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View Full Version : Duke football scrimmage, 8-22-15



jimsumner
08-22-2015, 03:36 PM
Duke scrimmaged today.

Some thoughts.

More like a football game than last week's scrimmage. There was no Blue v. White score-keeping or anything like that but drives were allowed to play out without a pre-determined script. Lots of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, etc. Like all intrasquad games, there's a zero-sum aspect that makes it hard to evaluate. Every yard gained is a yard allowed, every complete pass is a pass allowed. Et cetera.

This practice was held in Wade, a very hot sunny Wade. The new scoreboard does everything but give quotes from the Stock Exchange and Cut says the new field is the best in the country. There still work to be done before the home opener and the absence of the track will get some getting used to.

Cut said there were 10 scholarship players out for the scrimmage. We know about Duncan and Deaver was again held out as a precaution. Wilson, Ajeigbe, Fields, Nash and Robinson are among the other absences.

Let me give a breakdown by position.

QB-All four played. Sirk looked sharp, although he did give up a sack on a play where he could have thrown it away. It's his job. As an aside, Daniel Jones is a keeper. Gonna be a good one.

RB-Getting a bit queasy about this one. Powell got a few carries early and took off the rest of the scrimmage. Nico Pierre, Zach Bolden and Quay Mann got the bulk of the work. Yes, Quay Mann, a back-up safety, was moved to RB this week. I asked Cut if we should read something into that and he said he couldn't even read anything into it, because he just didn't know. He seemed a bit frustrated by Wilson's inability to get back on the field.

That said, Pierre looks like he's settling in. He's still running too high--he admitted as much--and he's still learning to block. But he ran through some tackles and scored a nice touchdown, when he bounced outside and scored from in close.

TE-Deaver didn't play. A precaution. Duke ran some two-tight-end set with Schneider and Reeves. Beilinson had a few catches against the scrubs. Koppenhaver hasn't played in the two scrimmages and seems a likely candidate for a redshirt.

WR-A cast of thousands. Max McCaffrey catches everything and is the corps mama hen. Barnes had a few go just off his hands. Not exactly drops but not exactly uncatchable, either. Rahming got crunched a couple of times--the dude is small. Taylor caught some short stuff as did former QB Quay Chambers. Lee, Alls, Young all made appearances without separating themselves.

A new name in the tryout list. Duke moved true freshman Keyston Fuller from CB to WR this week and he caught a long (c. 70 yards) bomb for a TD. Now he doesn't know the plays--it was a basic fly pattern--and he did beat a walk-on or two. But Cut said after the scrimmage that Fuller has great top-end speed and he could be a sleeper.

Fellow freshman Quentin Harris threw the pass.

Lots of sorting out to do at WR.

OL-Cody Robinson didn't play. Tanner Stone started at RG. Austin Davis played some center, played some guard, looks like he'll see the field a lot. Swiss Army Knife. Pass protection was good and the OL imposed its will on the DL on a 17-play drive that culminated in Pierre's TD run.

DL-Played a lot of people. Not sure if it was the heat or just trying to get evaluations. I'm not sure if I saw Britton Grier at all. Kyler Brown got some work but back-ups like Allan Jackson, Dominic McDonald and true freshman Twazanga Mugala got a lot of work at DE.

LB.Redshirt freshman Tinashe Bere looked good. Humphries and Carmichael either didn't play or didn't play much.

DB-Cash played, D. Edwards and Fields did not. True freshman safety Brandon Feamster had a pick and safety Philip Carter leveled Rahming on a clean hit. Johnathan Lloyd and true freshman Jeremy McDuffie made some nice plays, as did incumbent starters Breon Borders and Deondre Singleton.

Special teams. Some pre-scrimmage run-throughs, I have no idea who's going to return punts.

Walk-on PK Will Kline--he's a lefty--has a strong leg. AFAIK Ross Martin will handle the kick-off duties this season but Kline could be a Willoughbyesq option.

