.
Austin Curtright, who wrote the USA Today piece, called Diaz’s tenure "confusing," adding that Diaz has done “a solid job” thus far as the program’s head man.
He’s absolutely correct.
Whether it's thanks to a weird tiebreaker system or not is irrelevant; Duke WON the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2025 despite a 7-5 regular-season record, which saw the Blue Devils drop a game to the likes of UConn.
At a school that’s not traditionally terrific at football, Diaz has quite honestly done a remarkable job taking over for Mike Elko after he departed for Aggieland. He’s gone 18-9, leading the team to a conference title and a bowl win.
Unfortunately, this much positive publicity, as Curtright mentions in his story, could come back to bite the Blue Devils.
Due to heavy academic requirements and a non-traditional football program, successful coaches like Diaz could be swayed to coach elsewhere.
Curtright notes that Diaz could be a “candidate for a better job” should he have another strong year in 2026.
Elsewhere in the rankings, North Carolina’s Bill Belichick slotted in dead last at No. 17 after a 4-8 2025 campaign. The 74-year-old needs to start winning games if he wants to prove the decision-makers in Chapel Hill correct after their experimental hire.
NC State’s Dave Doeren and Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert came in at 11th and 8th, respectively, making Diaz the highest-ranked head coach in the state.
If he continues to trend upward and stick around, we could be bearing witness to something special in Durham very soon.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Duke's Manny Diaz listed among top-10 ACC football coaches
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