Tag: Wesley Williams

Duke football’s best photos from Friday’s historic victory over Florida State

Check out the best photos from Duke’s Friday night victory over the Florida State Seminoles.

Any Duke football fans who have attended the past two games at Wallace Wade Stadium have been treated to two of the most impactful Blue Devils victories in school history.

Three weeks ago, Duke fell behind the North Carolina Tar Heels by 20 points before scoring three late touchdowns for the second-largest comeback in school history. Then, on Friday night, the Blue Devils defeated the Florida State Seminoles for the first time ever for their sixth win of the season, securing their third straight trip to a bowl game.

The vaunted Duke defense finished the evening with six sacks and 11 tackles for loss, holding the Seminoles offense to 291 yards of total offense and 4.96 yards per pass attempt. Linebacker Ozzie Nicholas created two turnovers, forcing a fumble and intercepting a pass on consecutive defensive plays, and Chandler Rivers scored a touchdown on an interception of his own.

Here are the best photos from Duke’s statement win.

Duke football retakes national lead in tackles for loss through Week 4

Duke’s defense made 12 tackles for loss on Saturday, retaking the national lead in the statistic through Week 4.

The Blue Devils’ defense enforced its will upon Middle Tennessee on Saturday, holding the Blue Raiders to 295 yards of total offense and forcing four turnovers in opposing territory.

The story of the team, once again, came behind the line of scrimmage. Duke made 12 tackles for loss in Week 4, moving them back past East Carolina for the most in the FBS.

The Blue Devils have 46 tackles for loss through four games, two more than the Pirates. Mississippi (43) is the only other program with more than 40 as of Sunday, and no other ACC school has more than 34 (Miami).

Linebacker Alex Howard, who excelled again against MTSU, already has 8.5 tackles for loss through his first four games with the Blue Devils. No Power Four defender has more this season, and only Buffalo’s Shaun Dolac (9.5) has more in the entire FBS.

Fellow linebacker Cameron Bergeron also has 6.5 TFLs, and four other Blue Devils already have at least three on the season.

Defensive end Wesley Williams made his impact with two sacks on Saturday, and the Blue Devils’ 15 sacks as a team are second to only the Hurricanes among FBS programs.

Through four games, no one can throw the ball against the Duke Blue Devils

The Duke Blue Devils have held every opposing quarterback under 4.6 yards per attempt through the first four games of the year.

Through the first four weeks of the college football season, nobody has an answer for the Duke pass defense.

Middle Tennessee quarterback Nicholas Vattiato, fresh off a 456-yard performance against Western Kentucky, managed just 127 yards on 33 attempts against the Blue Devils.

He became the fourth straight quarterback that Duke has held under five yards per attempt, and no offense has thrown for more than 156 yards against first-year head coach Manny Diaz, defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke, and their experienced secondary. Through Week 4, the Blue Devils are giving up just 132.0 yards per game and 4.2 yards per attempt through the air with more interceptions (three) than passing touchdowns allowed (two).

Any nightmarish defense starts in the trenches, and it seems like Diaz and his staff assembled one of the best four-man fronts in the conference. Duke sacked Vattiato five times and backup quarterback Roman Gagliano once, boosting the team total to 15 for the year.

Edge rusher Wesley Williams notched two sacks and a forced fumble by himself on Saturday, and he’s now one of three Duke defenders with at least 2.5 sacks in 2024. Liberty transfer Kendy Charles and team captain Aaron Hall disrupted the MTSU offense constantly from the defensive interior, combining for four tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

If you factor in sack yardage, the Blue Raiders finished Saturday’s game with 87 net passing yards.

Even if an opponent reaches the second level, Youngstown State transfer linebacker Alex Howard waits for them. One of the most unheralded stars in the Power Four this season, Howard led the team with eight tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss on Saturday.

Even when that pass rush doesn’t get home, however, the vice grip of this experienced secondary doesn’t loosen. Starting defensive backs Chandler Rivers, Joshua Pickett, Jaylen Stinson, and Terry Moore are all upperclassmen with starting experience, and each one has already made multiple game-changing plays. Pickett has broken up five passes, Moore has two interceptions, and Rivers forced a fumble against Connecticut one week after a huge open-field tackle for loss in overtime against Northwestern.

