It's really early but

Duke might run the football more this season

Pound that rock.”

That’s Duke tight end Jerry Hasley describing Duke’s offensive philosophy this season in Tuesday’s Zoom media availability.

“I think we have a great offensive line and obviously Nate and a talented running-back room. At first, we’re going to try to pound the rock and that’s what’s going to open up our pass game and it we do both exceptionally well, this offensive is going to be unstoppable.

“How do I fit into that role? Blocking for Nate as hard as I can and the rest of the running-back room and that just frees me up from a back-end standpoint where the safeties going down pretty early in the run game and that just helps me slip into the middle of the field. ‘Pound the rock’ is our main goal heading into the season and that’s going to open up a lot of things this season.”

Don’t get me wrong. Nobody wants or is expecting early Mike McGee here. Duke threw the ball 138 times in 1971, completing 42% of them. Duke is going to throw the ball. Just maybe not 36 times per game, which was last season’s average,

This is a rational allocation of resources. Duke will be breaking in a new quarterback; not sure who yet. But Nate is Nate Sheppard and he’s one of the best running backs in college football.

Sheppard is up to 205 pounds and yes he’s ready for even greater usage after a record-setting freshman season.

“I can definitely tell it’s paying off. From a pass-blocking standpoint, that’s where most of my contact is coming from right now. But I think it’s going to be really exciting in the season, using everything that I’ve gained so far.”

Sheppard cannot and will not do it by himself. Duke lost Anderson Castle and Jaquez Moore from last season. Transfers CJ Campbell, Jr. (Rutgers) and Wilhelm Daal II (Yale) and freshmen CJ Givers and Jayvian Tanelus are competing to be running backs 2 and 3. Barring injury, Duke isn’t likely to go any deeper than that.

Sheppard says “We have a great room. C.J. is kind of getting into that role. He’s phenomenal out there. He’s breaking off some big runs. Billy (Daal) is a little bit bigger (215 pounds), a little bit stronger.

“Then we’ve got the young guys. Obviously, they’re still learning and stuff but they’re getting after it for sure.”

Givers and Tanelius were highly-regarded prepsters last season in Georgia and Florida respectively and Sheppard proved again last year that true freshmen can be difference makers at running back.

But Campbell could be the X-factor. He’s fought through injuries at Florida State, FAU and Rutgers. But when healthy he’s been very good. He’s averaged 5.4 yards per carry over his career, 1,140 yards.

Sheppard says Campbell is healthy.

“He’s been practicing with us, doing all the things we’re doing. He just brings a 1-2 punch. We try to have no drop-off when I have to step-off the field and he’s going to bring that.”

Duke’s social-media team is showing videos of Campbell and they don’t do that for people who aren’t expected to be major contributors.

Of course, somebody has to block for these backs. Hasley says transfer Nate Kurisky has made a smooth transition from Louisville and holdover Jake Taylor is making a case for seeing the field.

“I love where our tight-end group is right now.”

More two tight-end sets?

“The “12” personnel is not too bad. We’ll hope to see that,”

He was smiling when he said that. Big smile.

The offensive line sems to have coalesced around returning starters Matt Craycraft at center and Jordan Larsen at left guard, transfers Nick Del Grande (Coastal Carolina ) and Braden Miller (Cal) at right tackle, Right guard seems to be coming down to redshirt sophomore Bradley Smith and seventh-year Micah Sahakian, finally healthy after years of knee issues.

Sheppard singled out Miller, saying he “has been phenomenal in the run game so far.”

All of these guys have worked with David Feeley, in Craycraft’s case for five years, and the players expected to compete for playing time at offensive line all weigh between 300 and 320 pounds, Sahakian and Gemyel Allen tipping the scales at the latter.

These guys are going to win some battles in the trenches.

I’ll finish with Hasley. A few days ago, he was named 55^th on Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List.” Hasley is well aware of this.

“I woke up Sunday morning, maybe Monday morning and we have a tight-end chat we call “the difference makers” and “number 55 freak Jerry,” and I was just laughing. It was kind of a surprise.”