Tag: duke football recruiting

Duke’s offensive line of the future took shape on Sunday

The Blue Devils added four 2025 commits on Sunday, including three offensive linemen who could one day be the future of Duke football.

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.

Third 2025 offensive lineman of the day commits to Duke football

Manny Diaz, in his first full recruiting cycle as the Duke football coach, snagged yet another offensive lineman near the end of Sunday.

For the third time on Sunday, a 2025 offensive lineman committed to the Duke football program.

Evan Scott, a 6-foot-4 tackle from Augusta, Georgia, announced his commitment through X (the social media platform known as Twitter) around 11 p.m. Eastern time.

“100% COMMITTED,” he wrote on the post.

Scott became the fourth commitment of the day for new Duke head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag]. Two-way star Bradley Gompers led the charge before offensive tackle Cole Allen and interior lineman Jamin Brown both joined on as well.

Brown seemed pleased with Scott’s decision, as he shared an X post of his own saying “Another one” after the announcement.

Despite Scott being listed as an offensive tackle, he’s ranked as 247Sports‘ 123rd-ranked interior lineman in the Class of 2025. Despite being listed at 295 pounds, his height likely makes him a better fit as a guard.

With Scott now on board, the Blue Devils have 18 commits for the Class of 2025 and currently sit as 247Sports’ 23rd-ranked school in the cycle.

Duke football picks up second commitment from 2025 offensive lineman of the day

The Blue Devils picked up their second commitment from a 2025 offensive lineman of the day when Jamin Brown announced his choice.

The Blue Devils kept building their offensive line of the future with their third 2025 commitment of the day on Sunday.

Just hours after three-star offensive tackle Cole Allen announced he would play for head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] in the future, three-star interior lineman Jamin Brown announced he’d do the same thing.

“I’m home,” Brown wrote in his post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Brown, who measures out at 6-foot-4 and 285 pounds, currently ranks as the 57th-ranked interior lineman in the country, according to 247Sports. His overall grade of 87 makes him the fifth-highest-ranked prospect out of 17 commits for the 2025 Duke class.

Brown and Allen need another year of high school before they suit up at Wallace Wade Stadium, but the Blue Devils eagerly await the offensive line help. The team needed to run seven-on-seven reps for much of its spring scrimmage due to a lack of offensive linemen on the roster.

Bradley Gompers, a 6-foot-5 athlete who plays both tight end and linebacker in high school, also committed to the Blue Devils on Sunday.

Duke football picks up commitment from 2025 offensive lineman

Cole Allen, a 6-foot-6 offensive tackle from Mississippi, announced his commitment to the Blue Devils through social media on Sunday.

The Blue Devils snagged two commitments for the football team by 3 p.m. on Sunday when offensive tackle Cole Allen revealed his decision through social media.

“Excited to announce my commitment to continue my athletic and academic career at Duke University,” Allen wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Let’s get to work!”

The 6-foot-6, 265-pound prospect plays for Jackson Preparatory School. 247Sports grades him as a three-star recruit and the 74th-ranked player at his position in the recruiting cycle.

Allen won’t be in Durham for a while, but he will provide help at a position group that is currently pretty thin. With some players entering the transfer portal after the spring game, first-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] had less than a dozen linemen on the roster. The Blue & White Game primarily worked as a seven-on-seven due to the lack of protectors in uniform.

The Blue Devils also added three-star athlete Bradley Gompers earlier today, a 6-foot-5 two-way star who plays tight end and linebacker.

Allen becomes the 16th player to join Duke’s recruiting class for 2025.

2025 two-way star from Pittsburgh commits to Duke football

Bradley Gompers, a three-star prospect from Pittsburgh who plays on both sides of the ball, announced his commitment to the Blue Devils on Sunday.

Duke football added another member to the 2025 class on Sunday when Bradley Gompers announced his commitment to the program.

Gompers, who plays for Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a three-star prospect. He played linebacker, tight end, and strong safety for the Vikings last season.

An outstanding athlete, Gompers measures out at 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds. 247Sports ranks him as the 90th overall linebacker in the class, and he’s the 789th-ranked prospect in his year on the site’s Composite Rankings.

He also took recent visits with Rutgers and Michigan State before settling on Duke head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag]. He also included Pittsburgh, Maryland, Northwestern, and West Virginia in his top seven at the end of May.

Gompers becomes the 15th commitment of the class for the Blue Devils. He’d be the first tight end in the 2025 cycle, but Diaz already landed three linebackers in the rest of the year. Cameron Smith, a Philadelphia linebacker, is Duke’s only four-star commit so far in 2025.

2025 safety Maliki Wright commits to the Blue Devils

Maliki Wright, a three-star safety from Orlando, Florida, announced his commitment to the Blue Devils through social media on Monday.

Duke football picked up its 14th commitment of the 2025 recruiting class on Monday with safety Maliki Wright.

Wright, a three-star safety from Orlando, Florida, announced his decision through Instagram.

The Dr. Phillips High School prospect sits as 247Sports’ 111th-ranked safety in class and one of the top 1,000 players in the site’s Composite Rankings. As a junior in 2023, Wright racked up 74 tackles in 10 games and snagged two interceptions and a fumble recovery in the turnover category.

