Duke football closes spring practice with an eye on Clemson, and a tough ACC slate

Though Duke football returns 17 starters from last season’s 9-4 team, its spring work was not just a matter of fine tuning.

Even after compiling their most wins in a season since 2014, the Blue Devils know they have to reach an even higher level of play because their schedule, beginning with a season-opening game against Clemson on Sept. 5, is much tougher.

“We just show them our schedule and who is coming in here,” Duke offensive coordinator Kevin Johns said. “In this league now, it’s gonna take your best every single week. So in no way have we arrived and no way do our players think that we have arrived. We have a ton of work to do.”

That work included two hours of scrimmage play at Wallace Wade Stadium on Friday night for the Blue-White game that culminated the team’s spring practices.

The season-opener with Clemson is the next game Duke is preparing to play, but it’s not the last tough game. ACC schedule changes mean N.C. State joins Wake Forest and North Carolina as Duke’s perennial games. The Blue Devils also play Florida State and Notre Dame this season.

Having a chance to return to a bowl game while facing that difficult of a schedule meant Duke needed to take full advantage of its spring work.

“It was great night,” Duke coach Mike Elko said, “and I’m so excited for Duke football. Excited for where we’re going. Now we’ve gotta have a really great summer leading into fall camp. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to get ourselves ready to play Clemson.”

Here are the takeaways as Duke wrapped up its spring practice work:

Efficient Leonard

Having completed 63.6% of his passes last season as a sophomore, when he threw 20 touchdowns and just six interceptions, Riley Leonard showed more of that accuracy in the spring game.

The rising junior completed 19 of 28 throws for 154 yards and two touchdowns leading the Blue team in the scrimmage.

Leonard completed his first five passes of the scrimmage, including a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jalon Calhoun, and eight of his first nine overall. He added a 3-yard touchdown pass to junior Nick Lampert in the second quarter.

“We started rotating some people around him,” Elko said, “and I think he got a little bit out of whack as the scrimmage went on. But I think he’s got a much better feel for the passing game. Obviously. I think he’s a lot more comfortable delivering the ball back there.”

Big* night for Oben

The stat sheet showed defensive tackle RJ Oben as recording four sacks in the spring game. That’s quite the performance.

It’s tainted somewhat by rules protecting quarterbacks who wore red jerseys, signifying they couldn’t be tackled. So Oben had to be in the vicinity or make soft contact with them to record a sack.

Leonard, who was in a red jersey for the scrimmage, rushed for a team-best 699 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. He clearly thought he would have avoided being sacked.

But, all that taken into account, Elko liked what he saw from Oben, who returns at a starting defensive end position for his redshirt senior season.

“RJ is critical,” Elko said. “He’s starting to really come into his own play and play out as the player we think he’s capable of being and not just the pass rusher.”

Deep running back room

Jaylen Coleman and Jordan Waters were Duke’s main running backs last season and both return to lead the charge.

They are joined by junior Jaquez Moore, who was held out of the spring game after suffering a minor injury in practice this week.

There’s still room for freshman Peyton Jones to get some playing time, and the Blue Devils staff is planning to use him rather than have him redshirt.

Jones gained 55 yards on 17 carries in the spring game while scoring a touchdown. He nearly matched the outcome produced by Waters (30 yards) and Coleman (27 yards) combined.

Jones graduated a semester early from Maury High School in Norfolk, Virginia, to enroll at Duke and take part in spring practice.

“He’s got some really natural explosiveness as a ball carrier,” Jones said. “He’s still got a lot to learn about the nuances of playing college football, but he’s certainly extremely talented and I’m very happy with the job that he did.”

Starters sidelined

Duke played its spring game with four starters not participating due to injury, and three other players from its projected two-deep depth chart unavailable.

None of the injuries that kept those players out are expected to impact their availability for the regular season.

Two starting offensive linemen, left tackle Graham Barton and left guard Maurice McIntyre, were held out of contact work all spring. The same was true for two starting defensive linemen, tackle DeWayne Carter and end VJ Anthony.

Moore, competing for a starting job entering his junior season this fall, suffered a minor injury in practice this week and didn’t play in the spring game.

Reserve defensive end Anthony Nelson and back-up offensive lineman Calib Perez were also sidelined on Friday night.

But there are no major concerns here. Elko said they should all be ready in June when the team begins its summer workouts.

“We are fortunate,” Elko said. “We made it through spring without any major injuries and so nobody’s going to miss significant time from an injury that happened in the spring.”

Captains established

Duke’s players voted four of their brethren as team captains for this season.

Carter is the first Duke player to be a captain for three seasons. He’s joined by offensive lineman Jacob Monk, who returns for his second season as a captain.

First-time captains are Leonard and defensive tackle Ja’Mion Franklin.