Duke football notes, 11-21-17

[jimsumner]

A different vibe today.

Injury update first.

Jeremy McDuffie officially out for the season. Duke will go back to its 4-2-5 defense this week, which should move true freshman Marquis Waters into the starting safety spot vacated by McDuffie. Waters played linebacker against Tech in a 4-3-4 but safety is his natural position.

Duke also worked true freshman Michael Carter into the safety rotation.

Senior safety Alonzo Saxton says he'll pull extra duty this week helping bring the freshmen up to speed.

Ben Humphreys status is still TBD. He did not practice today. Koby Quansah is running first-team right now.

Cutcliffe noted that Duke doesn't have classes after today, which will give Humphreys more time for treatment.

Duke has spent the last three weeks--including the open date--practicing against the triple-option. Back to basics this week. Cut says the key is to "go back to where you live," i.e. remember all the work during the spring and fall.

Cut is a big John Wolford fan. Says he's playing as well as any quarterback in the country right now. Accurate, great hands, quick release, great touch, great velocity. Also a great runner.

He describes Wake as talented, well-coached and good in all three phases of the game.

Saxton on replacing McDuffie.

"The young guys have to step up. It's their time. The younger guys have to know what to do and it's my job to help them prepare."

Saxton on defending Wake's multi-faceted offense.

"That's how they've been getting teams. We can't really bank on them running it or passing it. We just never know. So, we have to play disciplined and sound and stick to our fundamentals."

Mike Ramsay on the same topic.

"We have to stay locked in and focused."

No schematic changes at halftime against GT, according to Ramsay. "We just tightened up and started executing our assignments. Plus the offense played lights out and that's what changed the momentum. That's when we started feeding off each other. The offense gave us [the defense] a lot of time to rest."

Ramsay has blocked a place-kick each of the last two weeks.

"Desire, a whole lot of desire. Doing anything well, there's no secret formula, no special sauce. You've just got to work at it."

Austin Davis on the pleasures of run-blocking.

"We have to continue to do that. That's a huge confidence builder. If we're able to do that, it makes it easier for Daniel, because he's not back there getting Tee'd off on. It helps us out because we know that they can't throw blitzes and stuff like that at us."

Duke used lots of back-up offensive linemen at key parts of the third-quarter drives.

Davis on that depth.

"I love that. The guys like it because the 1's can get breaks and stay fresh and it gives us better opportunities. When the 2's can fill in and play for the 1's, it helps keep everyone involved."

Cut says you don't get better without playing and the backups have earned that playing time. He says Duke is redshirting some young talent on OL, which is good news for a team losing three starters at OL. He said he'd love to get to the point where he's playing 10 OL every game.

Duke had zero turnovers against GT, one sack and one post-possession penalty. About as clean as it comes.

Jones. "I think that's certainly what we're capable of. I don't know if there's one thing but it requires a lot of preparation, discipline and being locked in. If you understand the plan and understand the play and what's going on and are able to focus on your technique and being sound, you're not going to be jumping off-sides and things like that."

Duke has scored touchdowns late in the first half against both Army and Georgia Tech.

Daniel Jones says he feels more comfortable running the two-minute offense. "We've been able to move the ball on the two-minute drill decently all season but we've been able to finish better. It helps to be able to run the ball."

Cut agrees, saying that Duke is built to effectively run a two-minute drill, being a no-huddle, spread offense. They practice two-minute every week.

Cut says the key to the offense is "machine-like efficiency," 11 people doing the right thing more often than not.

No discussion of the 5-7 bowl-game scenario.

[OldPhiKap]

Great as always, Jim. Thanks!

[Bob Green]

Thanks, Jim!

Injury update first.

Jeremy McDuffie officially out for the season.

Any information on his recovery schedule? I'm assuming he will be out for spring practice, but he is a major player for next season so hopefully he is good to go by August.

Austin Davis on the pleasures of run-blocking.

"We have to continue to do that. That's a huge confidence builder. If we're able to do that, it makes it easier for Daniel, because he's not back there getting Tee'd off on. It helps us out because we know that they can't throw blitzes and stuff like that at us."

My hope is Davis and the rest of the offensive line have plenty of opportunity to run block against Wake Forest. Feed the ball to Shaun Wilson and Brittain Brown, and force Wake to commit to stopping them. Wilson lining up in the slot and going in motion was very effective against GT. Examples: he ran the Jet Sweep for a 39 yard gain on the first play from scrimmage; his second TD reception which gave Duke a 27-20 lead was on a fake Jet Sweep; and, at least once, Daniel Jones ran up the middle for a significant gain, after faking the Jet Sweep to Wilson.

Run the Ball! [/Broken record rant]

[devildeac]

As always, thanks for the great update, Jim.

[ehdg]

Yes thanks Jim all season for your team reports!!

I agree and we've all been saying for a while run the damn ball!! We have two very good backs in Wilson and Britton plus Jones can also run the ball pretty good.
It also makes it easier on the offensive line when we run the ball effectively as the D can't TEE off on them expecting pass every down when we're able to run the ball well and mix our plays.

[Devil549]

My hope is Jim has at least one more game notes report this season. Duke really has a lot more to play for but IMO WF is the better team right now. Just hard for me to believe we did not get 1 win out of the 3 games against UVA, Pitt and FSU. Maybe should add Army as North Texas beat them Saturday, if we don’t go bowling IMO we under achieved this year.