Duke FB Recruiting - Dontae Aycock

[watzone]

Changing the culture of Duke Football means that fans need to follow recruitng:) The Blue Devils have a few openings in the class of 2009 and Dontae Aycock, a talented athlete from Florida would fit in well. Here is the latest on Aycock.

http://bluedevilnation.wordpress.com/category/recruiting-news/

[CameronBornAndBred]

I'm assuming it's a good sign when the recruit remembers his contact's name, that means he is paying attention with interest. Also good to hear Duke was quick on the phone.

[Diddy]

I hope we get this kid. He sounds like he has all the makings of a great Safety.

Currently, and on a going forward basis, I predict that Duke will have a tough time building quality lines, both on the offensive and defensive front. This is not to say that our lines are bad, or that our linemen are bad. I just feel that with the scarcity of quality linemen in existence, a school like Duke will have trouble building quality depth on the line, especially on Defense, year in and year out.

With this shallow depth, it will be imperative to have quality Safeties and Linebackers. I think there are penty of quality linebackers, if not superstars, even for Duke. But the secondary is an area of concern. IF we can build a good secondary, it can offset the shallowness of the front 4.

I say this not to disparage our lines. Our players up front on D are very good. There is not a lot behind them on the depth chart, and I predict such a pattern of quality starters with little depth will plague Duke for a least a few years. There aren't a lot of good D-Linemen, and those few can go to schools a lot easier and more prestigious (on the field) than Duke.

ie the SEC.

[watzone]

I hope we get this kid. He sounds like he has all the makings of a great Safety.

Currently, and on a going forward basis, I predict that Duke will have a tough time building quality lines, both on the offensive and defensive front. This is not to say that our lines are bad, or that our linemen are bad. I just feel that with the scarcity of quality linemen in existence, a school like Duke will have trouble building quality depth on the line, especially on Defense, year in and year out.

With this shallow depth, it will be imperative to have quality Safeties and Linebackers. I think there are penty of quality linebackers, if not superstars, even for Duke. But the secondary is an area of concern. IF we can build a good secondary, it can offset the shallowness of the front 4.

I say this not to disparage our lines. Our players up front on D are very good. There is not a lot behind them on the depth chart, and I predict such a pattern of quality starters with little depth will plague Duke for a least a few years. There aren't a lot of good D-Linemen, and those few can go to schools a lot easier and more prestigious (on the field) than Duke.

ie the SEC.

How did you come away thinking he would make a great safety from reading the article? Duke certainly has depth issues and has to recruit their way out, but I think you are selling Cut and his staff short in that two recruiting classes will start to pay off sooner rather than later. Looking at next years commitments and who is coming back, what makes you predict the trouble you refer to on the DL?

[Olympic Fan]

Looking at next years commitments and who is coming back, what makes you predict the trouble you refer to on the DL?

Let's project ... the only seniors in the two-deep defesive line are starting DT Clifford Respress and starting DE Greg Akinbiyi. That means that next year, Duke will have:

Seniors: DT Vince Oghobaase (a four-year starter), DE Ayanga Opokowuruk (who has been in and out of the starting lineup and DE and DT for the last three years), DT Kinney Rucker (who has played a lot), DT Brandon Harper (who looked good two years ago before injury problems).
Juniors: DE Wes Oglesby (will be a three-year starter), DE Patrick Egboh, DT Ifreke Opokowuruk
Sophomores: DT Charlie Hatcher
Plus: DT Curtis Hazelton is a true freshman who has nice protential, but will almost certainly redshirt this year.

In addition, Cut's first full recruiting class includes a number of touted DL prospects -- DE Justin Foxx of Charlotte and DE Brandon Putnam of Georgia are big-time prospects and 295-pound DT John Drew of Georgia is very highly touted. DT Sydney Sarmiento of Florence, SC, is considered a sleeper, although he was being recruited by both Clemson and SCarolina (no offer from either).

