The Duke Blue Devils are coming off one of the best football seasons in recent memory for the program. They won the Atlantic Coast Conference title, beating Virginia in overtime. 

The season was capped off by a bowl game win, giving Manny Diaz's team some confidence going into this season. However, with the state of the transfer portal, rosters are fluid and the Blue Devils learned the hard way that you may not be able to count on every player coming back.

Including your star quarterback.

After just one season at Duke, quarterback Darian Mensah entered the transfer portal relatively late and landed with ACC foe Miami.  Since then, the Blue Devils have been relatively quiet about the situation.

That is until now. Diaz addressed what happened with situation and it doesn't sound like there are any hard feelings in terms of what happened exactly.

With Mensah landing a monster NIL deal to head to Miami, it put a big dent into Duke's roster for the upcoming season. However, Diaz doesn't want to use that as an excuse and instead knows it's next man up for Duke. 

He's also using it as motivation for what Duke can achieve this season without him. 

“You know, my overriding emotion is gratitude,” Diaz said in an interview with Andy Staples of On3. “I really mean that. I am thankful that Darian Mensah came to Duke. I’m grateful that we were able to win the ACC together. We had a great relationship together. Your mindset from that very first day is ‘we’re not going to be a victim.’ We won the championship. That banner will hang in that stadium forever. Now, we find a new way to win again.”

He then compared it to when Kevin Durant left the Thunder, they hit a low spot. But now, they are the best team in the NBA. 

Duke has had success the past few years, going 3-1 in bowl games and winning the 2025 ACC Championship. Diaz continues to build something special and with a good recruiting class and the transfer portal, he has them in position to succeed once again in 2026.