Duke is heading into another season with a fresh face under center, and for Manny Diaz, that’s becoming familiar territory.
The Blue Devils open Week 1 at home against Tulane in what doubles as a rematch of last season’s meeting, when Tulane beat Duke on its own field. The setup looks different this time around, though, because both teams are bringing in new starting quarterbacks.
Darian Mensah transferred from Tulane to Duke for the 2025 season, which left the Green Wave searching for a replacement. Now Duke is the one making the switch, after Mensah moved on to Miami this offseason.
The job belongs to San Jose State transfer Walker Eget, who won a long quarterback battle during the offseason. That makes the position the biggest storyline around Duke entering the year. The Blue Devils don’t need Eget to match Mensah snap for snap, but they do need him to be very good.
What stands out for Diaz is that this isn’t new ground for his program. Duke is about to start its third straight season with a different quarterback, and Diaz said Tuesday that the team has built a kind of rhythm around that kind of turnover.
“Well, we've done it for three straight years, right? The first part of your question, the continuity is that the players understand the expectation and then you have the visual evidence or statistical evidence that it works.
And so the coaches get it, the players understand it, players can explain to other players because they've been through it and they can see Duke guys executing and having it work. When you bring in another quarterback, especially when they're a transfer, they've got their old body of knowledge of the way they used to do things.
There's just different things that they feel more comfortable with. So I think what you got to do is when you bring a guy into your program, you got to find out who they are, find out what they do best. And like any other good coach would do is you build your offense around what they feel the most comfortable executing.”
Even with that experience, there are still going to be rough spots early for Eget and the offense. That’s part of the deal when a team is breaking in a new quarterback.
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There is more to the arrangement than what will be seen on the floor. Duke said the partnership will also include financial education and counseling for student-athletes, a nod to the off-court side of college sports that schools now have to treat as seriously as recruiting and competition. Duke vice president and director of athletics Nina King pointed to the shared values between the university and Edward Jones, suggesting the relationship is as much about fit as it is about visibility. [Read more 🡒]
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Duke Opener Will Reveal How Ready This New-Look Roster Really Is
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At the same time, the first game will also reveal how much stability Duke has found on offense after naming Walker Eget its starting quarterback. The line has already taken a hit with Roman Fina set to miss the season because of a lower-body injury suffered in camp, so the opener will be about more than just execution. It will show how quickly the Blue Devils can absorb a few early roster changes and still settle into something recognizable. [Read more 🡒]