Blue Devils growing more comfortable
Duke first-year coach encouraged by team’s steps between scrimmages
DURHAM – One week later, Duke’s football team was dancing more than it was counting its dance steps.
Duke coach Manny Diaz used that phrase — “are we counting our dance steps or are we dancing?” — a couple of weekends ago after a scrimmage. That was around the halfway point of spring practices and the Blue Devils had only recently finished installing what they needed of the systems.
On Saturday, a week later and going through another scrimmage, Diaz was more encouraged.
“Without watching the film, felt way more comfortable, both sides of the ball,” Diaz said. “Not reacting so much and just playing more. It felt like the scrimmage was more competitive, back and forth.”
This is, of course, a process. There are certain aspects that a team just can’t have finished when it’s still 4½ months before the season opener.
“A couple of new install things that we didn’t have in a week ago,” Diaz said. “But I liked it, I thought our energy was really good.”
Duke’s players have seen more attention to detail.
“I think now we’re taking a lot more attention to detail,” receiver Sahmir Hagans said. “Instead of just like putting a play in and moving on, we’re making sure that we get every aspect of the play.
“Especially offensively, whatever coverage we’re running against, we want to make sure we see it against all coverages.”
There’s one detail here that can’t be addressed until the summer — starting Tuesday.
Duke has nine offensive linemen on its spring roster. It’s not even enough to have a second-team offensive line and, given the nature of the position, you need more than 10 offensive linemen to have a second-team because of how much the position gets banged around.
“We have to manage the situation we have with the line, but can we still get work done that helps us get better? And I thought the answer today was yes,” Diaz said.
The transfer portal opens for the spring window on Tuesday. It’s beyond the point of saying Duke is expected to add offensive linemen; the Blue Devils will have to add players to that unit.