Duke will take Monday off before getting back to hitting this Tuesday. Because of the Thursday opener against Tulane in 12 days, Duke will have a media availability next Sunday instead of the regular Tuesday time. Will try to report after that.

Until then . . .

Olympic Fan
08-22-2015, 03:58 PM
Keyston Fuller also caught a 30-40 yards slant from Daniel Jones earlier in the scrimmage. He looked impressive -- although, as Jim notes, his work was basically against the third-team.

And Brandon Boyce saw considerable action at DT -- alternating with the first team. The 255-pound freshman seemed to be ahead of 300-pound redshirts Ferguson and Cerenord.

I'm sure I did see Grier at DE ... and I'm pretty sure that I did see Cody Robinson with the second team OL. It may just be that Tanner Stone has beaten him out.

Sirk was hard to evaluate in the scrimmage because he was wearing a green shirt. That meant he could run, but was down the moment he was touched. I kind of think he dodged Bere on the blitz when he was sacked, but Bere got a hand out and touched him. The point is that Sirk couldn't run the zone read and that's one of his strengths. It was like Renfree -- he would run the zone read, but it wasn't a real read because he handed off every time.

Sirk missed his first four passes, but two were dropped and one was a deep throw to Barnes that was just off his fingertips. One was a bad throw. After that. he was sharp -- he hit three of four passes on his second drive and two of three on the TD drive.

BTW: I thought the two most impressive true freshmen I saw were defensive backs -- Feamster and especially McDuffie. It's amazing the DB talent Cut is collecting -- not even counting Gilbert and Singleton in the incoming class. The best thing about it is that Jeremy Cash is the only senior in the secondary. Duke's defensive backfield is going to be good for a long, long time.

And, I agree with Jim, walk-on Will Kline has a very strong leg and (for this scrimmage at least) seemed to be very accurate. That might not mean much this year, but he'll be a nice option to have next year after Martin graduates.

OZZIE4DUKE
08-22-2015, 04:04 PM
Great update, as usual Jim. Thanks!

LGD!

Bob Green
08-22-2015, 04:11 PM
Thanks for the details, Jim. There is a lot of info to digest with your RB and WR report being less than thrilling. The OL sounds solid. More position changes to chew on...Keyston Fuller to WR isn't surprising with the depth available in the secondary. "Great top end speed" are sweet words to read. It sound likes the staff has lots to finalize over the next 11 days.

We will have to wait for the pregame injury report to see official status of players who have been held out of practice/scrimmages. Hopefully most of the holdouts are precautionary. The situation with Wilson is troubling. I hope his injury doesn't turn into something which lingers...

Bob Green
08-22-2015, 04:20 PM
Highlights video from GoDuke.com:

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=210285401&DB_OEM_ID=4200

jimsumner
08-22-2015, 04:29 PM
Thanks for the details, Jim. There is a lot of info to digest with your RB and WR report being less than thrilling. The OL sounds solid. More position changes to chew on...Keyston Fuller to WR isn't surprising with the depth available in the secondary. "Great top end speed" are sweet words to read. It sound likes the staff has lots to finalize over the next 11 days.

We will have to wait for the pregame injury report to see official status of players who have been held out of practice/scrimmages. Hopefully most of the holdouts are precautionary. The situation with Wilson is troubling. I hope his injury doesn't turn into something which lingers...

I don't think Duke is unhappy with the wide receivers. It's just that Duke has 11 or so candidates-I'm including Alls--and I'm pretty sure they aren't going to have an 11-receiver rotation. You can't give that many guys an adequate number of reps in practice and you've got relatively inexperienced QBs who need to start working with a core group, over and over and over again.

So, Duke is going to have to make some decisions soon. Do you want to play three true-freshmen WRs? Is Smith just a kick returner? Has Nash run out of time to make his case?

The same thing applies to other positions, where the depth chart remains murky and Duke needs to start getting some clarity.

That what happens when you start recruiting talent in depth. Duke hasn't always had this problem. :)

Bob Green
08-22-2015, 04:37 PM
I don't think Duke is unhappy with the wide receivers.

