Duke football notes

9-9-2024

Duke’s three main football coaches met with the media Monday afternoon.

Here are some highlights.

First the bad news. Tight end Jeremiah Hasley is out for the season after a gruesome injury to his right leg. Hasley was in punt protection at the time.

The game was delayed for several minutes and Hasley had to be carted off. So, no surprise. But still a disappointment for the redshirt sophomore who came to Duke as a linebacker but made a successful shift last season to the other side of the ball.

No word on running back Jaquez Moore or linebacker Nick Morris. Moore went out early with an apparent ankle injury, while Morris didn’t dress out.

But nothing said Monday suggested we’d be seeing either anytime soon.

Next man up and all that and no one better epitomized that then linebacker Alex Howard, a Youngstown State transfer. Howard played every play on defense and played some on special teams. Duke credited him with 81 snaps or 85 or some such, while the official stat crew credited him for 14 tackles and 2.5 TFLs.

“Howard took over the game,” Diaz said. “He was very, very impressive.”

“Just being an older guy,” defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke says. “Knows how to prepare for the game, really smart, asks great questions on the sideline.”

Princeton transfer Ozzie Nicholas actually got the start in place of Morris, battled through some injuries but returned to the field.

But Patke said Duke needs redshirt freshman Kendall Johnson and/or redshirt freshman Luke Mergott to step up at linebacker.

“We have to play more guys.”

Nicky Dalmolin will be joined in the tight-end rotation by Jake Taylor. It would be nice if Vance Bolyard could make it a three-man rotation.

Running back? Offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer said he was okay with Star Thomas and Peyton Jones getting the touches until Moore’s return.

Enough with the injury report. Duke was sloppy at times, especially on special teams. But Manny refused to blame the weather for any of these miscues.

“It was a learning moment for Q [Que’Sean Brown] just catching the punt on a fair-catch situation. We trust Todd [Pelino]. Whether the wind--he thought he had great contact on the ball; those things will happen sometimes.”

But Duke got back up and dusted itself off. Brown was flawless after his muffed punt, Pelino nailed a field goal at the end of regulation and a PAT in overtime where a miss would have resulted in a Duke loss. The blocked punt was partly attributable to losing Hasley but Diaz says Duke will get that cleaned up in practice.

Except to see more of Henry Belin IV as a change-of-pace option at quarterback.

“We feel like Henry provides a really dynamic element to our offense,” Diaz said. “You always see how people want to defend you when a quarterback like Henry comes in and can utilize his legs.”

“Henry can run, he’s got game experience,” Brewer adds. “We’ve been working on a package with him probably since the end of fall camp. In the Northwestern game, we felt like we needed to present something different to them.”

But don’t expect a move away from Maalik Murphy.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Brewer said of his offense needing a running quarterback. “It’s not a must kind of thing.”

More later in the week.