Rebuilding the Blue Devils: Transforming Duke Football with the Transfer Portal

For a moment, it looked as if the Duke football team’s tremendous success over the past two years could be undone in a matter of days.

After Mike Elko’s sudden departure from the program, over a dozen Blue Devils announced they were leaving Durham. Without a head coach and then with a new one, each day brought the risk of talented players leaving the program. New head coach Manny Diaz had to act quickly to prevent his new team from falling apart.

“Anytime there’s a coaching change, (the players) don’t know what’s going on,” Diaz said at ACC Kickoff. “There’s a lot of rumors, and especially during this time with the portal, there’s a lot of uncertainty. Players have the right to leave in ways they just wouldn’t have thought of four or five years ago. So you have to get in touch with them quickly.”

Through the combination of the NCAA’s 2021 transfer legislation, which allowed college athletes to change teams without sitting out an entire season, and the increasing number of opportunities for marketable players to showcase names, images and likenesses, mobility in college football has reached unprecedented levels. The portal provides an incentive for dissatisfied athletes to leave their current schools for better opportunities both on and off the field.

Diaz then immediately arranged meetings with 15 or 20 Duke veterans and asked each of them a single question.

“What can we do better? A lot of good has been done in the last 24 months, but what can we do better?” Diaz asked his players.

He explained that he didn’t want to try to push himself, but wanted to hear his team’s opinion, “because great leaders listen.” Diaz’s approach clearly made an impression. Contrary to the modern trend of player mobility, several Blue Devil stars who originally entered the portal decided to opt out and return to Duke.

Diaz’s job wasn’t just to convince existing players to stay, though. Although the transfer portal presents a challenge for coaches who must protect their program from teams that might poach their most talented stars, it also allows them to be offensive and rebuild quickly by signing seasoned veterans and potential superstars alike. The Blue Devils’ new head coach passed that second test with flying colors.

“He just pointed out to me the opportunity I have here,” Murphy said of his initial conversations with Diaz. “To have the opportunity to come here, earn the starting quarterback job and work for it and lead this team to more wins than last year. That’s all I can ask for in a head coach.”

Murphy’s reasoning for choosing the Blue Devils was shared by many of this year’s transfers, including defensive tackle Kendy Charles, who comes to Durham after four impressive years at Liberty.

“I wanted to go to a school where I could challenge myself and make a difference, where I could help the team win and showcase my talent at the highest level,” Charles told The Chronicle. “I felt like I was coming to Duke, on and off the field. The opportunities that the Duke logo gives you as a player are incredible.”

Some new recruits emphasized that the university’s world-class education is another reason to bring their talent to Durham, and Diaz believes this gives the Blue Devils an edge in the applicant portal and in recruiting.

“People want to go to Duke,” Diaz said at the ACC Kickoff. “The parents of our student-athletes want their sons to go to Duke. They want them to graduate from Duke, and I think that’s where we’re positioned a little differently than some of these other schools whose recruiting pitch is football, and we can sell so much more.”

Eric Schon was a four-year veteran of Holy Cross’ offensive line before joining the Blue Devils as a graduate transfer and enrolling at the Fuqua School of Business.

“I wanted to find a place where I could get a master’s degree, especially in business,” Schon said.

The Canadian native from Barrie, Canada, noted that while he was “also looking for a place that would be a good fit for him, have a good culture and give (him) the opportunity to develop as a person, the most important thing was to be able to continue (his) education in a really meaningful way.”

“Play in a completely different way”

Duke football’s new players largely agree that their transition to the new environment has been made much easier by their incredibly supportive teammates and coaches, but many have also noted that the transition definitely presents challenges.

As Charles aptly put it, “Change is hard. Any kind of change is hard.” Both Diaz and several players pointed out that the grueling offseason program and intense summer training of strength and conditioning coach David Feeley make for a particularly difficult adjustment for new recruits.

“I’m very impressed,” Charles said. “I’ll be very frank. When I first got here, I really struggled with the intensity, the detail aspect (of the workouts) and the urgency. There’s no wasted time, no wasted movements. Feeley is an incredible strength coach, probably the best in the country. I’m in the best shape of my life right now (and) it’s all thanks to him and his program.”

Schon echoed Charles’ sentiments, adding that Feeley’s “attention to detail is something he’s never experienced before” and that Feeley “is very focused on his coaching and his program. No stone is left unturned.”

Although Charles noted that he had come to Durham in part because of Diaz’s reputation as a builder of robust defenses, learning Diaz’s tactics proved more difficult than expected.

“I tell myself every day that I have to forget how to play this position,” Charles said. “The way we play here requires you to play completely differently. You have to play with great attention to detail and always with force. We want tackles for losses. We want sacks. We want to create negative plays. And we pride ourselves on that.”

On the other hand, Schon immediately faced the difficult task of building good chemistry with his new teammates on the offensive line. After loyal linemen Graham Barton and Jacob Monk were drafted into the NFL, almost half of the Blue Devils’ planned starters on the offensive line are themselves transfer players.

“It definitely takes time to build that camaraderie and culture within the group of guys,” Schon told The Chronicle. “But you have a group of guys that are going through the exact same thing. A lot of us take classes together and go through the exact same program at Fuqua. We’ve had the opportunity to spend a ton of time together throughout the summer … (which) is vital to building that culture, as much as playing together on the field.”

How quickly and effectively these new additions adapt to their new team will be a key factor in Duke’s success this season. Murphy, Charles, Schon and the rest will need to shine for the team to get through a tough ACC schedule.

Regardless, the foundation Diaz has built this offseason and his ability to recruit talented players will last well beyond this season. One thing is clear: Diaz and the Blue Devils are ready to face the portal head-on, and that ability will prove extremely important to achieving lasting success in this new era of college football.