Thanks for the clarification. I guess I am guilty of reading more into your original post than was there. With the running backs dinged up, the wide receivers need to be on point.

Indoor66
08-23-2015, 01:20 PM
I was poking around this morning and ran into this site that ranks Duke #31 in RPI ranking (http://www.realtimerpi.com/college_football/ncaaf_power_rankings.html). Anyone know anything about this site?

I think I misread the listings.

BigWayne
08-23-2015, 02:03 PM
I was poking around this morning and ran into this site that ranks Duke #31 in RPI ranking (http://www.realtimerpi.com/college_football/ncaaf_power_rankings.html). Anyone know anything about this site?

I think I misread the listings.
At the bottom of that page, there is a link to the previous year ratings. You will see the teams in the same order. This type of a ranking system is based on results and results of opponents, so the order means nothing until after a few weeks of the season.

budwom
08-23-2015, 04:22 PM
I don't think Duke is unhappy with the wide receivers. It's just that Duke has 11 or so candidates-I'm including Alls--and I'm pretty sure they aren't going to have an 11-receiver rotation. You can't give that many guys an adequate number of reps in practice and you've got relatively inexperienced QBs who need to start working with a core group, over and over and over again.

So, Duke is going to have to make some decisions soon. Do you want to play three true-freshmen WRs? Is Smith just a kick returner? Has Nash run out of time to make his case?

The same thing applies to other positions, where the depth chart remains murky and Duke needs to start getting some clarity.

That what happens when you start recruiting talent in depth. Duke hasn't always had this problem. :)

Today's article about the wide receivers in the Harold's Son sure conveys some concern on the part of Cut. Rather blunt by Cut standards.

mattman91
08-23-2015, 05:42 PM
Today's article about the wide receivers in the Harold's Son sure conveys some concern on the part of Cut. Rather blunt by Cut standards.


Here is the link (http://www.heraldsun.com/sports/x929090103/Cutcliffe-seeks-more-consistency-from-Duke-WRs).

“Max is leading the way,” Cutcliffe said. “Max is the most dependable guy we’ve got at wide receiver right now. Johnell missed a couple of real opportunities today. He’s going to have to understand that if you are going to play here, at that position, you are going to have to be consistent.”

duke blue brewcrew
08-24-2015, 08:55 AM
Here is the link (http://www.heraldsun.com/sports/x929090103/Cutcliffe-seeks-more-consistency-from-Duke-WRs).

“Max is leading the way,” Cutcliffe said. “Max is the most dependable guy we’ve got at wide receiver right now. Johnell missed a couple of real opportunities today. He’s going to have to understand that if you are going to play here, at that position, you are going to have to be consistent.”

Many thanks to Jim for sharing his thoughts on the 2nd scrimmage. Oly, thanks for your contributions as well. IMO - this has always been the knock on Barnes. Capable of amazing things on the field, but hasn't shown the consistency that coaches would like to see. I know next to nothing about evaluating talent, I'm just a die-hard fan. From what I've seen while watching games in the past, Barnes has outstanding athleticism, but his hands betray him sometimes. That's why I was surprised by all of the preseason reports stating that Johnell had locked up one of the starting spots. My hope was/is that he's found a way in the off season to eliminate the inconsistencies from his game. Just one fan's two cents.

Dev11
08-24-2015, 10:44 AM
He’s going to have to understand that if you are going to play here, at that position, you are going to have to be consistent.”

The last three lead receivers to graduate from Duke have all landed in the ACC top ten in career receptions, including the top two spots, and the top 25 in career receiving yards, including two of the top three. Coach Cutcliffe isn't messing around with that position.

luvdahops
08-24-2015, 11:28 AM
Many thanks to Jim for sharing his thoughts on the 2nd scrimmage. Oly, thanks for your contributions as well. IMO - this has always been the knock on Barnes. Capable of amazing things on the field, but hasn't shown the consistency that coaches would like to see. I know next to nothing about evaluating talent, I'm just a die-hard fan. From what I've seen while watching games in the past, Barnes has outstanding athleticism, but his hands betray him sometimes. That's why I was surprised by all of the preseason reports stating that Johnell had locked up one of the starting spots. My hope was/is that he's found a way in the off season to eliminate the inconsistencies from his game. Just one fan's two cents.

