duke football news

[jimlsumner]

ryan smith the lb from bama just committed. this kid is a baller.
was named the georgia 6-AAAAAA defensive payer of the year. team went 15-0
yet rivals hasnt rated yet so expect their normal 5.4 we are to busy grade cop out soon.

For the record, he is from Georgia not Alabama, Kennesaw to be exact.

And Duke has had more than its fair share of success in Georgia lately. Cut has credited the 2014 Peach Bowl game against Texas A&M for raising Duke's profile in that state. Georgia Tech's recent swoon can't hurt.

 

[surfdevil]

For the record, he is from Georgia not Alabama, Kennesaw to be exact.

And Duke has had more than its fair share of success in Georgia lately. Cut has credited the 2014 Peach Bowl game against Texas A&M for raising Duke's profile in that state. Georgia Tech's recent swoon can't hurt.

yeah my bad even said he was from bama the line before. it looks like the new coach at ga tech has turned things around unfortunately. he has 5 ea 4 star kids on the 247 composite committed as of right now. hate it for us because i really wanted jared ivey at DE. he keeps recruiting like this and they will be a problem

 

[hart2chesson]

yeah my bad even said he was from bama the line before.

Surf NO WORRIES! You're a fountain of info about Duke Football buddy!!! Your contributions are amazing and GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! OFC

 

[surfdevil]

okay so tomorrow is the signing kick-off. we have 13 commits out of 18 open spots. think we get 3 other guys tomorrow. that leaves two spots for (my hope) a qb prospect or transfer and an oline kid.

 

[surfdevil]

okay all in but luca (cali kid) and we did get those extra 3 kids. da'quan johnson db, jontavis robertson wr and jaylin stinson cb.

 

[hart2chesson]

okay all in but luca (cali kid) and we did get those extra 3 kids. da'quan johnson db, jontavis robertson wr and jaylin stinson cb.

All three pleasant surprises and badly needed in wake of 6 late departures! Thanks Surf! OFC

 

[surfdevil]

luca is in. this takes us to 83 schollies. i kinda like having 2 available for either a portal transfer or late period signing.

 

[LetsGoDuke83]

I may have missed it but is there going to be any coaching changes on the offense?

 

[hart2chesson]

luca is in. this takes us to 83 schollies. i kinda like having 2 available for either a portal transfer or late period signing.

Glad Luca is official Surf! Yes, having those two left could bring in late diamonds in the rough!

I may have missed it but is there going to be any coaching changes on the offense?

$20,000 dollar question LGD, but cannot see Stubborn Cut making a change. Our only hope I see rests on influential IRON DUKE members getting in AD Kevin White's ears and urging CHANGE!! OFC

 

[surfdevil]

just to fill in info on the new signees
jontavis robertson wr .8614 composite on 247 offers from p5 include duke, indiana, baylor, georgia, k-state, kentucky, louisville, nebraska, rutgers, syracuse, tennessee and wake. absolute steal for us. kid is a playmaker.
jalen stinson cb .8519 composite on 247 offers from p5 schools of purdue, duke, louisville and nebraska. the one drawback on this kid is he is only 5'8'' which is short for a db. he ran a 4.35 40 at camp. 6.97 in the 60 meter. he is an all round track kid who placed in the top 25 in bama in the 400, triple jump, long jump and won the state title in the javelin. uber athletic. see him as the nickel back to check the slot receiver. maybe kick retrurns?
da'quan johnson s .8286 composite on 247 BUT rivals and espn had not yet evaluated. played both as a db and was the qb on his team. also starting guard on the basketball team. another really athletic kid. only p5 offer but we seem to find these diamonds on occasion. really good size at 6'1''

 

[surfdevil]

FYI
i went to espn and they have jontavis robertson and jaylen stinson as our 3rd and 4th highest rated recruits.
not bad for signing day add ons

 

[surfdevil]

FYI goduke.com says that bowen, hood, diamont, peebles and reese will be early enrolling.

update... in cuts conversation on go duke he says a sixth player might be coming early. still working on details.

 

[Liftee]

I would think early enrollment helps on a lot of levels. It gets the kids used to college life, which is an adjustment, and gets them into a college conditioning and lifting regimen. Win win.

 

[SWEc/o95]

So who is the starting QB for 2020 or do we get a grad transfer? I see Luca had offers from Bama, UNC and Ole Miss. Looks like a solid get for us.

 

[jimlsumner]

I may have missed it but is there going to be any coaching changes on the offense?

