After two of the best seasons in Duke football history under Mike Elko, the Blue Devils may be in a bit of a reset with Elko headed to Texas A&M. However, former Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz moved in quickly and took the head job in Durham, hoping to continue some of the same success that Elko started in 2024.
Diaz will definitely have his work cut out for him, though. The now Aggies head coach posted a 17-9 record with the Blue Devils football team. Then again, Diaz knows a thing or two about pressure situations, as he was the Miami Hurricanes head coach for three seasons. While in Coral Gables, Diaz's results went a lot like past Miami coaches, having never won a bowl game in two attempts and going 21-15 overall.
But as with any new head coach in college football, Diaz went right into the transfer portal to fill out some needs in his roster. Going back to Miami, the former defensive coordinator pulled in some major names in the portal, including former Houston quarterback D'Eriq King.
Diaz was able to pull off the 8th ranked transfer portal class in the ACC and only the 40th ranked overall, per 247sport. In that class, there are 10 incoming transfers to just nine outgoing; eight of those are three-stars and two are four-stars.
Perhaps the biggest and sneakiest pickup of this 2024 transfer portal class is former Texas Longhorns quarterback Maalik Murphy.
Maalik Murphy transfers to Duke football
The quarterback room was getting pretty tight for the Longhorns with Quinn Ewers announcing his return. Of course, there was also Arch Manning, the heir apparent, who fans are patiently waiting for, hoping he, like Maalik Murphy, won't eventually transfer.
That was the worry when Ewers announced his return, that one or both quarterbacks would end up transferring. Murphy ended up being the one to make the move.
Maalik Murphy is a former four-star prospect who was ranked as the No. 197 player overall, No. 9 quarterback, and No. 14 player in the state of California, per 247sports. As a transfer, he comes to Durham as still a four-star, ranked No. 32 overall and the No. 5 quarterback.
It was unclear just where Murphy would end up once he entered the portal. Most believed he had talent, but there was little resume to go off with the freshman having just seven games of experience, and only two of those were starts.
When Ewers went down with an injury midway through the season, most didn't know where Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian would lean toward — Murphy or Manning. Sarkisian went with Murphy, which looked to have possibly helped his chances in the portal.
In 2023, Murphy completed only 56.3 percent of his passes, going 40-for-71, for 477 yards, with three touchdowns and three interceptions. Though rather pedestrian numbers, that didn't seem to matter to Diaz, who was able to make Murphy his second overall transfer commit. Mind you, Diaz also was in major need of a quarterback after the Blue Devils lost the talented Riley Leonard to Notre Dame in the portal. However, Diaz and Duke were still able to hold onto redshirt freshman Henry Belin IV and freshman Grayson Loftis, per CBSSports.
What makes this such a sneaky pickup for the Blue Devils is Murphy's upside. At 6-foot-5, 235 pounds, Murphy is going to be difficult for a lot of defenders to bring down. He also has a big arm to make deep throws. Duke's offensive staff will just have to work on honing his accuracy.
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