I was surprised by those reports, too. I think we have a large enough sample size on Barnes at this point to see that his hands are erratic at best. He undoubtedly game-breaking athleticism, but he has to catch the ball first. I would love to be wrong, but I suspect that will remain an issue through the remainder of his career at Duke.

Bob Green
08-24-2015, 04:14 PM
I'm firmly in the group which believes Johnell Barnes will be just fine. The sudden talk of him having "stone hands" is a bit overblown in my opinion. Coach Cutcliffe used strong words to hammer home a lesson to Barnes on the importance of consistency. Call it tough love. I don't remember a lot of drop balls by Barnes in games the past two years. What I remember is an apparent lack of chemistry between Barnes and Boone. They rarely seemed on the same page. I'm optimistic better chemistry will exist between Barnes and Sirk.

Max McCaffrey (Y) and Johnell Barnes (X) will be starters. The germane question in my mind is who is going to be the starting Z receiver. It appears to be wide open according to the scrimmage reports provided by those in attendance.

luvdahops
08-24-2015, 05:31 PM
I'm firmly in the group which believes Johnell Barnes will be just fine. The sudden talk of him having "stone hands" is a bit overblown in my opinion. Coach Cutcliffe used strong words to hammer home a lesson to Barnes on the importance of consistency. Call it tough love. I don't remember a lot of drop balls by Barnes in games the past two years. What I remember is an apparent lack of chemistry between Barnes and Boone. They rarely seemed on the same page. I'm optimistic better chemistry will exist between Barnes and Sirk.

Max McCaffrey (Y) and Johnell Barnes (X) will be starters. The germane question in my mind is who is going to be the starting Z receiver. It appears to be wide open according to the scrimmage reports provided by those in attendance.

Bob - In hindsight, my wording was probably not the best. While I definitely recall some outright drops by Barnes over the past two years, probably more frequent were instances of not adjusting to balls in the air that should have been catchable. His route running has always seemed a little stiff to me as well, especially for someone with so much athleticism generally. So to put it another, hopefully better way, Johnell's issue is not really hands in isolation, but rather doing everything required, with consistency, to make the catch.

sagegrouse
08-24-2015, 05:44 PM
I dunno, guys and gals, but if Cutcliffe is downgrading the prospects for his team as a psychological tactic, it's working -- on me!

duke blue brewcrew
08-26-2015, 09:31 AM
Here's a QB preview that is a great read. It touches on all 5 (including Pierre) in the breakdown with some good insight into each player. I really like what I'm hearing about Jones. That kid will have to beat out Harris in the future, but it sounds like he has some great tools. There's also a video highlight pkg from the first scrimmage embedded. Sirk made some tough throws into tight spaces while on the move...it's nice to see! Enjoy everyone.

http://duke.247sports.com/Article/Thomas-Sirk-is-a-new-starter-but-hes-a-Duke-Football-veteran-38956222

jimsumner
08-26-2015, 12:06 PM
Bob - In hindsight, my wording was probably not the best. While I definitely recall some outright drops by Barnes over the past two years, probably more frequent were instances of not adjusting to balls in the air that should have been catchable. His route running has always seemed a little stiff to me as well, especially for someone with so much athleticism generally. So to put it another, hopefully better way, Johnell's issue is not really hands in isolation, but rather doing everything required, with consistency, to make the catch.

Yes, Barnes is a bit of a puzzlement. There's a basketball term "rebounds outside his/her zone." I think there's a receiver analog. Mediocre receivers catch most balls well thrown to them. Good receivers catch almost all balls well thrown to them. Great receivers add catching balls not well thrown, elevating for overthrown balls, getting down and dirty for underthrown balls, winning jump balls in traffic, tip-toeing down the sideline.