This is not the kind of thing that would be discussed during a signing day press conference. If any coaching changes are forthcoming they almost certainly would come in January.

 

[surfdevil]

so cutt also stated that unless duke is or had been involved with a kid he would not take a portal kid. seems kinda thickheaded and old school considering whats happening nowadays but thats cutt in a nutshell. said we are still looking for an OL and a DB type to fill the last two open schollys.

 

[surfdevil]

okay now that we have 16 new kids here we go with depth look
QB chris katrenick gunnar holmberg luca diamont
RB brittain brown deon jackson marvin hubbard mataeo durant jaylen coleman jordan waters
WR damond philyaw-johnson jake bobo dennis smith jarett garner darrell harding jalon calhoun eli pancol malick bowen jontavis robertson
TE mark birmingham noah gray jake marwede zamari ellis matt smith cole finney nicky dalmolin
OT jaylen miller robert kraeling patrick leitten peace addo casey holman ron carr calib perez john gelotte
C jack wohlabaugh will taylor
OG jacob monk elijah wrotten rak chambers maurice mcintyre graham barton
S myles hudzick marquis waters michael carter lummie young nate thompson jalen alexander isaiah fisher-smith da'quan johnson
CB mark gilbert josh blackwell leonard johnson ken torain jeremiah lewis isaiah kemp tony davis jaylen stinson
LB brandon hill xander gagnon shaka heyward rocky shelton sayyid stevens dorian mausi christian hood ryan smith
DT derrick tangelo tahj rice elijah brown dewayne carter aeneas peebles gary smith christian rorie
DE victor dimukeje drew jordan ben frye chris rumph ahmad craig rj oben caleb oppan michael reese
P porter wilson
K charlie ham
LS ben wyatt
i took some liberties here.
i moved monk and wrotten back inside WHERE they belong. they were too small for OT but had to be moved out there for need.
hopefully some of our bigger kids will be developed or healed enough to take over the right tackle spot. looking at gelotte and leitten here. also read on another board where wrotten might go in to be a center. didnt realize how deep we are at running back.
i moved rorie inside to DT because at 315 he is huge for a DE and have read on several boards this will happen. i also put our new commit reese at DE because he seems to still be growing. on the trip to duke last weekend he came in at 6'4'' 260lbs. just about perfect for a DE.

 

[jimlsumner]

okay now that we have 16 new kids here we go with depth look
QB chris katrenick gunnar holmberg luca diamont
RB brittain brown deon jackson marvin hubbard mataeo durant jaylen coleman jordan waters
WR damond philyaw-johnson jake bobo dennis smith jarett garner darrell harding jalon calhoun eli pancol malick bowen jontavis robertson
TE mark birmingham noah gray jake marwede zamari ellis matt smith cole finney nicky dalmolin
OT jaylen miller robert kraeling patrick leitten peace addo casey holman ron carr calib perez john gelotte
C jack wohlabaugh will taylor
OG jacob monk elijah wrotten rak chambers maurice mcintyre graham barton
S myles hudzick marquis waters michael carter lummie young nate thompson jalen alexander isaiah fisher-smith da'quan johnson
CB mark gilbert josh blackwell leonard johnson ken torain jeremiah lewis isaiah kemp tony davis jaylen stinson
LB brandon hill xander gagnon shaka heyward rocky shelton sayyid stevens dorian mausi christian hood ryan smith
DT derrick tangelo tahj rice elijah brown dewayne carter aeneas peebles gary smith christian rorie
DE victor dimukeje drew jordan ben frye chris rumph ahmad craig rj oben caleb oppan michael reese
P porter wilson
K charlie ham
LS ben wyatt
i took some liberties here.
i moved monk and wrotten back inside WHERE they belong. they were too small for OT but had to be moved out there for need.
hopefully some of our bigger kids will be developed or healed enough to take over the right tackle spot. looking at gelotte and leitten here. also read on another board where wrotten might go in to be a center. didnt realize how deep we are at running back.
i moved rorie inside to DT because at 315 he is huge for a DE and have read on several boards this will happen. i also put our new commit reese at DE because he seems to still be growing. on the trip to duke last weekend he came in at 6'4'' 260lbs. just about perfect for a DE.

Monk might move back to center after Wohlabaugh is gone. But I strongly suspect he'll stay at tackle next season. I think Duke will give Kraeling and/or Miller a shot at Baker's OG spot. Albert told me that Frye will stay at DT next season.

FWIW.

