‘The hammer and not the nail.’ How Duke’s defense looks to improve
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke returns key starters and high expectations after a 43-sack 2024 season.
- Coach Manny Diaz emphasizes poise and system trust over early stat chasing.
- Defensive ends Anthony Jr. and Williams aim to control line against new-look Elon.
Manny Diaz has a strong defensive pedigree in coaching and quickly put his imprint on the Duke defense last season.
Against Elon, in Diaz’s first game as Duke’s head coach, the Blue Devils had eight sacks and 16 tackles for losses in a 26-3 victory.
Eight sacks, 16 TFL’s. In the first game.
Yes, Elon is a FCS team and the talent level was lopsided. But Duke’s defense was, in a word, dominant.
Where do you go from there? In Duke’s case, the Devils finished fourth nationally in sacks per game (3.31) and second in TFL’s per game (8.9) in their 9-4 season. The Blue Devils were tied for seventh nationally with 27 turnovers gained, forcing 19 fumbles and recovering 14, ranked second nationally.
As the Blue Devils enter a new season, again starting against Elon on Thursday, the expectation is more of the same. It’s the second year in the defensive scheme and many of the same players return – albeit, for now, without injured safety Terry Moore, who Diaz expects to return later this season.
Bringing chaos
But Diaz said expecting it and doing it can be different, even difficult. It could, he said Monday, take patience and trust on the players’ part, the ability to lean on their experience if the defensive results – Diaz calls them “chaos numbers” – aren’t immediately as impressive or better.
“What ends up happening is you start comparing,” Diaz said. “We had eight sacks and 16 TFL’s in this game a year ago. Then it’s the end of the first quarter and you haven’t sacked a quarterback yet, and everybody starts getting weird.”
Diaz noted when he was defensive coordinator at Penn State before coming to Duke, the Nittany Lions were “weird” on defense the first six quarters of the 2023 season. Then, he said, everyone on defense simply “calmed down and played.”
“There were guys, to use a (baseball) reference, who were trying to hit grand slams with the bases empty,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who can play. We have to make sure our guys play within the framework of the defense, because there is that angst, to try to manipulate and make plays and force it.
“No one thought that a year ago. It was ‘Let’s go try this scheme out and see what happens.’ And, boom, all the plays occurred.”
Diaz might say a good golf analogy might be to try and keep hitting good shots and putts, stack ‘em and add up the score at the end – a final defensive scorecard, so to speak.
“If we do it that way during the course of the year, we’ll end up where we want to be with all the chaos numbers,” he said. “But there is some pressure to perform and that’s something we have to temper. It’s ‘Just do your job, the plays will come.’”
Uncertainty with Elon
There has been some guesswork involved with Elon, which has both a new starting quarterback and offensive coordinator. The Phoenix will be the one with a different scheme under Doug Martin, a coaching veteran who came to Elon from the USFL to be the offensive coordinator.
“We are a different offense,” Elon head coach Tony Trisciani said Monday. “Doug has done a really good job adapting what we want to do to the players that we have. Doug’s done a good job of moving guys around and being able to take advantage of the skill sets that we have.”
Preseason camp has had quarterbacks Landen Clark and Marco Lainez competing for the starting assignment in the opener. Trisciani said Monday that Clark, a redshirt freshman, has taken many of the first-team reps late in camp but did not commit to a starter for Thursday.
Lainez, a redshirt sophomore who transferred from Iowa, is listed at 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds. He’s mobile enough in the pocket, leading the Hawkeyes with 54 rushing yards in the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, which Tennessee easily won.
Regardless of the Elon starter, pressure will be there from a Duke defensive front anchored by ends Vincent Anthony Jr. and Wesley Williams, and with a push inside from tackles Aaron Hall, Preston Watson and graduate transfer Josiah Green.
“You hear the expression a lot, ‘Big guys lead the way, it all starts up front,’ and it’s all true,” Williams said after a recent practice. “We have to set the tone. We have to be the hammer and not the nail. Striking people and being physical is what we’re all about.
“That’s who we want to be and who we are.”
Avoid overthinking
Diaz said defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke and the defensive coaches should take a smart approach early in a game. Don’t have the players overloaded in pregame prep, perhaps overthinking. Play hard and adjust.
“Openers are more about you, and understanding the ins and outs of your scheme and being able to adjust to the things you haven’t seen,” Diaz said.
Diaz said in the “era of the iPad,” players can be shown on the sideline what plays opposing teams are calling, how they’re executing them and how to counteract any surprises -- a defensive tutorial.
“Our guys do a pretty good job of being quick adjusters in the course of a game,” Diaz said.
Diaz, speaking for all head coaches, said there’s much to consider going into a season opener, especially on the things that can – and often will – go wrong.
“A guy catching a kickoff at the 1-yard line, all those things that, regardless of the opponent, where you can beat yourself, right?” Diaz said. “There’s going to be the excitement, penalties in opening games, all those things. You’re trying to focus in on things and see the things around corners other people can’t see.”
One thing most people can see is the makings of another strong Duke defense, one Elon will see Thursday.
