DURHAM, N.C. – Duke football head coach Manny Diaz, offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer and defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for the program’s weekly press conference.
Duke (3-0, 0-0 ACC) hits the road for its final non-conference matchup, traveling to Middle Tennessee State (1-2, 0-0 CUSA) on Saturday, Sept. 21. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m., ET and fans can watch live on ESPNU.
HEAD COACH MANNY DIAZ:
Opening Statement:
“Got back into the game week routine, game-planning for Middle Tennessee. Had a good, winning Sunday, yesterday. Guys came in, had a chance to review the film with them. Proud of the way that we finished that game. I’m proud of the way we played in the fourth quarter. All year long, we have not surrendered a touchdown in the fourth quarter. I think we’re outscoring people 19-6 in the fourth, which is a testament to our strength program. I think our guys really believe that. We also have not surrendered a touchdown in the first quarter of the game. We started very well. I think we’re 17-3 in the first quarter of games. But we have to find a way to be consistent over four quarters and that’s been the message of ‘can we sustain our attention, our focus and our level of play over the course of four quarters.’ So, every week provides another challenge and another chance to do that and that’s sort of the message to the guys yesterday, and we had a quick evening practice last night, and we’ll get back at it tomorrow morning.”
On how Duke responded to a strong third-quarter performance by Connecticut:
“I got to give a lot of credit to Connecticut. They threw the kitchen sink at us. Number one, when you have the quarterback running game, they could always throw that in there and go forward. You add a blocker in the run game and then I think they ran five or six trick plays during the course of the game. The one explosive play they got on the drive, they sort of faked the quarterback sweep and slipped the tailback out the backside. They had a couple of different double passes. They had the one down in the red zone that we defended. When you watch the tape, that was a proper examination of our guys and understanding their roles. What I am proud of, is that in the fourth quarter, we’re able to pitch the shutout and kind of recalibrate and…
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