Duke Blue Devils head coach Manny Diaz made an interesting comment about recruiting and the transfer portal. During an appearance on the Andy and Ari On3 show, they discussed how much the program has improved over the past few years.

However, Diaz also said that if there are no “guardrails” to expansion, there might be a time when there will be a noticeable difference between programs. When talking about recruiting, the Duke coach proposed that schools should receive a fee if a player decides to leave the program through the portal.

“If you sign a bunch of great recruits and you develop them, and they go somewhere else, I’ll go back to European soccer. You should receive a transfer fee that you could pay above your cap number. So you can either reinvest in your team or keep reinvesting in the development of your players. Right now, we don’t have that in place,” he said.

College football analyst Geo Milian did not seem to agree with Diaz’s take. He called the coach “hypocritical” in one of his tweets, while highlighting the 2025 season under quarterback Darian Mensah. He joined the Blue Devils after spending the first two seasons with Tulane. In January, Mensah entered the portal once again to join Miami.

“Does Manny Diaz realize he acquired Darian Mensah via the transfer portal, too? The lack of self awareness here is incredible. Completely tone deaf,” Milian commented.

Another commenter argued with Geo Milian that he didn’t understand the transfer fee system Manny Diaz was talking about. The college football analyst doubled down on calling the Duke coach a hypocrite.

“I know plenty about that system. Still doesn’t remove the point that when he brings this up that he’s being hypocritical. Can almost guarantee he doesn’t say this if Mensah didn’t leave,” Milian wrote.

Last season, Manny Diaz and the Duke Blue Devils finished as the ACC Champions with a 9-5 (6-2 ACC) record. They also secured a Sun Bowl victory over Arizona State.

This season, Darian Mensah is putting up an impressive record with Miami. They are undefeated with a 5-0 record. The quarterback has posted 1,438 passing yards and 15 TDs while rushing for 79 yards and two TDs.

How well have Manny Diaz and Duke performed this season?

Manny Diaz and the Duke Blue Devils have been impressive over the first five games this year. They secured a four-game winning streak before heading into their bye week.

However, their winning streak was broken last week after a 28-25 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. After Darian Mensah’s departure, Walker Eget took over as the starting quarterback. He spent five years with San Jose State before transferring to join Duke in February.

The Blue Devils will next face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.