Lyle Hemphill expected to join Duke's football staff

Mike Elko's first hire to Duke's coaching staff will the person who had his former title at Wake Forest.

Lyle Hemphill, Wake Forest's defensive coordinator/safeties coach, is expected to join Elko's staff.

Hemphill is expected to be the Blue Devils' safeties coach, a position he held at Wake Forest before he was elevated to defensive coordinator -- that move coming first on an interim basis during the 2018 season, and then on a permanent basis before Wake Forest's bowl game that season.

While Elko and Hemphill were both at Wake Forest as defensive coaches, their time never overlapped in Winston-Salem.

They were, however, on the same staff at Hofstra from 2006-08.

Elko was defensive coordinator at Hofstra for those three seasons, and Hemphill coached defensive backs and special teams during those seasons.

As Elko fills out his first staff as a head coach, it's important to remember what he said at his introductory press conference a week ago about filling out a staff.

"What I'll say is just this: Trust the process," Elko said. "It will not go as fast as anyone wants it to go, it never does. We're going to be extremely thorough in how we go about this process.

"There will be guys playing in bowl games, guys with obligations to do other things. But this thing will come together and at the end of the day, we will have the absolute best staff in the ACC."