Duke football fans who paid attention to the 2024 Blue & White Game noticed a severe lack of offensive linemen.
The team couldn’t even run full 11-on-11 sets for most of the game because they couldn’t field enough protectors. At one point in the offseason, due to recent transfers, the Blue Devils only had eight offensive linemen on the spring roster.
Help is on the way, however. First-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] already fished some big names out of the transfer portal like UCLA tackle Bruno Fina, Northwestern tackle Zachary Franks, and Penn tackle Jack Purcell.
Diaz isn’t just keeping an eye on the 2024 schedule, however. His Sunday work on the recruiting trail proved that. The Blue Devils picked up a quarter of commitments on Father’s Day, including three offensive linemen. Offensive tackle Cole Allen, interior lineman Jamin Brown, and offensive lineman Evan Scott (listed as a tackle but ranked as an interior lineman) all announced they would join the program after their senior seasons.
Along with tackle Nathan Kutufaris, who committed back in April, Duke now has four future guardians among its 18 commitments for the 2025 cycle.
The Sunday prospects weren’t run-of-the-mill announcements, either. All three commitments are three-star prospects. Brown is 247Sports’ fifth-highest-rated member of Duke’s class and Allen is eighth.
It’ll take until 2026 (or maybe even 2027) before the four linemen in the upcoming class start defending a Duke quarterback (perhaps classmate Dan Mahan), but the Blue Devils’ future offensive line seems to be trending upwards.