Durham County Trio
Local products should play integral roles for Duke defense
Jim Sumner, GoDuke The Magazine
Aaron Hall says he’s been a Duke fan most of his life.
“I've been collecting gear since I was about five years old — an autograph team picture of the 2005-2006 basketball team, many Duke shirts, a couple of jerseys. It’s just the place I've always wanted to be.”
Countless five-year-olds grow up as fans of their favorite colleges. Not many grow up to be 6-foot-4, almost 280 pounds, strong and fast and dedicated to excellence.
Hall did. The college football world noticed. But only Duke mattered.
“I was a local. I knew as soon as I got recruited by Duke in high school. Mack Brown (UNC) came to talk to me, NC State came to talk to me, but it was just never an option.”
Hall is about as local as it gets. He graduated from Durham’s Southern School of Energy and Sustainability, formerly Southern High School. Its campus is about 10 miles from Duke. Hall is Duke’s only returning two-deep defensive tackle and projects to be a key component of Manny Diaz’s first Duke defense.
He’s not the only local product anchoring the Duke defense. Defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr. — he goes by V.J. — graduated from Jordan High School. That’s less than seven miles from Duke. Linebacker Tre Freeman graduated from Northern High School, also about 10 miles from the Blue Devil campus.
Hall and Freeman were one class ahead of Anthony. The trio weren’t a package deal but they certainly knew of each other and knew of each other’s plans.
Hall and Freeman were already on board when they started helping with Anthony’s recruitment.
“Hey, wouldn't it be cool to go to college together?” Anthony recalls those conversations. “I loved it. We kind of like brought it in. Both of them hosted me at the same time, so I felt the love from the both of them. Why not? Keep it in the city, keep it in the house.”
Duke had varying levels of recruiting competition for the trio. All three have fathers who played college football. Anthony Hall played at Utah and they were never a factor. But Anthony Freeman played at East Carolina and his son says the Pirates were involved.
“I wasn't really heavily recruited out of high school. I had East Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, Charlotte. Duke just felt like home, like family. The guys in the locker room were cool. I wanted to play close to home, play so my people can come to every game.”
When asked if it was tough to turn down his father’s alma mater Freeman responded, “Nah."
Both of Anthony’s parents attended North Carolina Central. NCCU, Mississippi and Duke were his final three schools.
“I just felt like I would have a better opportunity at Duke University,” he sums up. “It was home. But really the guys in the locker room, like Aaron and Tre, multiple guys told me my role would be part of the brotherhood, even before I stepped foot on campus. That was really the biggest reason why I stayed home. Also, my parents, my family, uncles, friends and Durham could come watch me play.”
It helped that the 6-6, 246-pound Anthony had watched David Cutcliffe’s Duke staff turn defensive ends Chris Rumph and Vic Dimukeje into NFL players.
“I kind of watched them too in high school, watching their film and stuff, and their coach, Coach (Ben) Albert, just watching film with him also gave me the realization that I could go to the NFL playing this position at Duke.”
Freeman, Anthony and Hall have seen action in nearly every game the past two bowl seasons but look forward to bigger roles under Diaz. “Look forward to” may be an understatement.
Diaz has been the architect of some of college football’s best defenses in recent years. He says stopping opposing offenses starts with one key imperative.
“We want to create a high volume of negative plays,” explains the coach. “It’s important for us to lead the nation in tackles-for-losses. Those are drive killers. That puts teams in third-and-long and no one turns the ball over more than they do on third-and-long.”
Diaz’s defenses have walked the walk. He was defensive coordinator at Penn State last season where they led everyone with 111 TFL’s and 49 total sacks. Penn State’s defense was third nationally in points allowed, a miserly 13.5 points per game.
This emphasis on tackles-for-loss has another benefit. A TFL almost always is the result of defensive aggression, and what defensive player doesn’t want to be aggressive?
“It’s a scheme that the players love to play in,” Diaz says, “because who doesn’t love tackles-for-losses, interceptions? It’s a playmaking defense. It’s 11 guys trusting each other to do their jobs.”
