Tag: kendy charles

Duke football will rotate the defensive line a lot in September, head coach Manny Diaz says

Duke’s defensive line, especially along the inside, will rotate more than a half-dozen guys in and out for the first month of the season.

The Duke football team announced its 2024 starters on Monday, complete with four defensive linemen. However, just because Wesley Williams, Aaron Hall, Kendy Charles, and Vincent Anthony Jr. won the four top lines doesn’t mean they’ll take every snap.

First-year head coach Manny Diaz has preached depth all offseason, saying his defense is built around subbing players in and out. During his first Monday press conference of the year, Diaz brought up that depth yet again, this time specifically at defensive tackle. While Hall and Charles have received most of the work, the Blue Devils coach said more than a half-dozen players could see the field over the first few games.

“The good news is that all the guys we have at that spot have all improved,” Diaz said. “They’ve all gotten better, and they all deserve the right to play…That’s kind of an M.O. of this defense anyway, you’ll see a lot of people up front playing, and I suspect you would see a lot of that throughout the month of September.”

Diaz rattled off names like senior Christian Rorie, redshirt freshmen Desmond Aladuge and David Anderson, and even true freshman Preston Watson as potential depth pieces. Watson was listed as Charles’ backup on the initial depth chart.

While the general bucket of names isn’t questioned, the hierarchy among the backups remains a little fuzzy to Diaz. He pointed out that, because Duke couldn’t field full offensive lines in the spring, the unit got a late start on full-throttle reps. Not that it gives him any more time to debate.

“We called the 12 opponents we played, it turns out none of them care,” Diaz joked. “They want us to play anyway, and so we’ll still bring those guys and line them up against Elon.”

Duke football coach Manny Diaz thinks his defensive line talent can create negative plays

Few things create more value than a tackle for loss, Duke football coach Manny Diaz says, and he thinks the Blue Devils defensive line can rack those up.

Duke football coach Manny Diaz built one of the fiercest and most formidable defenses in college football back at Penn State over the last two years. The Nittany Lions allowed 13.5 points (the third-fewest in the country) and 247.6 yards (the second-fewest in the country) last season.

In Diaz’s eyes, a large part of that success came down to tackles for loss forcing opponents behind the chains. He went into more detail during his Wednesday press conference at the ACC Football Kickoff.

“If you can create a negative play on a drive, the points per drive goes way down,” Diaz said. “The game is all about either avoiding third downs or what the distance is on third down. Football’s not complicated.”

During a later appearance on ACC Network, one host asked Diaz to talk about his defensive talent. The new Blue Devils head coach couldn’t stop naming names.

“Our defensive end room is very deep,” Diaz said. “They could be the strength of our defense. We think Wesley Williams could be a star, VJ Anthony is a whole different guy than he was a year ago, great set of skills.”

Diaz also highlighted members of his back seven, notably 2023 leading tackler Tre Freeman and upperclassmen defensive backs Chandler Rivers and Jaylen Stinson, but it’s clear success for Diaz starts up front.

“If you can roll eight on that front line, and we’ve got some questions on who seven and eight are, but if you can roll eight and keep those guys fresh, all of the best defenses we’ve had have usually started from there,” he said.

Duke football coach Manny Diaz says Blue Devils doubled their experience with transfers

Duke football coach Manny Diaz broke down how, by one metric, the Blue Devils doubled their experience through the transfer portal this offseason.

The biggest issue facing most first-year college football coaches revolves around the team’s experience and veteran leadership, especially in the modern era of the transfer portal. Teams that go through a coaching change usually lose most of their seniors, and even though new Duke coach Manny Diaz convinced safety Jaylen Stinson to stick around, the Blue Devils still lost more than his fair share of locker room voices.

Diaz managed to find a solution to that problem.

During his media appearances at the ACC Football Kickoff on Wednesday, Diaz said his team doubled its experience through transfer portal additions this offseason. He didn’t just make that claim for fun or pick a random amount, either. In a fashion befitting a top university, he brought some math and evidence to support his claim.

“Our returning snaps from who we had in spring practice was about 23,500,” Diaz told an ACC Network panel. “We added 24 players that have 24,000 snaps. We doubled the experience of our football team in just adding 24 guys.”

One of those notable additions, former Old Dominion wideout Javon Harvey, already has some fans in the quarterback room. Sophomore Grayson Loftis called him ‘a quarterback’s best friend’ thanks to his experience and dedication to preparation.

Other notable incoming transfers include former Liberty defensive lineman Kendy Charles, former New Mexico State running back Star Thomas, and former Rice cornerback Tre’Shon Devones, along with more than half a dozen offensive linemen.

Most intriguing transfer portal options at defensive tackle

Most intriguing transfer portal options at defensive tackle #GoBucks

We already broke down our expectations for how Ohio State could handle the quarterback position (which it has handled) and then dove into the possible running backs (which it has also handled). We also recently covered the wide receiver position (if things break a certain way), tight ends, and offensive tackle, guards, and of course, the center position that was also already addressed by the staff. But now, we have also moved onto the defensive side of the ball and hit on the defensive ends and we want to now dive into the interior at defensive tackle.

Again, as we have been saying, we are pretty late into the portal game, but I wanted to highlight some guys that would have been interesting fits for Ohio State and a few that may still be available. The big takeaway on this list is that the Michigan State Spartans are making moves to keep some of their best studs, but let’s dive into the list.