Blue Devils camp report: Part 5

DURHAM – There is still a quarterback battle at Duke – that much hasn’t changed.

The change is in where Jordan Moore stands while Riley Leonard takes snaps at QB.

Actually, there's not much standing in that scenario.

Moore has started taking snaps at receiver for the Blue Devils, who want to make sure they’re maximizing the athleticism and elusiveness of the 6-foot, 195-pound sophomore.

It’s a move predicated on not wanting to have somebody with Moore’s open-field prowess on the sideline. The more time Moore spends in the open field, the more likely it is that he breaks away from defenders and picks up chunks of yardage.

It also helps to get Moore reps at receiver now, in mid-August, than to attempt to teach him the position days before the season begins, or once the season has begun.

To reiterate and make clear: The staff has not arrived at the conclusion that Leonard will start against Temple. Both quarterbacks continued rotating during Saturday’s practice.

In fact, during situational work (1:03 left, no timeouts, offense needed a field goal), Moore led Duke’s offense inside the 15-yard line and Charlie Ham converted the field goal. On Leonard’s drive, the Blue Devils stalled near the 25-yard line and Ham pulled the kick, missing left.

During an early full-team red-zone period, Moore threw back-to-back touchdown passes to Jalon Calhoun and Sahmir Hagans.

Moore’s move to receiver differs from Luca Diamont’s move from quarterback to receiver in the spring simply by the jersey color: Diamont all of a sudden in the spring was in a regular jersey, while Moore is still in the red non-contact jersey that quarterbacks wear at Duke.

So Moore is still a quarterback at Duke. He’s also a receiver. He could still be the starting quarterback – he could also wind up being a dangerous weapon elsewhere in the offensive scheme.

Here were my observations during Duke’s 10th practice of fall camp:

Equipment: Helmets, shoulder pads, shorts.

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

There’s a lot to sort through here – Duke ran a lot of full-team plays today – but it felt like a relatively even practice.

It’s always hard to be too harsh on the defense for allowing touchdowns in red-zone and goal-to-go situations, but the offense had some success down there.

Not all of the time, though – one of those goal-to-go periods started with quarterbacks completing 1 of 7 passes.

Catch of the day: Luca Diamont

The converted quarterback made a great sliding catch in the back of the end zone during a 7-on-7 period.

Henry Belin IV delivered a good pass but it looked like it was a little low with velocity, so Diamont went down to get it and had to make something of a baseball slide to complete the catch.

It should be noted that later in the situational period, Diamont had a nice catch over the middle as the clock wound down.

Quote of the day: “Start the period over!” – Mike Elko

(multiple)

Freshman/newcomer of the day: Chandler Rivers, freshman cornerback

Rivers didn’t have any specific standout play, so his inclusion here is more recognition of him being solid each time I’ve seen Duke practice during fall camp.

Much like Vincent Anthony Jr., Rivers has never appeared to be overmatched as a freshman defensive player. He’s been able to match up on the outside and at nickel, so his versatility is only going to help him contribute more to a secondary in desperate need of fresh faces after last season.

News of the day: Well aside from the big news at the top of this report …

You can’t build a football program with pillars of grinding, competing and being held accountable without some fire and brimstone every now and then.

The now and then was Saturday morning during what should’ve been a clean drill, but saw the ball hit the ground too many times for Elko’s liking.

The crispest moments of a college offense’s practice should come early in what’s called offense on air – in simpler terms, there aren’t defenders on the field. Skill players go through routes, quarterbacks make timing throws, receivers catch the ball and turn upfield.

It’s pretty simple and is usually an early period in practice designed to get the offense on the same page.

Yet Elko saw too many missed throws, dropped passes and general lethargy – so the first-year head coach had the Blue Devils restart the period a couple of times.

If you’ve seen the movie “Miracle” about the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team, it was briefly reminiscent of Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks yelling “Again!”

For Elko, it’s simple: You don’t preach accountability without holding people accountable.

By the schedule, this is the perfect time to be ramping up the intensity of practices.

Duke’s first scrimmage of fall camp is Sunday afternoon. Saturday’s practice was three weeks minus one day from the season opener against Temple (Sept. 2). The Blue Devils will hold fall camp for about another week, with one more full-scale scrimmage, before entering game-planning preparations for the opener.