Between that veteran discipline and a deep pass-rush rotation, it’s hard to find the answers for opponents even with conference play on the horizon. Five of the team’s eight ACC opponents already average fewer than 230 yards per game through the air, including the North Carolina Tar Heels. If Duke can maintain this form, it could be the difference between six wins and eight.

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 football cruises to an easy victory over Elon in season opener

Thanks to a new career-high from quarterback Maalik Murphy, the Blue Devils beat Elon 26-3 on Friday to start the 2024 football season.

The first game of the [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] era got the Blue Devils off on the right foot on Friday, defeating Elon 26-3 for an opening win.

Diaz previously served as the Penn State defensive coordinator, and his team showed their prowess on that side of the ball early and often. The Duke defensive line ended opening night with eight sacks, including three in the Phoenix’s first two drives, and 16 tackles for loss.

The Blue Devils even blocked a punt on special teams, albeit after a botched snap from their opponents. Elon’s offense gained 29 total yards of offense on its first 19 plays, and the Blue Devils only gave up 140 yards for the night.

While Duke’s defense pitched a near-perfect game, the offense looked a little more mercurial.

In his first game with the program, quarterback [autotag]Maalik Murphy[/autotag] came out firing with five completions in his first six passes, marching the Blue Devils into the red zone with ease. All of the offseason conversations about how offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer wanted to play up-tempo, aggressive football seemed prescient.

However, Duke had to settle for a field goal, and the offense stalled a little from there. Murphy and his teammates kept trying to connect downfield and kept coming up empty, and he completed just four of his next nine passes.

Elon had a field-goal attempt to tie the game in the closing minutes of the first half, but the 49-yard effort came up short and bounced off the crossbar. Two plays later, Murphy found veteran receiver Eli Pancol over the middle of the field for a 55-yard catch-and-run into the red zone. Running back Jaquez Moore got the ball on the ensuing snap, cutting outside the tackle box and into the end zone for the team’s first touchdown.

Despite that opening score, Duke struggled to run the ball for most of the night. Moore and New Mexico State transfer Star Thomas combined for 25 yards on 13 carries over the first two quarters, and the Blue Devils finished with 59 yards on 27 attempts.

That score did somewhat remove the lid from the Blue Devils offense, however, and Murphy and Brewer didn’t look back from there. After a field goal on the first drive of the second half stretched the lead to 13, Murphy and his wideouts finally synced up downfield when he found [autotag]Jordan Moore[/autotag] for a 48-yard gain down to the 1-yard line.

The long connection emphasized a dominant night for Moore, who could become Duke’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Jamison Crowder in 2014. That third-quarter highlight put him over 100 yards for the night, and he finished with 112 yards on seven receptions.

Murphy got his first touchdown pass in a Duke uniform on the next play, a bootleg pass to tight end Jeremiah Hasley that made it a 19-0 game.

The redshirt sophomore threw another touchdown in the final five minutes, a short dart to Pancol. He finished his first Blue Devils game with a career-high 291 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception after completing 26 of his 40 passes.

Duke now has a week to prepare before its second game of the season, a Friday road trip to Northwestern.

What in the world is the VYPER position on the Duke football depth chart?

Duke football released its 2024 depth chart on Monday, and defensive end Wesley Williams was listed as the starting VYPER. So what’s that?

Duke football released its first depth chart of the 2024 season on Monday, just days before Friday’s season opener against Elon, and most of it came as no surprise to Blue Devils fans. Quarterback Maalik Murphy had already been declared the starter, and stars like Jordan Moore, Chandler Rivers, and Jaylen Stinson were assured starters the entire offseason.

However, on the defensive line, veteran Wesley Williams was listed as the starting VYPER. Which, naturally, raised a question: what is a VYPER?

The distinction, first-year head coach Manny Diaz explained at his Monday press conference, isn’t especially interesting.

“The VYPER position is basically what people would call their rush end,” Diaz said. “An end that often lines up to the boundary, can drop, can rush, and do those types of things.”

So why isn’t Williams just called a defensive end? Well, because it sounds cool.

“It’s way more fancy when we call it the VYPER, right?” Diaz said. “It sounds cooler so put that on the bottom of your business card.”

As a redshirt freshman in 2023, Williams racked up 39 total tackles, 6.5 of which resulted in a loss, and 1.5 sacks.

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.