Tag: Nicky Dalmolin

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin will miss the rest of the season, Manny Diaz confirms

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin will miss the rest of the 2024 season with a lower leg injury he sustained in practice, Manny Diaz announced.

Duke football coach Manny Diaz announced on Friday night that tight end [autotag]Nicky Dalmolin[/autotag] will miss the remainder of the 2024 season.

The first-year Blue Devils coach said after the team’s victory over the Florida State Seminoles that Dalmolin, a fifth-year Blue Devil, suffered a lower leg injury during practice in the middle of the week.

With Dalmolin already having played six games this season, his final year of eligibility, there’s a strong chance that the injury also ended his collegiate career.

Dalmolin surprised Duke football fans back in May when he announced he’d be returning for a fifth season. He’d finished each of the previous three years with at least 100 receiving yards, but he’d never ended a campaign with more than 170.

Through six games this fall, he was on track to shatter that personal best. He hauled in 11 passes for 167 yards over the first half of the season, including his first career 100-yard game against Middle Tennessee. Dalmolin caught two touchdowns in that game as well, another career first.

With fellow tight end Jeremiah Hasley also out for the year with an injury he suffered against Northwestern in Week 2, the Blue Devils turned to redshirt sophomore Jake Taylor as their primary tight end against FSU. He caught one of his three targets for one yard against the Seminoles.

Three Duke football players named to Week 4 ACC Team of the Week by Pro Football Focus

Three Duke football players made the Pro Football Focus ACC Team of the Week after the Blue Devils’ blowout win over 45-17.

After the Duke Blue Devils dominated Middle Tennessee for a 45-17 victory last weekend, three different players made the Pro Football Focus Team of the Week for the ACC.

Tight end Nicky Dalmolin, who caught a 71-yard touchdown on the opening possession en route to a 100-yard, two-score game, ended up on the offensive team. The fifth-year senior had previously never with more than 40 yards in a single day, but he caught all four of his passes in the first half against the Blue Raiders.

Linebacker Alex Howard and safety Terry Moore made the defensive team. Howard led the Blue Devils with eight tackles, 3.5 of which went for a loss. Among ACC defenders, the Youngstown State transfer is tied for fourth in total tackles (36), tied for seventh in sacks (3.0), and first in TFLs (8.5).

Moore, who also made the Pro Football Focus team in Week 2 for his game against Northwestern, made six tackles against MTSU. He’s come down with two of the Blue Devils’ three interceptions this season.

https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/status/1839291285364158802

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin gets first career 100-yard game against MTSU

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin, in his fifth season with the Blue Devils, more than doubled his previous career-high on Saturday.

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin hadn’t even come close to a game like Saturday over the previous four years.

Through the graduate student’s first four seasons and three games with the Blue Devils, he’d never finished with more than 40 yards. He actually set that mark just two weeks ago against Northwestern, breaking his previous career-high of 38 yards from a game against North Carolina A&T in 2022.

Then, on the second offensive play of the game against Middle Tennessee, he ran past the entire MTSU defense for a 71-yard touchdown. He caught a pass on the previous play, too, giving him all 75 yards on the possession and his first scoring play since November 2022.

The career day continued from there with a seven-yard scoring catch later in the first quarter, his first two-touchdown game with the Blue Devils. He tacked on an 18-yard reception in the second quarter to reach 100 yards for the first time in a Duke uniform.

Dalmolin didn’t catch a pass in the second half, but it didn’t make a dent in the best day of his career. No other Blue Devil finished with more than 34 receiving yards, and the fifth-year tight end now has 142 yards for the season.

His best collegiate campaign came in 2022 when he caught 21 passes for 170 yards. With eight games left on the schedule, he seems like a sure bet to break that yardage mark.

Duke football blows out Middle Tennessee after forcing three first-quarter fumbles

The Duke Blue Devils improved to 3-0 on Saturday afternoon behind a dominant defense during a blowout 45-17 victory over Middle Tennessee.

Even the fury of the skies couldn’t slow down Duke’s defense on Saturday afternoon as the Blue Devils (4-0) persevered past a lengthy weather delay to take down Middle Tennessee (1-3)  45-17 on the road.

The Duke defense punished the Blue Raiders over and over in the first two quarters. Excluding a 66-yard rushing touchdown from MTSU’s Jaiden Credle (partially assisted by an accidental block by a referee) on the first drive, the Blue Devils held their opponents to 101 yards before halftime.

MTSU quarterback Nicholas Vattiato threw for 456 yards and three touchdowns against Western Kentucky last week, but he finished the first 30 minutes on Saturday with nine completions for 58 yards. If you include Duke’s four first-half sacks, the Blue Raiders averaged 1.6 yards per dropback in the first two quarters.