We saw that from Varner, from Vernon, from Crowder, even occasionally from Scott or Blakeney. We haven't seen that from Barnes. It should also be noted that Barnes barely averaged 10 yards per catch last season. Yes, a lot of his receptions were short passes near the line of scrimmage. But so were Crowder's. That play is designed to get the ball into the hands of playmakers in space. Slip a tackle and you're off to the races. Barnes has not yet shown the knack to slip tackles.

Barnes seems to have the tools. But putting them together is proving problematic for him.

It seems to me that he's at a crossroads. I was with Cut when he made his post-scrimmage comments and it was clear that he was sending Barnes a message. Barnes is a junior and IMO he could go either way, becoming a top-level ACC receiver or treading water until passed by younger talents. It's a lot better for Duke if the former is the case.

McCaffrey is really, really solid. His teammates call him "good hands Max." But he's not the guy who's going to toast an ACC corner on a 60-yard fly pattern. Barnes could be. Barnes and McCaffrey are the only really experienced WRs and Duke would benefit from having some experience on the field to help shepherd the youngsters into prime time.

Barnes is a big piece of the puzzle. Here's hoping it starts clicking for him.

budwom
08-26-2015, 12:35 PM
^Opportunity knocks for a lot of our young receivers, let's hope someone (several) steps up....

Avvocato
08-28-2015, 11:57 AM
There's no game thread yet, and since our opener is (unbelievably) less than a week away, I'm getting in game mode. Thinking about the opener, there's actually a big wild card for both teams. We're opening up in New Orleans around the 10th anniversary of Katrina, which is getting lots of headlines, naturally. Tulane and its fans may be riled up. We have an inexperienced starting quarterback going on the road into what may be an emotionally charged crowd. If Duke were to turn the ball over early, fall behind, etc., the emotion in the building will be interesting to see and could put a lot of pressure on Sirk (and inexperienced receivers) in a surprisingly tough atmosphere. Of course, the emotional crowd could work the other way for Tulane and cause them to turn it over early, etc. It will be an interesting test for our guys in ways we may not have expected against Tulane. Can't wait.

BigWayne
08-28-2015, 12:29 PM
There's no game thread yet, and since our opener is (unbelievably) less than a week away, I'm getting in game mode. Thinking about the opener, there's actually a big wild card for both teams. We're opening up in New Orleans around the 10th anniversary of Katrina, which is getting lots of headlines, naturally. Tulane and its fans may be riled up. We have an inexperienced starting quarterback going on the road into what may be an emotionally charged crowd. If Duke were to turn the ball over early, fall behind, etc., the emotion in the building will be interesting to see and could put a lot of pressure on Sirk (and inexperienced receivers) in a surprisingly tough atmosphere. Of course, the emotional crowd could work the other way for Tulane and cause them to turn it over early, etc. It will be an interesting test for our guys in ways we may not have expected against Tulane. Can't wait.

There's the beginnings of a tropical wave sitting just north of the Yucatan. This time of year, you could get a dose of tropical moisture in New Orleans to make things interesting.

Olympic Fan
08-28-2015, 12:53 PM
There's the beginnings of a tropical wave sitting just north of the Yucatan. This time of year, you could get a dose of tropical moisture in New Orleans to make things interesting.

I think this Duke team is better prepared to deal with inclement weather than in the past -- in that we look to be stronger on the ground and less dependent on the forward pass.

Of course, the conventional wisdom is that extreme weather helps the underdog ...

OldPhiKap
08-28-2015, 01:44 PM
{nevermind}

duke blue brewcrew
08-28-2015, 04:29 PM
I think this Duke team is better prepared to deal with inclement weather than in the past -- in that we look to be stronger on the ground and less dependent on the forward pass.

Of course, the conventional wisdom is that extreme weather helps the underdog ...

Especially when the underdog is at home...