Wright becomes the first safety but the fourth defensive back to join head coach Manny Diaz’s recruiting class. Diaz, a former Penn State defensive coordinator, already landed cornerbacks Ma’Khi Jones, Kaleb Lanier, and William Felder Jr. for the cycle.

Diaz’s defensive background has shined through on the trail so far. Of his 14 commits so far, Wright becomes the 10th defensive player. He also became the second commitment of the afternoon after wide receiver Gerritt Kemp.

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More commitments may still be on the way, however, as Duke hosted a handful of top 2025 targets over the weekend.

Duke football picks up commitment from three-star wideout

Gerritt Kemp, a three-star 2025 wideout who took an official visit with the Blue Devils over the weekend, announced his commitment to Duke on Monday.

Duke football picked up another 2025 commitment on Monday, this time in the form of three-star wide receiver Gerritt Kemp.

Kemp took an official visit with the program over the weekend and must have quickly fallen in love with first-year head coach[autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his program. He shared his decision through X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“100% Committed,” Kemp wrote in the post. “Thank you God for making this possible and thank you Jesus for dying for me.”

Kemp shared the decision alongside photos of himself in a blue Duke uniform, sporting the number 0 and posing in a sports car.

The wideout plays for Hebron Christian Academy in Georgia. As a junior in 2023, he led the Lions with 514 yards (nearly 375 more than anyone else on the team, according to MaxPreps) and hauled in seven of the team’s 13 passing touchdowns.

He is 247Sports’ 90-ranked receiver in the Class of 2025 as of Monday afternoon.

Kemp also already met his quarterback of the future as three-star quarterback commit Dan Mahan visited the Blue Devils this weekend as well.

Duke cornerback commit shares tons of photos from his official visit

William Felder Jr., one of Duke’s earliest commitments from the Class of 2025, shared multiple social media posts after his official visit.

There probably haven’t been many people more excited to become Blue Devils than cornerback commit William Felder Jr.

The third player in the Class of 2025 to commit to Duke coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag], Felder announced his decision all the way back in February. He made it to campus for an official visit over the weekend and seemed to have a great time based on his trio of social media posts about the trip.

Felder shared a graphic of him in a Duke jersey with the caption “#bleedblue25” and a group photo of him with his family. He sported a hard hat with Duke (in The Brotherhood script) imprinted on the side). On top of that, he also shared a 20-second edit of himself and Duke’s campus.

“Duke Fans y’all ready?” Felder wrote on the latter.

Felder is one of three defensive backs in Diaz’s first full recruiting cycle alongside Kaleb Lanier and Ma’Khi Jones, both Georgia natives.

Felder also hails from Philadelphia, the same hometown as four-star linebacker Cameron Smith, Duke’s highest-rated commitment in the class. Given Diaz’s previous job as Penn State‘s defensive coordinator, the connection should hardly come as a surprise.

2025 defensive lineman shares social media post after Duke football official visit

Carmello Brooks, a three-star defensive lineman from Texas, said he had an “amazing experience” during his official Duke visit this weekend.

Duke football and head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] hosted a handful of potential future Blue Devils over the weekend, and one three-star defensive lineman sounded impressed.

Carmello Brooks, a three-star defensive lineman in the Class of 2025, shared a post on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday afternoon with a graphic showing him in a Blue Devils uniform.

“Shout out to (Duke football recruiting) for the amazing experience on my OV,” Brooks wrote. “Had a great time amazing hospitality!”

Brooks, as of Sunday night, ranked as 247Sports‘ 85th-ranked defensive lineman in the class, and the Texas native sat 861st on the 247Sports Composite Ranking.

After finishing his junior season for Paetow High School last fall, 247Sports thinks the Blue Devils’ top competition for the young prospect resides in his home state.  Brooks will visit Houston next weekend, and the Cougars and Texas are both listed as ‘warm’ interests for him.

Diaz clearly has an affinity for the defensive side of the ball. Nine of the first 12 commitments to the former Penn State defensive coordinator for 2025 hail from the defensive side of the ball.

Three-star 2025 tight end shares photos from official Duke football visit

Reiman Zebert, a top-50 tight end prospect in the 2025 class, shared some photos from his official visit to Duke on Saturday.

Duke football hosted a litany of potential offensive targets from the 2025 recruiting class this weekend, including three-star tight end Reiman Zebert.

Zebert, 247Sports’ 44th-ranked tight end in the class, shared some photos of him in a Blue Devils uniform on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday.

“Had a great time in Raleigh/Durham this weekend spending time with the players, recruits, coaches and staff,” Zebert wrote. “What an incredible experience.”

As a junior for Platteview High School, he led the team with 677 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. He only caught 28 passes, too, giving him an average of more than 24 yards per reception in nine games. He measures out at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds.

Duke head coach Manny Diaz already landed three offensive prospects for the 2025 class, including running back Javin Gordon last week. Zebert visited the Blue Devils the same weekend as Dan Mahan, Duke’s 2025 quarterback commit who also shared some photos on Saturday.

According to 247Sports reporter Adam Rowe, Zebert was originally scheduled to visit Durham next weekend but moved his trip up.