During his weekly press conference on Monday to preview Duke’s matchup against Georgia Tech, Manny Diaz kept repeating one word: consistency.
“The buzzword to me that comes through in college ball right now is consistency,” the Duke head coach said. “I think everyone's having a really hard time figuring out who's good and who's not good, and how can this team be good on this week and then all of a sudden turn around the next week and look terrible and whatever. I think what you see is there are just a lot of good teams, and the hardest part is to be the same team every week. The hardest part is to be consistent, to be consistently good.”
Diaz’s squad has been consistent so far this season, standing 4-0 after the bye week, and enters the eight-game
stretch to finish the season. The Blue Devils have relied on a rushing attack led by Nate Sheppard, solid play from quarterback Walker Eget, and an improved defense to be perfect this season.
Duke’s opponent, Georgia Tech, has seen the opposite side of things. The Yellow Jackets started the season with an upset at home by Colorado and stand 1-3, with their only win coming over FCS member Mercer. Injuries have left Brent Key’s team barren at some positions. That doesn’t make them a walkover on Saturday in Atlanta, though, and Diaz knows that.
“When I look at our matchup this week against Georgia Tech, they're a good team without a good record,” Diaz said. “And the name is consistency. It's hard to be consistent when you've had as many guys out of the lineup as they've had. You talk about being down four starters in the offensive line. They get the midnight game at Stanford last week, and I mean almost half their defensive two-deep is not available. So a team that we believe has extraordinary talent.”
Duke and Georgia Tech kick off on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Manny Diaz preaching consistency to Duke ahead of Georgia Tech
