The Duke Blue Devils keep losing key pieces in the transfer portal.
You would think that after such an impressive 2025 college football season in which the Duke Blue Devils won their first outright ACC championship since 1962 and defeated Arizona State in the Sun Bowl that players would start genuinely viewing them as a legitimate up and coming program.
But apparently, the jury is still out on Duke.
The Blue Devils have lost numerous key players to the transfer portal this winter, and now, yet another critical piece has departed, as safety Ma'Khi Jones has decided to enter the portal.
This marks the second key Duke safety to hit the portal this offseason, as star defensive back Terry Moore recently committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Moore missed all of 2025 due to a torn ACL, but Jones played all year and was very important for the Blue Devils, finishing with 35 tackles and a sack in his freshman campaign.
The former three-star recruit should draw considerable interest in the transfer portal, and it's just the latest blow for a Duke squad that has not fared all that well this January.
Duke Blue Devils safety Ma'Khi Jones. Credit: Gaby Velasquez/ El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images.In fact, On 3 has ranked the Blue Devils in the bottom half of their own conference in terms of their transfer portal activity this offseason, which is not a great sign moving forward.
Let's also remember that Duke is losing cornerback Chandler Rivers to the NFL Draft, so Manny Diaz's secondary has absolutely taken a big hit.
The Blue Devils struggled defensively as it was this past season, so now, Diaz really has his work cut out for him to replace all of this talent and still somehow improve the unit.
Duke went 9-5 this year and made it fourth straight bowl game appearance, equaling the longest stretch in school history. The Blue Devils are certainly becoming a force in an ACC that is largely up for grabs, although Miami is clearly the top dog in the conference.
Diaz had previously spent the first three years of his head-coaching career with the Hurricanes between 2019 and 2021 before taking Penn State's defensive coordinator job in 2022.
After spending two seasons with the Nittany Lions, Diaz was hired as Duke's head coach and has gone 18-9 over his first couple of years in Durham.