Duke's defense ready for the challenge

Lots has to change from last season

Blocking and tackling. The eternal foundations of a good football team. You have to be able to do other things of course. But at its core, football starts with blocking and tackling.

Duke wasn’t very good at tackling last season. Actually Duke wasn’t very good at any aspect of defensive football season. I realize that sounds harsh. But as David Cutcliffe said on more than one occasion the ACC is “big boy football” and it’s being played out in a very public arena.

Let’s go to the scorecard.  Charlotte and Georgia Tech--two of the weaker teams on Duke’s 2021 schedule--marched down the field and scored winning touchdowns in the dying seconds.

Not even a field goal. A touchdown.

Duke followed that stunning opening-game loss to Charlotte with three wins. Then North Carolina dominated Duke 38-7. Then that late-game collapse against Georgia Tech.

After which the wheels came off, the roof caved in, the bottom dropped out of the floor. The Tech game was Duke’s last competitive game. The final six games were losses by scores of 48-0, 45-7, 54-29, 48-7, 62-22 and 47-10. Louisville amassed 687 yards of total offense in scoring those 62 points.

There were 130 teams playing FBS football last season. Duke ranked 130th in yards allowed, 517 per game. Duke was 127th in points allowed, 96th in sacks, 94th in forced turnovers.

How does a new staff fix that?  Talent upgrade? Sure. But that’s going to take some time. Schematic upgrades? Maybe. More on that later. But there are only so many ways a football team can line up eleven defenders in ways that make sense.

It didn’t take new defensive coordinator Robb Smith long to focus on that core problem.

“Our approach is we want to play really hard and we want to play really smart,” he told the media last week. “We need to be a better tackling football team. At some point you’re either going to have to down the football or they’re going to score. So, we’ve spent a lot of time and I think we’ve maximized our opportunities.”

Good coaches have to be good teachers and Mike Elko prioritized bringing in good teachers to his staff, teachers with experience and success.

Duke defensive back Brandon Johnson says this teaching is paying off.

“I think as a whole the defense has taken great leaps in tackling and I think we’re just getting better through every practice.”

Linebacker Shaka Heyward adds “we do drills every day. We start off with leverage tackling and then ball-disruption, getting the ball out because take-aways are the number one reason teams lose, because you’ve got to have the ball to win.”

I’ve seen two scrimmages and a handful of practices and I haven’t seen a lot of missed tackles, certainly not missed tackles at the frequency of the last few seasons.

That’s a small sample size to be sure and I cannot dismiss the possibility that Duke’s runners and receivers aren’t good enough to make people miss. But Duke’s tackling passes the eye test and I am reasonably confident that Duke fans will see a better tackling team this fall.

And those turnovers that Heyward mentioned?

Yes, that’s been another area of concern for recent Duke defenses and another area ripe for improvement.

“We have to find ways to create takeaways,” Smith said. “The fastest way to turn around a football program is to win the turnover margin and in order to do that we’ve got to create takeaways.”

How do you teach a team to create turnovers?

“You’ve got to play really, really hard,” according to Smith. “You’ve got to run to the football and I think there are certain tools we can use. The second man can strip the football, we can throw a hammer, throw a jab. We can disrupt a throw by getting a hand in the quarterback’s face. How to recover a fumble, how to rip a ball out in a reception situation. All of those things, we practice every day. That trained behaviour eventually becomes a habit.”

Duke has a lot of new faces on defense, especially in the secondary. One of the most intriguing is safety Darius Joiner. Joiner joined Duke from Western Illinois after spending four seasons at Jacksonville State.

He was a first-team FCS All-American last season, after notching a jaw-dropping 142 tackles in 11 games.

Smith said that Joiner is “around the football and in order to get a takeaway you’ve got to have a knack for that and he seems to have that.”

Joiner has made plays every time I’ve seen Duke play.

Joiner says that forcing turnovers is the key to playing that 13th game.

“We feel like if we can get in the high 20s, you’re automatically going to a bowl game. That's what the history says. Every practice we work on ball obstruction, creating turnovers for our team. You have to have the right technique and have to have the right mentality. When the bullets start flying you get nervous and that’s when you have to rely on your training.”

Duke forced 14 turnovers last season, as a reference point.

Joiner says he developed that nose-for-the-ball-mentality growing up in Alabama.

“Just growing up my teammates were all very competitive and we all wanted to meet at the ball. My pee-wee team won 30 games straight and everybody knew that we were going to win a state championship when we got to high school and we did.”

Joiner isn’t the only new face you’ll see in the secondary. Datrone Young is a transfer from Iowa State and true freshman Chandler Rivers is opening eyes, in a good way.

Smith says getting pressure on the quarterback is a key to forcing turnovers and Duke needs to do this without blitzing on a regular basis.

“You’ve got to be able to get a pass rush with the four down. Sacks, disrupt throws, get hands in the quarterback’s face, make him change his launch angle.”

 When Duke does blitz it’s essential to “put the quarterback on his back.”

Duke’s base defense will be a 4-2-5 but Smith says that Duke will be flexible, depending on the opponent and the game situation, a three-man line, three linebackers, four linebackers, six defensive backs, all possibilities.

Joiner says he’s never had to learn this many schemes.

Better tackling, forcing turnovers, pressuring the quarterback, confusing the offense.

Sounds like a plan.

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