Duke’s secondary is losing a couple of difference-making seniors and the Blue Devils found a transfer who’s going to soften the blow of losing one of them.

Safety Caleb Weaver committed to Duke over the weekend and has already been announced as a signee. He’s coming from Sam Houston State and has one season of eligibility.

The 5-11, 190-pounder had an 83.0 overall grade this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Comparatively, that’s higher than any player on Duke’s defense this season other than two players he’ll be joining in the secondary — Chandler Rivers (90.4) and Terry Moore (88.6).

Weaver is from Houston and is a friend of Rivers, who’s from Beaumont, Texas (about one hour, 20 minutes from Houston).

Weaver, in sticking with the PFF marks, had 103 tackles (81 solo) and missed 12 this past season. His 27 run-stops were third on the team and he allowed 14 catches on 29 targets in coverage, for 142 yards. He allowed one touchdown and had four interceptions and six passes broken-up.

The safety position is a strong but thin one, on paper, for Duke entering next season. Moore had a breakout season with 70 tackles, three interceptions and five passes broken-up, and DaShawn Stone was a valuable player in the rotation and enters the bowl game with 47 tackles, two fumbles forced and two fumbles recovered.

But the Blue Devils are losing Jaylen Stinson and the vastness of his experience as well as his playmaking abilities. The fifth-year senior has taken almost 3,000 snaps in his career (per PFF); the game of the last three seasons that Stinson didn’t start was this year’s opener, for which he was suspended because of a carried-over targeting penalty from the Birmingham Bowl.