Duke building through mistakes of spring practice

DURHAM – It’s the time of year in college football when mistakes are celebrated and if you’re doing everything right, you’re missing something.

Welcome to spring football.

Especially, at Duke: Welcome to spring football under a new coaching staff.

“In a way sometimes you’re hunting failure,” coach Manny Diaz said after Saturday’s practice. “You want to know where you’re not complete. You want to know what you don’t know, you want to know why you’re not succeeding in these situations so you can learn how to correct it the next time.

“You come in here on either side of the ball and if everything is easy, then you’re not really being tested to grow.”

Saturday’s practice was Duke’s eighth of the spring, and two weeks away from the program’s Blue & White game.

Thursday saw the Blue Devils move the ball up and down the field for the first time, Diaz said. Saturday’s new element was that instead of practicing in the Brooks Practice Facility, the Blue Devils were in Wallace Wade Stadium.

“What you saw on Thursday, all of a sudden the details start leaking out,” Diaz said. “Then you come into the stadium and it always changes a little bit in the stadium. So, now is that idea of, towards mastery, can we do it again and again? Practice field, stadium, game day, where it becomes second nature.”

Time is on the Blue Devils’ side, of course — Duke’s season opener against Elon is 144 days away (Aug. 30).

On mistakes, there were a few that stood out. Quarterback Maalik Murphy has impressive size and arm talent, but was intercepted twice — once by defensive end Ryan Smith as he leaked into coverage and scaled the ladder for a pick. The other interception was by linebacker Kendall Johnson on a pass down the middle, a play after an impressive throw by Murphy and catch by tight end Vincent Drolet.

Two times, a Duke punt returner was blasted by a gunner before having chance to make a catch. The officials on hand aren’t likely to have easier calls of kick-catch interference than those when the games actually count.

Turnovers and special teams gaffes are to be expected this time of year.

“Failure isn’t final. Failure to change could be,” running backs coach Willie Simmons said. “So again, it’s great that we failed today. We need to fail today. We need to be able to watch the film, make the corrections and then come out Tuesday and be better and not make the same mistake, but make a new one.”

To the Blue Devils’ credit — and to make sure the point isn’t lost, that this has been a productive spring so far — Diaz was complementary of his team’s energy and effort levels.

Of energy, that much was never more clear than a few periods into Saturday’s practice. That was when Duke had a one-on-one tackling drill, the ball carrier starting around the 20-yard line and the defender around 10, near the sideline. One-on-one tackles were celebrated louder than touchdowns.

“I love the effort our guys bring every day, the energy. We haven’t had a day in the first eight where you’ve had to get on them to work harder. They just go,” Diaz said. “You can tell we’re still early in the install, so it gives us something to correct. But the attitude of the team is first class.”