By Brian Murphy, WRAL

It’s a new era of Duke football — and that extends all the way to the new coach’s footwear.

First-year coach Manny Diaz, the former Miami head coach who spent the last two seasons as Penn State’s defensive coordinator, is the new boss in Durham, replacing Mike Elko, who left for Texas A&M after two successful seasons with the Blue Devils.

Diaz, 50, surprised his new players with at least one decision: He wears cleats to practice.

“He’s out there like he’s playing with us,” Moore said Wednesday at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte. “Never seen that before in my lie. And he wears brand new cleats. I don’t know how he doesn’t get blisters.”

And if Diaz were to line up across from Moore?

“I’ll have a career day against him,” Moore said, suggesting his coach might fare better at safety than cornerback.

Diaz isn’t planning to put on a uniform anytime soon. But he doesn’t mind getting involved on the field during practice.

“You know sometimes you’ve got demonstrate some stuff,” he said. “Sometimes you take off running chasing a guy around especially the defensive coordinator.”

Diaz said he’s been wearing cleats to practice for nearly two decades since he was an assistant at Middle Tennessee State in 2006.

“They only gave us one pair of shoes and those were my jogging shoes at lunch,” Diaz said. “And we practied on a turf field. Those little black pellets get in your shoes. There’s nothing worse [than] going for a jog and having those black petllets in your shoes. I asked for a pair of cleats, so I could have 2 pairs of shoes at Middle Tennessee.”

And a new custom was born.

“I’m not trying to impress them with my shoe game, I promise you,” said Diaz, who spent six seasons at NC State as a defensive assistant before his stop at Middle Tennessee State. “I’m just coaching ball.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com