So I think fears about the future of the DL are misplaced. Next year's line seems well-manned with the Big Os -- Oghobaase, Oglesby, (Ayanga) Opokowuruk -- providing a lot of senior leadership. Obviously the future depends on some of the young guys and the new recruits developing, but from what I've heard, Hatcher and seems well on his way.

Offensively, Duke loses three starters up front -- OT Cameron Goldberg, OT Fred Roland and OR Fred Schirmann ... But starting center Bryan Morgan and starting guard Kyle Hill should provide long-term anchors. We'll just have to see how the likes of Jarrod Holt (who has already played a lot) and Jeffrey Cowart, Marcus Lind, Pondus Bonderson and Mitchell Lederman (who haven't played so much) develop.

Cutcliffe's new recruiting class includes one big-time OL get so far -- OT David Harding from Orlando, who picked Duke over a number of ACC and SEC schools. He has four other OL in the class -- the one I like is 6-4, 290-pound Joey Finison from Jamestown, N.C.

The future could also include freshman center Brian Moore, a converted DL who has been impressive so far (I thought he was going to play Saturday -- he was second-team on the depth chart, but he wasn't on the participation list). Offensive linemen just normally take longer and we'll have to wait to see how much guys like Moore and Conor Irwin, a tackle from Texas (who needs to bulk up) will contribute.

I think there could be a bit of a dropoff next year when Cut has to replace three line starters. That will tell us a lot about how well Matt Luke can develop talent. In fact, one of the big things to watch this season, is how many snaps guys like Cowart and Lind and Bonderson get. Holt was the only OL backup to see a lot of action last Saturday. The others got in late, but Holt shuttled in all game at both tackle and guard to give the starters there a blow.

Long term, it doesn't seem to me to be any different at OL and DL than at another other position. Cut is getting a nice mix of highly touted prospects and less well-known guys that he thinks will be good. He had a great record at Ole Miss of landing undiscovered gems (NFL rookie of the year DE Patrick Willis was one of them). Hoping he can do the same here.

[watzone]

I rest my case on Oly's back:)

[Uncle Drew]

Thank you Watzone for the link as always. I hope Duke can reel in as many quality players at every position over the next few years. Depth is crucial in times of injury and helps in practice by pushing players to be their best. One area the Duke program has been lacking over the years has been the number of redshirt players in the program. When facing schools like FSU, Miami etc. Duke has had true freshmen and sophomores facing five year seniors. The difference if skills, strength and speed has often been the deciding factor in games. I have a couple of questions I hope someone more familiar to the program can answer. So please reply if you have any answers.....

1. How many football scholorships does Duke have to offer per year under NCAA rules?

2. When redshirting players, how are those scholorships applied under NCAA rules? Do they get spread out over the course of a five year period or apply to the year they began attending the school?

3. Does Duke have the financial backing to institute more redshirting at this time? By that I mean is / was that part of the rebuilding plan by Duke and Coach Cut?

4. In recruiting I'm sure players want to play, but is it difficult to lure in quality players with the beforehand knowledge they will or might be redshirted?

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Thank you Watzone for the link as always. I hope Duke can reel in as many quality players at every position over the next few years. Depth is crucial in times of injury and helps in practice by pushing players to be their best. One area the Duke program has been lacking over the years has been the number of redshirt players in the program. When facing schools like FSU, Miami etc. Duke has had true freshmen and sophomores facing five year seniors. The difference if skills, strength and speed has often been the deciding factor in games. I have a couple of questions I hope someone more familiar to the program can answer. So please reply if you have any answers.....

1. How many football scholorships does Duke have to offer per year under NCAA rules?

2. When redshirting players, how are those scholorships applied under NCAA rules? Do they get spread out over the course of a five year period or apply to the year they began attending the school?

3. Does Duke have the financial backing to institute more redshirting at this time? By that I mean is / was that part of the rebuilding plan by Duke and Coach Cut?

4. In recruiting I'm sure players want to play, but is it difficult to lure in quality players with the beforehand knowledge they will or might be redshirted?