Despite those struggles through the air, Middle Tennessee’s first-quarter fumbles did more damage than anything else. The Blue Raiders coughed up the ball three times before the break, each time within 25 yards of their own end zone. Linebacker Alex Howard nearly scooped one of them up for a defensive touchdown but ended up falling on the ball at the 1-yard line. Duke’s offense finished off all three drives with a touchdown.

Defensive end Wesley Williams forced that fumble near the end zone, part of a statement performance from the junior. In addition to the turnover, he racked up two sacks for the game, giving him 2.5 on the season. As a whole, Duke finished with six sacks and 12 tackles for loss.

The story coming into the game actually revolved around Middle Tennessee’s defense, or more accurately, how poor it had been through three games. The Blue Raiders averaged more than 380 yards allowed through the air before Saturday, the worst mark in the FBS, and Duke quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] immediately went to work capitalizing on that vulnerable secondary. He threw a 71-yard touchdown to Nicky Dalmolin on the second offensive play of the game, his first of three scores.

Dalmolin, who’d previously never finished with more than 40 yards in a single game, surpassed 100 yards and caught a second touchdown before the end of the first half against MTSU. The two early scores helped build a 35-10 lead at the midway point, and the game felt over before Middle Tennessee even made it back to the locker room.

A lengthy weather delay kept the Blue Devils off the field for more than 100 minutes near the end of the third quarter, but even that couldn’t change MTSU’s destiny. After a sleepy final few minutes, the Blue Devils walked away with a 28-point victory.

Murphy finished the game with 14 completions on 21 attempts, throwing for 216 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Star Thomas put together his second straight 100-yard game on the ground, this time with 111 yards on 17 attempts along with his first two scores of the year.

The Blue Devils now return to Durham, where they’ll host the North Carolina Tar Heels next week. With UNC allowing 70 points in an upset to James Madison on Saturday, a 5-0 start and a rivalry win seem to be within Duke’s grasp.

Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy finds Nicky Dalmolin for longest touchdown of the season

The Duke offense needed only two plays to score against Middle Tennessee after Maalik Murphy found tight end Nicky Dalmolin for a 71-yard touchdown.

Duke football entered Saturday’s game against Middle Tennessee hoping to take advantage of the Blue Raiders’ bottom-ranked pass defense, and it didn’t take quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] long to do exactly that.

On the second play of Duke’s first drive, tight end Nicky Dalmolin found a seam to sneak behind the MTSU secondary. Murphy threw the ball over everybody’s head to the graduate student, who raced 71 yards to the end zone for Duke’s longest touchdown of the season.

Dalmolin actually caught both of Murphy’s pass attempts on the 75-yard touchdown drive, and the catch was his first trip to the end zone since 2022. He’d only racked up 42 yards between the first three games of the season.

The opening score was also Murphy’s ninth touchdown pass of the year, continuing the first-year starter’s march into the school record books. No Duke quarterback has ever thrown more than 24 touchdowns in a season, a mark Murphy looks destined to break as of Saturday.

https://twitter.com/DukeFOOTBALL/status/1837586685053325594

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin returning for final year of eligibility

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin, who caught four touchdowns in 2022 and surpassed 100 receiving yards in each of the past three seasons, will be back for 2024.

Duke tight end Nicky Dalmolin will be back for the 2024 season, he announced through social media on Wednesday.

“Run it back!” Dalmolin wrote on the post.

Dalmolin, a four-year player for the Blue Devils, will exercise his additional year of eligibility from the COVID regulations in 2020. Across 41 career games played, the 6-foot-4 Georgia native hauled in 54 passes for 480 yards and five touchdowns.

Four of Dalmolin’s scores came during the 2022 season when he also set career highs with 21 receptions and 170 yards. The Blue Devils tight end caught multiple passes in eight of his 10 games that year.

As a senior in 2023, Dalmolin didn’t add to his touchdown total, but he did help a successful 2-point conversion. He finished with 10 receptions for 147 yards on the year.

Dalmolin will play alongside new quarterback Maalik Murphy in the first year of new head coach Manny Diaz.

Duke statistical leaders through four games

Does anyone on this list worry you?

There are few programs college football fans are buying more stock in right now than Duke. Maybe the only program that has turned more heads is the Deion Sanders-led Colorado. ESPN decided that there’s enough interest in the Blue Devils that the next episode of “College GameDay” will be broadcast from Durham. For once, people on Duke’s campus are excited and not about men’s basketball.

It is there that Notre Dame will play this weekend coming off the toughest of losses to Ohio State. The Irish will be facing a team trying to prove it’s for real and belongs with the best of college football. Plus, a raucous crowd at Wallace Wade Stadium likely will be waiting for them. Only they will be able to put a damper on the celebratory mood.

Here are the players who have gotten it done for the Blue Devils so far and will look to continue to do so against the Irish: