Tag: duke football recruiting

Duke football picks up third Class of 2026 commitment from a South Carolina wide receiver

The Duke Blue Devils added their third commitment from the Class of 2026 on Monday, a 6-foot-4 wide receiver from South Carolina.

The Duke Blue Devils notched their third commitment from the Class of 2026 on Monday when Jude Hall, a 6-foot-4 wideout from South Carolina, announced his decision on social media.

The Christ Church Episcopal School product is not currently ranked by 247Sports, but at 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, he clearly possesses the physical tools to play outside at the collegiate level. According to MaxPreps, he led the Cavaliers with 57 receptions for 795 yards and five touchdowns in 11 games, and he caught nine touchdowns as a sophomore in 2023.

Duke’s receiver depth was one of its best qualities in 2024, but the position group will experience a firm overhaul over the next two seasons. [autotag]Eli Pancol[/autotag] and [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag], who combined for 1.539 yards and 16 touchdowns, both just finished their senior season. Sahmir Hagans will be a redshirt senior in 2025, and Old Dominion transfer Javon Harvey just used his final season of eligibility.

Hall joins four-star offensive lineman Sean Stover and three-star defensive lineman Ayden Cain in Duke’s current 2026 recruiting class.

One of the top 2025 Duke football signees reacts to assistant coach departure

One of the Blue Devils’ top signees shared a social media post on Saturday after Duke’s running backs coach left to helm the FIU Panthers

The Duke Blue Devils lost running backs coach Willie Simmons to a head-coaching job on Saturday morning, and one of the top signees in the school’s 2025 class seemed a little disappointed with the news.

ESPN reporter Pete Thamel, among others, reported that Simmons agreed to a four-year contract as the Florida International head coach. Three-star running back Nate Sheppard wordlessly reacted on social media by posting a face-palm emoji on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Sheppard is 247Sports’ No. 29 running back in the 2025 class, making him the fourth-highest player in the Blue Devils’ recruiting class as of Saturday. According to MaxPreps, the Mandeville High School product has 1,340 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in just seven games as a high-school senior.

For any Duke fans panicking about Sheppard’s potential status with the program, he signed his letter of intent with the Blue Devils on early signing day this Wednesday. Sheppard’s already listed on the team website as part of the 2025 roster, so the odds of this move preventing him from ending up in Durham seem low.

Duke football flips three-star wide receiver formerly committed to Wake Forest

One day after the Duke Blue Devils defeated Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, a former Demon Deacons commit flipped to Manny Diaz’s program.

The Duke Blue Devils won in Winston-Salem for a second straight day on Sunday afternoon.

Three-star 2025 wide receiver Jamien Little, a former Wake Forest commit, announced his decision in favor of the Blue Devils on Sunday.

“(I’m) truly blessed,” Little wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

A 6-foot-1 wideout from Hickory High School in North Carolina, Little decommitted from the Demon Deacons on November 10 just eight months after his initial decision. He visited Durham in October, and he received an offer from the North Carolina Tar Heels just two weeks afterward.

Little is the No. 64 wideout in the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports recruiting rankings, and the site’s Composite rankings have him as the No. 768 overall player in the class. According to MaxPreps, he leads the Hickory Red Tornadoes with 51 receptions for 1,167 yards and 16 touchdowns through 13 games as a senior.

His decision comes less than 24 hours after the Blue Devils took down Wake Forest on the road, a 23-17 victory clinched by Maalik Murphy’s 39-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Moore on the final play of the game.

Little becomes the fourth wide receiver and 27th overall commitment in Duke’s 2025 recruiting class, and he’s the highest-ranked player at his position among that group.

Duke football receives commitment from blue-chip 2026 offensive lineman

Ahead of their final regular season game in 2024, Duke received a commitment from a top 2026 offensive lineman.

Ahead of the Blue Devils’ final regular season game of the 2024 season, Duke received a commitment from a blue-chip offensive lineman in the 2026 class.

Prosper High School’s Sean Stover, a four-star inside offensive lineman, announced his commitment to Duke via X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

According to the 247Sports Composite, Stover is the 276th-ranked player across the class of 2026 and the No. 21 overall interior offensive lineman. He stands 6-foot-2.5 and measures out at 275 pounds.

“True center prospect,” 247Sports scouting analyst Gabe Brooks wrote in his scouting report. “Owns elite lateral athleticism in a combine setting, and that movement ability and short-area quickness show in pads.”

Stover is the second player to join the Blue Devils’ 2026 class, joining three-star defensive lineman Ayden Cain. The class as a whole ranks No. 32 in the 247Sports rankings, the same exact spot that Duke’s 2025 class currently occupies with 25 commitments.

Three 2025 Duke football commits now considered four-star prospects by 247Sports

With 247Sports updating its football recruiting rankings on Wednesday, the 2025 Duke recruiting class now features three four-star prospects.

247Sports updated its 2025 football recruiting rankings on Wednesday, and three Duke football commits now count as four-star prospects.

Edge rusher Bryce Davis flipped to the Blue Devils from the Clemson Tigers in August, and at the time, he was graded as the best Duke commitment since 247Sports tracking began.

Now, despite still being the No. 145 overall player in the country, Davis isn’t even the top player in the class. Two-way star Bradley Gompers rose to the No. 104 overall spot thanks to a torrid start to his senior season.

The Pittsburgh product has caught 14 passes for 412 yards and five touchdowns on offense while adding 45 total tackles, two sacks, and an interception on defense in just seven games for Central Catholic High School.

Bariate Kara, an edge rusher from Georgia who committed to the Blue Devils in July, also reached the four-star threshold as 247Sports’ No. 32 defensive lineman. Between him, Davis, and three-star Sampson Onuoha, edge rushers make up three of Duke’s four highest-rated commits.

Duke now a top-five ACC team in updated 2025 football recruiting rankings from 247Sports

247Sports updated their 2025 football recruiting rankings on Wednesday. Read more about where the Blue Devils landed here.

247Sports updated their 2025 football recruiting rankings on Wednesday, and head coach Manny Diaz and his staff continue to sneak their way up the list.

The Blue Devils now sit 32nd in the standings thanks to four-star edge rusher Bryce Davis, whom Diaz flipped from the Clemson Tigers this summer, and rising two-way star Bradley Gompers.

The updated list now makes Duke the fifth-highest team in the ACC, one spot above the esteemed Florida State Seminoles.

Diaz and his staff have closed on a staggering number of recruits in the short time he’s been in Durham. 25 different players have committed to the Blue Devils, tied for the seventh-most for any one program.

In proper college football fashion, most of the help will come in the trenches. Six of Duke’s commits, including Davis, play along the defensive line and a half-dozen more are offensive linemen, making up more than half of the class.

Three-star quarterback Dan Mahan, who plays for Walter M. Williams High School in Burlington, is now the No. 55 quarterback in the 2025 class.

Highest-rated 2025 Duke football commit posts about North Carolina comeback

Four-star edge rusher Bryce Davis, the highest-rated Duke football commit in 247Sports history, posted about Saturday’s comeback over UNC.

It doesn’t sound like four-star 2025 edge rusher Bryce Davis regrets his decision to flip to the Duke Blue Devils.

Davis, who initially committed to the Clemson Tigers before changing to the Blue Devils in August, posted three devil emojis on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) after Duke cemented its 21-20 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.

As a top-10 defensive lineman in his class and the No. 59 overall player in the 247Sports Composite Rankings, Davis is comfortably the highest-rated player in the Blue Devils’ 2025 recruiting class. In fact, according to 247Sports, he’s the highest-rated commit in school history.

Davis had plenty of reasons to like what he saw from the Duke defensive front on Saturday. The Blue Devils made six tackles for loss against UNC, giving them 52 for the season through five games. Edge rusher Vincent Anthony Jr., another four-star prospect out of high school, finished with a sack and 2.5 TFLs by himself.

https://twitter.com/BryceDavis45/status/1840175739385118740

The Blue Devils won’t have Davis for another year, but head coach Manny Diaz still has the team off to a 5-0 start for the first time since 1994.

2026 quarterback prospect will attend Duke football rivalry game against North Carolina

The Duke Blue Devils will host a 2026 quarterback prospect from Georgia during their rivalry football game against North Carolina.

The Duke Blue Devils play their most bitter rival on the football field this Saturday when the North Carolina Tar Heels come to town, and a potential quarterback of the future will be in attendance.

2026 quarterback prospect Darnell Kelly announced through social media on Thursday that he’d be in Durham this weekend while head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his staff aim for the school’s first 5-0 start in 30 years.

According to 247Sports, Kelly is a 6-foot-2 signal caller who plays for Peachtree Ridge High School in Georgia. Through the first five games of his junior season, MaxPreps credits him with 1,114 passing yards and 13 passing touchdowns against a single interception, completing 68.9% of his throws at 13.3 yards per attempt.

Diaz landed 2025 three-star quarterback Dan Mahan from Burlington, North Carolina, and Kelly shows how committed he and his staff are to building a deep room at the position.

Four-star defensive lineman from Durham announces that he’ll attend Duke-UNC game

Noah Clark, a four-star defensive lineman from Durham, announced through social media on Tuesday that he’d attend Duke’s game against UNC.

The entire state of North Carolina slows to a halt when the Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels face off, even on the football field, and one member of Saturday’s crowd will be of utmost importance to the Duke coaching staff.

Noah Clark, a four-star defensive lineman from the Class of 2026, announced on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday that he’d visit the Blue Devils for their rivalry battle this weekend.

Clark, a local kid from Durham, plays for Charles E. Jordan High School. According to his 247Sports recruiting profile, he’s 6-foot-3 and 318 pounds, and he’s within the top 200 players in his class on the site’s rankings.

The Falcons have won three of their first four games in Clark’s junior season, and according to MaxPreps, he’s already made 25 tackles and 2.0 tackles for loss this season. He compiled 63 tackles and 2.5 sacks with the varsity team as a freshman back in 2022.

https://twitter.com/NoahClark_90/status/1838566383308652605

Clark should appreciate Duke head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke’s commitment to a defensive rotation. True freshman Preston Watson recorded his first collegiate sack last week against Middle Tennessee, and 20 different Blue Devils have a tackle for loss through Week 4.

Four-star offensive lineman posts about Duke football visit from Week 3

Duke football hosted a four-star 2026 offensive lineman during the team’s Week 3 victory over Connecticut.

Duke football hosted four-star offensive lineman Sean Stover for an unofficial visit over the weekend, and Stover had nice things to say about the program on Sunday.

“Had a great time at Duke this weekend,” Stover wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Thank you (Duke offensive line coach Jeff Norrid) for the invite!!”

Stover, a member of the Class of 2026, is measured at 6-foot-3 and 275 pounds. According to the 247Sports Rankings, he’s the No. 15 interior offensive lineman in his year and one of the top 250 players in the country. He plays for Prosper High School in Prosper, Texas.

Duke football coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag], in his first full cycle as the Blue Devils’ coach, found some success along the trenches in the Class of 2025. His staff landed commitments from a half-dozen offensive linemen, including three-star interior lineman Jamin Brown.

Stover also has offers from the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Oregon Ducks, and the Pittsburgh Panthers, among other teams.

https://twitter.com/stover2026/status/1835343504081371576