As we enter the college football season, there are still a few players out in the transfer portal now, especially with this whole five-and-five rule.
With guys also leaving the NFL ranks to come back to college, with one Cleveland Browns player, Dae’Quan Wright, who was recently waived, expected to go back to college, truly anything is possible over the next few days. Honestly, it's crazy to say, but nobody really knows what's going on.
All teams like Duke and others around the country can do is hope that things play out in their favor. For somebody like Manny Diaz, there's reason to believe that he's going to do the right thing if there are talented players out there for him to land, which some believe there are.
One player Duke was recently urged to go after was Thomas Castellanos, the former Florida State quarterback who didn't find much success with the Seminoles. However, prior to his stop at Florida State, he was an above-average player for Boston College.
“If it's not Texas Tech, an ACC program should get involved. That's the Duke Blue Devils. It's hard to tell if Duke has any interest in Castellanos, but the Blue Devils are familiar with him. Darien Mensah left Duke at the 11th hour to go play for Miami and it left the Blue Devils scrambling. Duke opted to sign San Jose State transfer Walker Eget.
“He might be serviceable this season, but the ACC is fairly open after Miami, and it's possible two teams get into the playoff,” Trent Knoop wrote.
With Darian Mensah leaving Duke, especially given how everything went down, it put the program in a somewhat weird spot.
Duke will have to figure out whether it has enough under center to win at a high level, though there are some worries about that. Even if Castellanos doesn't end up being the perfect fit, there's reason to believe that he can at least bring some competition to what Duke is trying to do.
He probably wants to be a starter somewhere, at least that's how it seems, so that's something the Blue Devils and he would have to figure out if they went this route.