Notebook: Duke at ACC Kickoff

CHARLOTTE – Duke’s average team ranking for football recruiting classes was 57.6 in the last 15 years.

There was one year – the Class of 2016 – that was in the top 40, at 31st, and two others (2017 and ’19) that were in the top 50.

Let’s get the disclaimers out of the way first: It’s July. It’s a long way until the December signing period. There are a lot of big-time programs that will rack up commits in the next few months.

But at this point, Duke’s class is No. 22 in Rivals’ team rankings for the Class of 2023 – quite the leap forward for first-year coach Mike Elko and his staff.

“It shows what we had talked about when we got here, we felt like the brand would travel,” Elko said last week. “We felt like we had something to sell, we felt like this should be a place where we could go out and recruit at a level that can allow us to go out and be competitive and successful in this conference.”

Duke’s class stands at 25 commits now – the Blue Devils lost Paul Davis shortly after ACC Kickoff but added Quentin Ajiero last weekend – and in years past, that was the maximum a program could sign.

But the NCAA has suspended that limit for this class as a means to give coaches flexibility in replenishing rosters as we move further away from the COVID season of 2020 – keeping in place the 85-scholarship limit for rosters.

So Elko and his staff are going to take advantage of that circumstance.

“It’s really interesting because … between COVID years and guys coming back for extra years, you don’t really know exactly where you can be,” Elko said.

He was clear that there isn’t a set target of how many players he wants to sign in his first full recruiting class.

“It’s a fluctuating number, but it is nice not to be limited to the 25 at a point where you’re really trying to influx talent into your roster,” Elko said.

Here are a few other takeaways from Duke’s appearance at ACC Kickoff:

In the realm of clichés that fit, linebacker Shaka Heyward will be the quarterback of Duke’s defense this season.

As the Blue Devils adjust to defensive coordinator Robb Smith’s system it’ll be Heyward in the middle of everything, tasked with making sure everybody is on the same page.

“I’ve gotta be the field general out there, just let everyone know what’s coming,” Heyward said, “and how it’s going to be on everybody (to be) accountable.”

It’s not a new position or role for Heyward, a fifth-year player who’s played more than 2,000 career snaps.

What’s different entering this season is that every player on Duke’s defense has the same level of experience within Smith’s system.

“So I can’t assume that one guy knows it and the other guy does not,” Heyward said. “Everybody just has to lay that foundation for the defense and make sure everybody is on the same page.”

It’s no secret that Duke has a puzzle to solve in its secondary. Spring practices helped accomplish that to an extent, but the Blue Devils will really need the next month to sort out which inexperienced players will get the first chances to grab larger roles.

There are also two new pieces to fit in.

Last week came Duke’s official announcement of seven transfers who have joined the program since the start of the summer, including cornerback Datrone Young (Iowa State) and safety Darius Joiner (Western Illinois).

“I think we all knew that we had secondary losses that we had to help replace,” Elko said. “So to go out and be able to get two guys in that area was something that was really important to us.”

Young (5-9, 179 pounds) played 43 games in his career for the Cyclones, including 25 starts. He played more than 1,500 snaps, with more than 90% of those coming at an outside corner position, and had his first career interception last season.

Joiner put up gaudy stats for Western Illinois last year after spending the previous four seasons at Jacksonville State. The 6-2, 200-pounder had 142 tackles in 11 games, along with seven TFLs, 1½ sacks, one interception, five passes broken-up, three QB pressures and one forced fumble. He was an FCS All-America selection and was sixth in voting for the Buck Buchanan Award, which goes to the top defensive player at the FCS level.

Young and Joiner will both turn 24 years old during the season.

Before college football was engulfed with one realignment story and a thousand realignment rumors, the story of the summer was a public spat of words between Alabama’s Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher.

That’s Fisher, with whom Elko spent the past four seasons as his defensive coordinator.

Removed from the situation, it was interesting to gauge Elko’s 10,000-foot view of the SEC coaches’ verbal brouhaha.

“Two very calculated, competitive head coaches that knew exactly what they were doing, just trying to get their programs to where they both want to go,” Elko said. “Honestly, that’s really what it is.

“They act like they’re flying off the handle – neither one of them was every flying off the handle. They know exactly what they’re doing.”