QB just one of many positions up for grabs in Mike Elko’s first Duke football camp
Three practices into the first preseason of his Duke tenure, Mike Elko isn’t any closer to — publicly or privately —naming the Blue Devils’ starting quarterback.
Duke opens its first season with Elko as its head coach Sept. 2 against Temple at Wallace Wade Stadium.
No matter who wins the job, the Blue Devils will have their fifth different starting quarterback in five seasons.
Thus, Elko said Friday, sophomores Riley Leonard and Jordan Moore must both factor into game plans no matter who gets the start against Temple.
“I think in the modern world of college football, the way the speed of the game is nowadays, we’re worried about getting our third quarterback ready,” Elko said. “As much as we’re worried about getting one and two, we’re also worried about three because that’s how seasons go sometimes.”
Leonard started one game as a freshman last season when Gunner Holmberg, who has since transferred to Florida International, was injured. Moore has no starts but played in 10 games last season for former coach David Cutcliffe.
The last time Duke had the same quarterback from one season to another was from 2016-18 with Daniel Jones, who is with the NFL’s New York Giants.
Elko and his staff have Leonard and Moore alternating working with the first team in practices. One day might be Moore, the next it will be Leonard.
“We’ve kept everything equal and balanced,” Elko said. “We’ve done it in scrimmages. We’ve done it pretty much as evenly as we can to give them both the same opportunity to kind of see how this thing plays out.”
As it would be in any football team’s practices, from high school to the NFL, the quarterback battle is top of mind. But, in trying to turn around a Duke program that’s lost 13 consecutive ACC games over the last two seasons, Elko has position battles all over the field.
That’s partly a product of a whole new staff looking at each player with fresh eyes. But it’s also part of what Elko is instilling throughout the program with the challenging offseason strength and conditioning program.
“We had some kids this summer have an amazing summer in terms of development, strength, physicality, speed, weight and all of those things,” Elko said. “And so to not come out into camp and give them an opportunity to show what type of player they are now, versus where they were in the spring, kind of diminishes why’d you do all that work. So, to me, it’s always a blank slate and then we’ll let the film kind of tell us who the guys are.”
Looking for more instantaneous improvement, the Blue Devils have seven transfers from other college programs on the field. Some, like cornerback Datrone Young (Iowa State) and Chance Lytle (Colorado), arrived from fellow Power 5 conference programs. Others, like defensive back Darius Joiner (Western Illinois) or linebacker Cam Dillon (Columbia), starred at a lower level.
The offensive linemen in that group — Lytle, Jack Burns (Cornell) and Andre Harris (Arkansas State) — are getting opportunities to show they are capable of playing meaningful roles this season.
“All three of the offensive linemen have been running in and out between the ones and the twos,” Elko said. “So I think all seven of those guys have been what we hoped they would be. Probably the best thing to say about all of them is just how they’ve assimilated to our culture. That’s the biggest thing when you get into the portal is making sure you don’t ruin your locker room. And I think we’ve been really blessed that the kids that we brought into the program, they’ve just kind of bought into where we want to go.”
Four weeks from Friday, the Blue Devils will play their first regular-season game with the 45-year-old Elko as their head coach.
The work that started in spring practice has carried over thus far, with far more work to be done.
“I think, overall, there’s a higher level of football out there than there was in the spring,” Elko said. “Obviously, it’s practice three and there’s still a long way to go. But it’s been a good first three days.”