Duke’s Manny Diaz the latest ACC coach to teach Bill Belichick a lesson

From the moment he was hired, the other ACC coaches have been waiting for their moment to match wits with Bill Belichick. Thinking. Planning. Scheming. Lining up to outsmart the master. Most of them have.

Manny Diaz was the latest Saturday night. He beat Belichick at his own game, appropriated one of his own gimmicks and used it against him — and then caught North Carolina on a game-changing fake field goal that Belichick and the Tar Heels never saw coming and left them for dead.

Belichick has been waiting 72 years to “beat Duke,” according to his purported first words, and he’ll have to wait a little longer after yet another ACC coach got the best of him in Duke’s 32-25 win. Eight rings, but he may never ring the Victory Bell. Belichick had to walk back to the North Carolina locker room past the Duke players ringing it over and over on the UNC logo at midfield.

It was a slower walk than Duke kicker Todd Pelino’s 26-yard sprint to just short of the goal line with 2:20 to go and Duke down one after holder Kade Reynoldson flipped him the ball, but just as memorable in its own way. The Tar Heels had fought their way back into the lead only to get suckered so badly like that. It was no coincidence: Diaz told Pelino and Reynoldson before the game to be ready to run that fake, one the Blue Devils have been working on for weeks and ran flawlessly in practice on Tuesday.

Plans like that have been in the works across the ACC, marinating, fermenting, stewing. Diaz and his staff went to one of them early, scoring Duke’s second touchdown by using the four-lineman formation Belichick used in a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2014 and was quickly declared illegal by the NFL. Tight end Jeremiah Hasley lined up as an eligible left tackle and was left uncovered by the caught-unaware Tar Heels for an easy 14-yard touchdown catch.

“They must have assumed I was a tackle,” Hasley said. “I wouldn’t take that as a compliment. I was able to hide when we huddled up. They just never picked me up as a receiving threat.”

This is what happens when you come roaring into a job letting everyone know that you invented the sport and give competent college coaches 10 months to stew over it. From the moment Belichick came in the door, his ACC peers have been scheming against him, just to prove a point.

Dabo Swinney ran a trick play for a touchdown on the first play of the game, a leave-no-doubt Clemson thumping. Jake Dickert, who has made a lot more progress in Year 1 at Wake Forest than Belichick at UNC, ran up the score after Belichick called a pointless late time out. Diaz threw one of Belichick’s own gimmicks back at him — and then made sure to point out who should actually get the credit for it.

“I don’t know that’s his invention,” Diaz scoffed. “That play’s been around in college ball for a long, long time.”

Given that level of communal disdain among Diaz and his peers, dear God, what’s Dave Doeren been cooking up this whole time? In the wake of Friday night’s win over Florida State, the N.C. State coach was openly giddy at the prospect of welcoming “baby blue” to Raleigh next Saturday, already trying to pump up a crowd that had barely had time to get home from Carter-Finley.

Then again, North Carolina does enough self-inflicted damage, sometimes all the effort to shove Belichick’s arrogance back in his face is almost overkill. The Tar Heels are undisciplined enough to make Chuck Amato blush, taking 12 penalties including three unsportsmanlike-conduct fouls in the fourth quarter alone. (Duke had three penalties. Total. All night.)

That Hasley touchdown that threw Belichick’s own gambit back in his face? Duke only had the chance because serial offender Marcus Allen turned a missed Duke field goal into a first down by roughing the kicker.

“There was defensive penalties and there was offensive penalties,” Belichick said. “We had them both. We had too many penalties on everything.”

That’s not even North Carolina’s biggest problem. The Tar Heels arrived at these two rivalry games with the potential to salvage at least something from this season, and Kenan Stadium had none of the buzz that accompanied the opener against TCU, all those months ago when there was still hope this operation could work, when it was only partly a laughingstock.

North Carolina went and paid Belichick billions to give its football program some juice, and it’s a completely juiceless operation. The offense is plain. The defense too often has what are known to football experts as Traditional UNC Tackling issues. The penalties are infuriating. The crowd is barely engaged.

What’s changed, other than the finances? Other than missing a bowl game for the first time in seven seasons, barring an unlikely win over State and some APR shenanigans?

Belichick talked a lot about beating Duke, as a toddler and as a head coach. But there’s always an argument to be made, especially in football, that beating State is as important, if not more.

“I’m not, like, real smart but I’ve learned that pretty quickly,” Belichick said. “I understand the rivalry.”

The Tar Heels at least showed some fight in this one, rallying in the second half to demand everything Duke had. But North Carolina faces the very real possibility of going 0-for-NC if it can’t pull an upset at Carter-Finley. And if Duke was this ready for this, just imagine what N.C. State has planned.

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This story was originally published November 22, 2025 at 8:34 PM.