 

[smashmouth5]

Any chance at Costello from Stanford? Saw he is entering transfer portal and I think can play next year as a grad transfer.

 

[surfdevil]

Monk might move back to center after Wohlabaugh is gone. But I strongly suspect he'll stay at tackle next season. I think Duke will give Kraeling and/or Miller a shot at Baker's OG spot. Albert told me that Frye will stay at DT next season.

FWIW.

okay nice to know about frye. hope he is putting on some weight then. i think monk is a really good lineman but was/am really hoping that one of the other guys would step up. a left side with holman and monk would be nasty i think. where do you think barton goes? i know rivals isnt that high on him but at whatever camp he went to this summer they moved him into guard and was so impressive he got a 4th star from 247.

 

[Liftee]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy the offseason info you guys (Surf and JimL) bring us. It's a real service since there just aren't that many places where people discuss Duke football.

 

[hart2chesson]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy the offseason info you guys (Surf and JimL) bring us. It's a real service since there just aren't that many places where people discuss Duke football.

I started following surf's work about three years ago per Duke football coverage! So glad he can keep us updated even during off
season!

OFC

 

[Devilinside]

I started following surf's work about three years ago per Duke football coverage! So glad he can keep us updated even during off
season!

OFC

• I really, really appreciate Surf's work, but I still cannot understand why our recruiting class is only the 12th best in the ACC. I am glad we are going to have enough players, but that still does not mean we will have actual depth. Ga Tech has a brand new coach and all of a sudden has 4 or 5 4-stars, despite its miserable record over the past 3 years. We have 0. Why is that? Are we missing something, or is it impossible to attract 4-stars to Duke? Could we use a new OC/recruiting coordinator? Just saying. OFC

 

[surfdevil]

thats the million dollar question. if we could add 2 to 4 each 4 star kids a year we would be in the thick of things. clemson, miami and fla st ( i expect them to be back next year) will always be on the top. the ga tech coach lit a fire this year and there is huge hot bed of football in the atlanta area. uva just played in the championship game and their recruiting reflected it. we do need something/someone to light a fire on our recruiting. there is no reason that unc, state, pitt and the others just shouldnt be beating us like this out there.

 

[Devilinside]

BC, UVA, Pitt, Northwestern are all having better recruiting years, to name a few. Hard to be optimistic going into next year. OFC

 

[Liftee]

I thought Diamonte was a 4 star. No?

I suspect the empty stadium hurts us. I don't buy the "academics" argument. Doesn't seem to hurt Coach K. He seems to be able to go after (I'm not concerned about signing) at least 50% of the 5 stars let along 4 stars. I can't believe basketball players are that much academically superior to football players.

 

[Devilinside]

I thought Diamonte was a 4 star. No?

I suspect the empty stadium hurts us. I don't buy the "academics" argument. Doesn't seem to hurt Coach K. He seems to be able to go after (I'm not concerned about signing) at least 50% of the 5 stars let along 4 stars. I can't believe basketball players are that much academically superior to football players.

The "academics" argument does not seem to hurt BC, Northwestern, Stanford, Vandy, ND. We had 4 4-stars in 2016. Why didn't the argument work then? OFC

 

[jimlsumner]

The "academics" argument does not seem to hurt BC, Northwestern, Stanford, Vandy, ND. We had 4 4-stars in 2016. Why didn't the argument work then? OFC

Notre Dame was the only one of the above-mentioned teams appreciably better than Duke this past season and their tradition makes them an outlier.

Duke tends to have smaller classes and doesn't lose signees to academic attrition, as happens frequently with less academically rigorous programs.

This tends to lower signing-day rankings.

Duke does have to recruit from a smaller pool than most of the competition. How many players at UNC or VT were off-limits to Duke due to academics? A fair number, methinks.

Comparisons with basketball don't hold up, IMO, because K needs to bring in a much smaller number of players per year. Not to mention the fact that he's made Duke basketball, well Duke basketball.

I'm not sure why Cut doesn't go after more 4-stars. I do know that he's openly contempeous of recruiting experts and services. He says he has his own ranking system and I think he takes pride in finding and developing under-the-radar talents.

And this can work. But for it to work Duke's assistants have to be excellent teachers and I'm not sure Duke has maintained the level of competence it needs to help turn the Jamison Crowder's and Laken Tomlinson's of the world into NFL starters.

