Ten years ago, Duke and Tulane would be gearing up for a rematch, with both teams being extremely familiar with each other after battling last year in New Orleans.
That’s no longer the case in the world of the transfer portal, and Duke head coach Manny Diaz is aware of that.
“I mean, you look at the people that played in last year's game, it's like the laundry will be similar, but so much personnel is different on both sides,” he said.
The Blue Devils and Green Wave both saw plenty of turnover following the 2025 season, with Duke losing starting quarterback Darian Mensah and leading receiver Cooper Barkate to conference rival Miami, while Tulane has a new coach in Will Hall following Jon Sumrall’s exodus to Florida to become the Gators head coach.
The American Conference team also had to find a new quarterback after Jake Retzlaff led Tulane to the College Football Playoff last season.
For Diaz, the early part of the season is now about finding out more about your team than worrying about what challenges an opponent might provide.
“If you watch the Week 0 games in college ball now, early season, it's going to be just about trying to get the pieces to come together and try to present the best version of yourself because forget about trying to figure out who your opponent is,” he said. “I think everyone's just trying to still figure out who they are without the ability to play an exhibition game or preseason game or something like that.”
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This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Duke's Manny Diaz discusses struggles of early season games
