Duke Football Players leaving early

[JasonEvans]

I looked in a few threads but did not see this news discussed elsewhere.

Duke has announced that several redshirt Jrs will be honored alongside the seniors at this week's game. The Juniors are all on course to graduate and will not be with the team next season (either because they plan to transfer or because they are beginning their post-football lives). Here is the list:

Wide receiver Scott Bracey, redshirt junior: Bracey battled injury since arriving at Duke. He has 20 catches this year for 265 yards and two scores, eclipsing his totals from the first two years, when he played sparingly.

Safety Javon Jackson, redshirt junior: A special teams fixture this year, Jackson has also battled injury this season. He’s played in 228 snaps this season and 442 in his three-years for Duke.

Safety Damani Neal, redshirt sophomore: The reserve defensive back has played in 10 games each of the last two seasons, logging 154 snaps last year and 146 this season.

Kicker AJ Reed, redshirt junior: A highly regarded kicker when he entered Duke, Reed struggled through a nightmare freshman season, hitting just three of 10 field goals. He didn’t play for the next year and a half, taking over on kickoffs midway through last season. He took over the kicking job this year and has hit 13 of 15 field goals, including a pair of 50-plus yarders.

Offensive lineman Liam Smith, redshirt junior: The backup to current center Will Taylor, following Jack Wohlabaugh’s season-ending surgery, Smith has played sparingly at Duke, getting just 19 snaps over parts of three seasons. He has yet to appear in a game this year.

Safety Antone Williams, redshirt junior: After not playing in 2016 and getting just seven snaps the following year, Williams has played in nine games each of the last two years. His playing time has dropped off this year, to 82 snaps, down from 163 last year.

-Jason "so sad to see Bracey's career at Duke ending this way... I remember when he committed and many of us thought he would someday be one of the greats for this team. Are we bringing in a kicker to replace Reed?" Evans

[Highlander]

I looked in a few threads but did not see this news discussed elsewhere.

Duke has announced that several redshirt Jrs will be honored alongside the seniors at this week's game. The Juniors are all on course to graduate and will not be with the team next season (either because they plan to transfer or because they are beginning their post-football lives). Here is the list:



-Jason "so sad to see Bracey's career at Duke ending this way... I remember when he committed and many of us thought he would someday be one of the greats for this team. Are we bringing in a kicker to replace Reed?" Evans

One of the downsides to not having NFL level talent and having a mediocre future. After four years, most players know whether they have a shot at the NFL or not. Playing football puts a lot of wear on your body. If there's little left to play for, no one can fault a 5th year senior for choosing to move on to their post-football lives.

Reed is surprising to me. He's had a pretty solid season and kicking is a niche spot. He could get a free year of grad school and all he has to do is kick; that's not a bad deal at all. Others were all guys with extensive injury history and/or limited game action, so certainly understandable.

[chrishoke]

I looked in a few threads but did not see this news discussed elsewhere.

Duke has announced that several redshirt Jrs will be honored alongside the seniors at this week's game. The Juniors are all on course to graduate and will not be with the team next season (either because they plan to transfer or because they are beginning their post-football lives). Here is the list:



-Jason "so sad to see Bracey's career at Duke ending this way... I remember when he committed and many of us thought he would someday be one of the greats for this team. Are we bringing in a kicker to replace Reed?" Evans

Charlie Ham is a recruited kicker freshman this year. He will be a redshirt freshman next year.

[Acymetric]

Bracey is surprising. I guess with the youth movement we have going at that position maybe there just wasn't going to be room for him going forward. (I wonder if he wasn't invited back or if he wants to pursue a grad transfer option to seek more playing time?)

The real shocker to me is AJ Reed. After the huge resurgence he's having this year, I thought he would be an important piece for us next year. We will breaking in a new kicker and a new punter next year...(I'm guessing 2019 recruits Charlie Ham and Porter Wilson will be handling kicking and punting duties for us, don't know much about either).

I had just been wondering about this yesterday evening, thanks for posting.

[JasonEvans]

Worth noting... unspoken in all this is whether the players are choosing to stop playing/leave or whether they were guided in that way by the coaching staff. I could certainly see a situation where an older player was told he would have a limited or even non-existent role on next year's team in favor of a younger player and that older player might then decide the time had come to move on or hang up the cleats for good.

[Bob Green]

Thread title is a bit misleading in my opinion. Redshirt juniors routinely do not return for a fifth season. If a player stays four years and has earned a degree, he really isn’t leaving early he is leaving on time.

[dukelifer]

I looked in a few threads but did not see this news discussed elsewhere.

Duke has announced that several redshirt Jrs will be honored alongside the seniors at this week's game. The Juniors are all on course to graduate and will not be with the team next season (either because they plan to transfer or because they are beginning their post-football lives). Here is the list:



-Jason "so sad to see Bracey's career at Duke ending this way... I remember when he committed and many of us thought he would someday be one of the greats for this team. Are we bringing in a kicker to replace Reed?" Evans

By moving on- they open scholarship which may be a good thing. These guys came to Duke to play football and to get a degree. Sounds like they did or will do both and most without debt- which is good as well.

[Acymetric]

Thread title is a bit misleading in my opinion. Redshirt juniors routinely do not return for a fifth season. If a player stays four years and has earned a degree, he really isn’t leaving early he is leaving on time.

Well, there is one RS-Soph on the list

The title is I guess a tad misleading, but isn't all that different than "Duke Football Players leaving prior to exhausting eligibility" which is accurate. I think the title is fine. Players who are not exhausting their eligibility are "leaving early". Certainly giving that all these guys are walking it is safe to assume they are all graduating, which is great.

[budwom]

I too wonder if Reed will go kick elsewhere. One of our very few bright lights this season.

[BlueDevil16]

Don’t we have a small recruiting class? Are we bringing in transfers?

[Acymetric]

Don’t we have a small recruiting class? Are we bringing in transfers?

As best I can tell, assuming the rest of our recruiting class remains intact, we have 4 open scholarships (pending any additional attrition). I assume we are actively pursing people to fill those spots but I haven't seen anything specific reported about who.

Grad transfer, anyone?

[HereBeforeCoachK]

I too wonder if Reed will go kick elsewhere. One of our very few bright lights this season.

He's been spectacular this season. My guess, he'll go kick somewhere next year where there will be witnesses to his kicking....

[Acymetric]

Hadn't seen it mentioned in the thread yet, but per Jim on the front page, Aaron Young will not be using his sixth year of eligibility at Duke (he was granted a medical hardship waiver for the 6th year). Unclear if he is done playing football or will go play somewhere else (worth noting that he entered the transfer portal last year before changing his mind). He wasn't mentioned in the list of redshirt juniors (since he's technically a redhsirt senior with an additional year of eligibility remaining) but safe to assume he will also be honored on senior day?

https://www.dukebasketballreport.com...astal-football

[jimsumner]

Steve Wiseman talked to Reed last week and Steve thinks Reed will finish his college career this season. No interest in grad school.

Notably absent from the senior list is Mark Gilbert, who has been working towards a 2020 return. His absence from the list suggests progress on that front.

I am also told that Elijah Deveaux will be honored as a senior this Saturday. Duke just left his name off the list. Human error.

[budwom]

Steve Wiseman talked to Reed last week and Steve thinks Reed will finish his college career this season. No interest in grad school.

Notably absent from the senior list is Mark Gilbert, who has been working towards a 2020 return. His absence from the list suggests progress on that front.

I am also told that Elijah Deveaux will be honored as a senior this Saturday. Duke just left his name off the list. Human error.

makes sense (Deveaux), no reason for him to stick around...