 

[surfdevil]

luca is a 4 star on espn (80) and borderline 4 star on 247 (88). rivals rates him as an mid level 3 star (5.6).
graham barton is a 4 star on 247 (89) and a mid level 3 star (5.6) on rivals. espn only rates him at 75 (mid 3 star) which kills his composite score.
i agree with a whole bunch of jlmsumner comments above. Cutt likes to say we are a ''developmental'' program. thats great and it can work but in order to do that you need top tier coaches and i agree that we dont have that anymore especially on the offensive side of the staff.

 

[surfdevil]

FYI
go to christian hoods (lb) hudl page and check this kid out. violent tackler. this kid will be a beast
40 yd dash 4.56
bench 380 lbs
squat 610 lbs
clean 355 lbs
won the texas 2018 state powerlifting title

 

[Liftee]

I would never argue with JimL because I would lose every time.

However it makes a coach's job a lot harder when you have to be right when everyone else is wrong, almost all the time.

My comparison to Coach K was not that he SIGNS a lot of 5 stars (we wring our hands when he drops down to a 4 star), but that he is allowed recruit a large percentage of the 5 stars. Not all, obviously, but a good deal of them. Is that my misconception, or is there a double standard, or are Coach Cut's standards a lot higher? I don't know.

 

[surfdevil]

dont know this for a fact but on reading multiple duke boards over the years i keep seeing that they are allowed 3-5 academic exceptions per year. that ends up being most of the bball recruiting class and a much smaller amount of the football class. plus most of our bball kids are hoping to only be here for a year or two whereas football is a 4 to 5 year commitment. different beasts.

 

[Liftee]

Surf, if that's true, then that's a real disparity considering how many players are needed for a decent football team. Wouldn't surprise me though, that football is put on an uneven playing field vs. basketball.

 

[surfdevil]

wow so duke just took a transfer kid.

j'marick woods (s) from the university of michigan. will have 2 years left
really big add. 6'3'' 210 lbs. all academic big 10.

played his high school football in alabama so we seem to be hitting that state hard
was a 4 star recruit by ESPN. played in 27 games in 2 1/2 years at UM.

 

[jimlsumner]

wow so duke just took a transfer kid.
j'marick woods (s) from michigan. will have 2 years left
really big add. 6'3'' 220 lbs. all academic big 10.

https://goduke.com/news/2019/12/20/woods-joins-duke-football-program.aspx

 

[surfdevil]

so we now only have one spot left. per Cutts presser we are looking at the oline.
the two high school kids we hopefully will focus on
james pogorelc 6'7'' 270 lb OT from chantilly va. .8889 composite
we got in late but he did not sign early so......
addison penn 6'4'' 275 lb C .8572 composite
had verbaled to boston college but did not sign due to coaching change. late flip for us?
either fills a need. big tackle prospect or a center to develop.
we could also portal one BUT like the safety we just got (duke tried to get him out of high school) i think duke/Cutt needs to know him and be comfortable with him. there are several stanford OT kids in the portal but were we involved in high school with them? time will tell

 

[DukeRulesBasketball]

For the record, he is from Georgia not Alabama, Kennesaw to be exact.

And Duke has had more than its fair share of success in Georgia lately. Cut has credited the 2014 Peach Bowl game against Texas A&M for raising Duke's profile in that state. Georgia Tech's recent swoon can't hurt.

Should have won that game against A&M!

 

[hart2chesson]

https://goduke.com/news/2019/12/20/woods-joins-duke-football-program.aspx

I like the kid's height, 6'3" as a DB....Should also provide some leadership for younger players.... OFC

 

[hart2chesson]

so we now only have one spot left. per Cutts presser we are looking at the oline.
the two high school kids we hopefully will focus on
james pogorelc 6'7'' 270 lb OT from chantilly va. .8889 composite
we got in late but he did not sign early so......
addison penn 6'4'' 275 lb C .8572 composite
had verbaled to boston college but did not sign due to coaching change. late flip for us?
either fills a need. big tackle prospect or a center to develop.
we could also portal one BUT like the safety we just got (duke tried to get him out of high school) i think duke/Cutt needs to know him and be comfortable with him. there are several stanford OT kids in the portal but were we involved in high school with them? time will tell

LOVE to get either one of the OL's surf.. OFC

 

[hart2chesson]

Just reflecting again on the season, I must say Deon Jackson definitely had a "sophomore slump." I would trace some of his mostly forgettable year (under 4 yds per carry) to the OL,but he simply wasnt as elusive in '18. I would also trace his regression to Zac Roper's reliance on rather vanilla run plays, mostly runs up the middle that went for very little, or even losses.

OFC