One of Duke’s best linebackers will miss the rest of the season with leg injury
Duke football coach Manny Diaz said Monday middle linebacker Nick Morris Jr. will be lost for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Morris suffered a leg injury late in the first quarter Saturday in the Blue Devils’ 45-33 win over N.C. State at Wallace Wade Stadium. After being attended to by medical personnel, he was carted off the field.
Diaz said the team was “heartbroken” to lose Morris again. The linebacker, a graduate student from Fairfield, Connecticut, had an ACL injury in the 2024 season against Elon and sat out the season, but rehabbed and recovered in time to reclaim his spot at linebacker.
“I’m gutted for Nick,” Diaz said Monday. “One, just as a person because he came back from missing all of last year. And then second, as a player, because he’s absolutely one of the best players on our defense and was playing at an extraordinarily high level.”
Diaz said the Blue Devils would find a way to incorporate Morris into pregame planning, practices and on the sideline during games and “affect winning.”
“And Nick’s going to come back and Nick’s going to finish on top,” Diaz said.
With Morris out, defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke had Luke Mergott, a redshirt sophomore, play every snap the rest of the game Saturday. Mergott was credited with six solo tackles, and had a critical quarterback hurry on the Pack’s C.J. Bailey that ended with Duke’s Tre Freeman picking off Bailey’s pass and returning it 67 yards late in the first half.
Morris’ injury could lead to more playing time for freshman linebackers Elliott Schaper and Bradley Gompers, Diaz said.
The Blue Devils (2-2, 1-0 ACC) go to Syracuse (3-1, 1-0) this week and will face an Orange team missing its starting quarterback. Steve Angeli, who leads the ACC in passing, went out with an injury Saturday during the win at Clemson and will miss at least a few weeks, coach Fran Brown said.
