Mike Elko adds Rutgers DC to staff. New Duke coordinator also brings SEC experience
Duke’s next defensive coordinator will arrive from a conference where defense was stellar this season.
Robb Smith, who led a Rutgers defense that allowed just 24.6 points per game last season, is leaving that Big Ten school to join Mike Elko’s staff with the Blue Devils.
Smith and Elko worked together at Texas A&M in 2019, when Elko was the Aggies’ defensive coordinator and Smith was a defensive analyst.
The last two seasons, Smith was defensive coordinator at Rutgers. The 24.6 points the Scarlet Knights allowed this season was far better than the 39.8 points per game opponents scored against Duke this season. That’s a big reason why the Blue Devils went 3-9, including 0-8 in ACC play, leading to head coach David Cutcliffe and his staff being replaced this month.
Smith, who will coach linebackers in addition to defensive coordinator duties, is the second assistant added to Elko’s staff. Lyle Hemphill, Wake Forest’s defensive coordinator this season, has been hired to coach Duke’s safeties.
Duke will be the fifth school to employ Smith as defensive coordinator, joining Maine, Rutgers, Arkansas and Minnesota.
This latest stint is the second for Smith at Rutgers. He also coached the Scarlet Knights from 2009-12, handling defensive coordinator duties his final season.
After coaching linebackers with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013, Smith returned to college football as defensive coordinator at Arkansas from 2014-16 and Minnesota in 2017-18.
In 2014, his Arkansas defense finished No. 10 in the country in points per game (19.2) and total defense (323.4 yards per game). In 2015, Arkansas’ run defense allowed 116.5 yards per game, No. 12 in the nation and No. 2 in the SEC.
At Minnesota, his defenses allowed 22.8 points per game in 2017 and 26.5 in 2018.
The 44-year-old Elko became Duke’s coach on Dec. 10 after the last four seasons as Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator. He takes over a Blue Devils program that has lost its last 13 ACC games, going 1-17 in league play over the last two seasons.
Defensively, Duke finished last in the ACC by allowing 39.8 points per game this season as well as allowing a league-worst 517.6 yards per game.
Rutgers’ numbers in those categories (24.6 points, 391.3) were better. But, as a sign of how good Big Ten defenses were overall this season, Rutgers was No. 10 in the league in points allowed per game and No. 11 in yards allowed per game.
Four Big Ten teams — Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State and Minnesota — are among the nation’s top 10 in scoring defense.