Blue Devils camp report: Part 4

DURHAM – It’s not uncommon for ACC football players to be planning on extending their football careers to the NFL.

Duke offensive lineman Chance Lytle is no exception; where he diverges is his post-football career.

Lytle wants to pursue a career as an operatic bass singer when his football career ends.

And he’s got quite the voice, if you haven’t seen the viral clip from Duke’s team dinner over the weekend.

“Long term, yeah, the goal is to make singing my entire living,” Lytle said after Tuesday’s practice. “Europe has a really big scene for opera, New York, San Francisco, Houston – I’m originally from San Antonio, so Houston has actually the world’s biggest opera hall.

“The goal is to eventually work there and try and become their resident bass.”

Lytle is in his first and only season at Duke after spending the last five seasons at Colorado. He joined the Blue Devils as a grad transfer, having graduated with a double major in music and voice performance and psychology.

The official term for Lytle’s singing position is an operatic bass. He comes from a musical family, he said, but was a violinist and cellist until his senior year of high school.

Having undergone surgery to repair a torn labrum, Lytle had to quickly find an alternative because his arm would be in a sling at the time of college auditions.

“My intention was just to go to C.U., sing, and then switch back to violin,” Lytle said. “But then I realized after my first fall that offensive linemen tend to get a lot of damage to their fingers and hands. And maybe it would be more profitable or safer for my career if I just stuck with my voice, and I just kind of fell in love with it.”

Not to get too caught up in the operatic voice: The 6-7, 329-pounder is going to help Duke on the field this season. The Blue Devils are trying to lay some foundation in Mike Elko’s first season as coach, and a program that’s embracing “GRIND” as a slogan needs to have at least a halfway decent offensive line.

The timeline actually works out, as far as pursuing a professional football career past this season, and then chasing his dream as a singer.

“Basses tend to get better as they get older,” Lytle said. “Kind of like you would imagine somebody with a high voice, while they’re young they have a higher voice. … The best bassists in the world tend to be 40 and up.

“Initially my path is going to be doing everything I can to pursue NFL. … After that, I’m going to do my best to pursue the music route.”

It adds to the mystique of this talent that Lytle has a long, shaggy beard and long blonde hair.

“The hair is fun to put on stage,” Lytle said. “A lot of singers, especially bassists, tend to have a high-and-tight kind of cut. So it’s kind of nice to come up with a mane, get it all pretty and dolled up. The set designers and costume designers love to use it for character.”

The viral moment occurred at Sunday night’s team dinner, and Duke posted it to social media on Monday.

Some of Lytle’s new teammates had an idea of his singing talent – when the ACC Network came to town last week, there was a segment on it – so at the end of the team dinner, players called out for Lytle to sing.

He obliged.

“It shocked me. I really wasn’t expecting that, to be honest. Most of the players’ singing is pretty bad. But he got up there and he definitely killed it,” wide receiver Sahmir Hagans said.

“I have no clue what he said,” linebacker Dorian Mausi said. “He goes up there and starts singing, I was like, ‘Oh, snap!’”

Here were my observations during Duke’s sixth practice of fall camp:

Equipment: Full pads (first time).

Was today won by the offense, defense or neither: Defense

This was about as decisive of a win as I’ve seen from either unit so far.

Duke’s defense was strong at all three levels in today’s practice.

This has a lot to do with Duke’s defense coming up with stops on the majority of short-yardage situations, which were the first time that Duke went live with tackling (most practices are “thud,” which is contact without taking players to the ground).

Shaka Heyward and R.J. Oben blew up the first play and fired up the entire defense; I couldn’t see who made the play on the second one, but it was also a stop.

“I give credit to that D-line,” linebacker Dorian Mausi said. “We called on our D-line to make a play, that’s their time to shine, that’s their time to get the spotlight.”

When the second-team units came in, the defensive line stood up the offensive line on the first two plays and the tackles were more by committee than one defensive player making a standout play.

That period wasn’t the only encouraging time for the defense; Chandler Rivers had an interception in red-zone 7-on-7 and a PBU in regular 7-on-7, Mausi made a great play stringing out a Riley Leonard keeper, and Datrone Young and Darius Joiner were solid in WR/DB 1-on-1s.

Now, does this mean that on Aug. 9 we’re going to say Duke’s defense is going to be a top-five defense in the ACC? Or even that it’s going to be vastly improved from a year ago?

No and no.

It just means that in the first day of full pads, Duke’s defense was active and disruptive.

Catch of the day: Sahmir Hagans

This catch by Hagans in the second half of practice was more impressive considering he had a drop in WR/DB 1-on-1s, and later in that period beat Tony Davis deep but was overthrown by Henry Belin IV.

Early in one of the later full-team periods, Hagans went up for a leaping, falling-backward catch along the sideline for about 20-25 yards. Jordan Moore’s pass was thrown in a perfect spot to beat decent coverage by Joshua Pickett.

“Sometimes some plays don’t go our way, but that’s just how football is, the defense … has some good days, too,” Hagans said. “I think as a position group we’re definitely battling, you can see some of the results.”

Quote of the day: (context first: I asked Mausi if he could feel the summer workouts paying off already.)

“Man, what?! Even before we got full pads on, in these last couple of days when we had shells, I’m going against (offensive lineman Jacob) Monk … (he’s) at center now so I’m hitting the center now. I felt that clean max and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s that summer workout paying off!’

“On the goal line, you feel that difference. Everybody on the team, you just that next level to your game.” – Mausi

Freshman/newcomer of the day: Mekhi Wall, freshman wide receiver

It can be hard for freshman receivers to get on the field and that seems to be the case at Duke. There are question marks for the Blue Devils, but the solutions seem to rest in the upperclassmen.

Wall can force his way into that mix if he keeps doing what he was lauded for during Tuesday’s practice (among other things).

On a flare screen to tight end Matt Smith, Wall locked up the cornerback opposite of him with a great block, allowing Smith to get outside and turn upfield for a big gain.

Setting aside that Duke’s defense didn’t look great in allowing a tight end to get outside, it was encouraging to see Wall make such a play. Freshman receivers typically can run and catch, and filling in the other areas means they’ll take significant snaps, so Wall’s play here is a great sign.

News of the day: Going hand-in-hand with this being the first day in full pads, things were … let’s say chippy between the offense and defense on Tuesday.

That’s to be expected. The question will be how far coaches allow it to go – I’ve seen teams go entire camps without so much as a little extra shoving and I’ve seen another practice with five fistfights. The variable is always how much is allowed and when things get broken up.

As far as Duke on Tuesday, things never progressed further than a few after-whistle shoves – it was just that there were several instances of it. Most of them occurred between offensive and defensive linemen, without going into specifics of which players were going at each other.

It didn’t feel like any of this was a surprise. If you’re going to have a program built on competition, you’re bound to have tensions boil over sometimes.

Also on a lighter note: This was an interesting sight, using volleyballs instead of footballs to simulate punts. My thought on the reasoning here is if you have a "punter" who isn't accustomed to punting footballs, it's easier on their foot to hit a volleyball.