Playing freshman against 5th year seniors means we''re playing boys 18 against men 22 years old. Not a fair fight unless you are a Chinese gymnast. I heard Coach Cut say he loves to have 4th year juniors and 5th year seniors playing - that's when you're really going to have success.

A school/program gets 85 total scholarships. I guess how one divies them up is up to the coach.

At the major schools, most players redshirt. True freshman playing is the exception, not the rule. Wake Forest's success has been in large part because Grove redshirts almost everyone. I would guess those that don't want to find lesser programs that promise playing time (like Duke in the past).

Why I woke up and am posting at 3:30 a.m., I have no idea, but I hope this helps.

[RPS]

1. How many football scholorships does Duke have to offer per year under NCAA rules?As Ozzie said, 85 total. No partials allowed. No more than 25 in a class.


2. When redshirting players, how are those scholorships applied under NCAA rules? Do they get spread out over the course of a five year period or apply to the year they began attending the school?They all count towards to 85 player total. I believe that classes are determined by entry year.


3. Does Duke have the financial backing to institute more redshirting at this time? By that I mean is / was that part of the rebuilding plan by Duke and Coach Cut?I'm sure it was, but the issue isn't really financial since the 85 scholarship total doesn't change with redshirts.


4. In recruiting I'm sure players want to play, but is it difficult to lure in quality players with the beforehand knowledge they will or might be redshirted?Kids know they will likely be redshirted. In my son's class at Cal, five true freshman are playing (including mine) and that's a high number. Fall camp was everyone's opportunity to demonstrate that they were needed on the field right away. Jim Grobe's philosophy is right, I think -- unless a player is going to see 15-20 plays of action other than special teams he will redshirt.

Coach Cut has gotten off to a great start and apprears both to have gotten the administration to make the necessary commitments and to have begun to change the culture for the better. The strides he has made already are tremendous. We need to manage our expectations, surely, and there will be many bumps along the road, but I am very optimistic about Duke football.

[Olympic Fan]

RPS is right that the scholarship limit is 85 overall and 25 a year -- and every enrolled player on scholarship counts, whether he's active, redshirt or injured (there is a procedure where a player with a career-ending injury can be kept on institutional scholarship and not count against the limit, but it means that he can't play or practice ever again)

Recruits don't count against any limit until they enroll and are on campus. That's why you see a lot of programs sign more than the yearly limit of 25 ... a lot of SEC schools will sign 30-plus, figuring that many of them won't qualify. Duke can't go that route.

There is a small loophole in that 25 limit. A player who enrolls early and arrives in January counts against the previous year's limit -- example, Randez James. Obviously, you can't do that unless there are openings in the previous class and once they get on campus, they count against your 85 limit (the latter is one way that Bill Dooley got in trouble at VPI -- he forgot or ignored the fact that his January enrollees counted with his outgoing seniors. He'd be under 85 in fall, but would bring in 10-15 spring guys and go over 85 every spring).

Duke has no institutional restraints against redshirting. However, Duke's retention success does restrict it.

Let me explain. When you look at that 25 limit and spread it across five years (allowing you to redshirt), that comes to 125 players -- but the limit is 85. If you recruit the max every year and redshirt everyone once, that means you've got to run off a ton of guys to stay under the limit. A lot of powerhouse programs do that -- they recruit the max each year then run off their mistakes.

Duke retains and graduates more than 90 percent of its recruits. That means that every redshirt essentially reduces the number of players the staff can recruit each year. In the past, Duke has gotten around this problem a little bit by putting every player, even redshirts, on a four-year academic program. At the end of four years, if they're not contributing on the field, they are encouraged to graduate with their class -- even if they were redshirted and have another year of eligibility remaining.

Anyway, it's a complex set of numbers for the coaches to juggle. My understanding is that Cutcliffe has a full 25 scholarships to give this year (he already has 22 commitments) and may be able to exceed that by a couple with a couple of early entries. But even so, it's not going to be more than 26-28 max.

Hope that helps.