Count Freeman in.
“I think aggression is at the root of a football player, why people play football, so they can be aggressive,” says Freeman, a starter every game in 2023, when he had over 100 tackles and made second-team All-ACC. “I think the aggression that Coach Diaz allows us to play with and wants us to play with leads to everybody having a great time.”
“We want the whole D-line going after the ball all the time,” adds Anthony, a starter in 12 games in 2022 and the first four of 2023. “We talk about TFL and sacks every day. Even during spring ball, we would kind of have a competition with it, with each other, to see who can get the most sacks and TFL. So I'm excited to see what we can do in this defense this upcoming season.”
Diaz isn’t the only new face running the Duke defense. Jonathan Patke is the defensive coordinator and Freeman’s linebackers coach. Patke was at Texas State last season but previously worked with Diaz at Miami, among other schools. If you’ve never heard of Texas State, they’re the school that forced seven Rice turnovers in a 45-21 bowl win last season.
Patke is 38, young enough to get in the trenches with his players.
“He loves football,” Anthony says of Patke. “He’s basically like us, but older. If he had to put on a helmet and some pads and play with us, he could.”
Freeman says Patke “brings energy. He’s a dog, he brings a dog-like mentality to the linebacker room. Everybody has confidence. Everybody feels free, like they can go out there, running around, hitting people.”
With the transfer portal, college rosters are fluid, even without a new coaching staff. Freeman, Hall and Anthony will be counted on to provide not just production but leadership and continuity.
Hall may have the toughest task. Duke basically rotated four defensive tackles last season, including DeWayne Carter, who was selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft by Buffalo.
Hall is the only one to return. The transfer portal brought in Kendry Charles from Liberty and Will Seiler from Penn. Terry Simmons and David Anderson are redshirt freshmen and there are some true freshmen.
Reports on Charles are positive but Hall diplomatically refuses to eliminate anyone as a possible contributor.
“Charles and everybody in that position group right now are gelling together perfectly. I feel like all of them would definitely make an impact,” says Hall, who has logged 496 snaps across 26 career appearances. “We did take some losses, but we didn't think anything that would permanently hurt us at all. Because with this coaching staff, with our football IQ, with the mentality we have, at the end of the day, it’s next man up. That’s the mentality we have here because everybody has to play in order for us to win games on Saturday.
“I definitely feel like everybody will be ready. When you come into this locker room for the first time, that's when guys will be bringing you into this brotherhood. So I don't feel like there's any guys in the defensive tackle room right now who feel like they’re left out on the island.”
There’s a lot more continuity at Anthony’s spot. Wesley Williams, Ryan Smith and Michael Reese are returnees at defensive end. Equally important, position coach Harland Bower returns.
“I know it will play out great,” Anthony says. “All these guys coming back and Coach Bower, we already have a close connection. We know how each other plays. We’re always hanging out with each other, always connecting with each other. It’s just going to make it easier to make plays on the field to help the team.”
Duke will continue to play two linebackers. Holdovers Nick Morris and Carter Wyatt, converted safety Cam Bergeron and several newcomers project to be in the mix.
But Freeman will be on the field as much as possible. He’s the Blue Devil defender receiving the most preseason accolades.
“If you come to Duke, you can do everything you dreamed of,” Freeman says. “You can accomplish whatever you want. I think it’s a testament to all our hard work. It’s not just me that’s able to win these awards, it’s everybody, the coaches, my teammates.”
Duke has not received much love from the preseason prognosticators. Freeman says he’s more than okay with that.
“I feel like an underdog my whole life. Especially at Duke, every year they say we’re not going to win and we’ve proved them wrong and we’re going to do that this year.”
Anthony agrees. “I love being underestimated and underrated, because I feel like that’s been us the last two years and then we come out during the season and the whole team and coaching staff has a chip on their shoulder.”
Hall is listed at 277 pounds, which isn’t very big for a power conference defensive tackle. But he has some ideas on how he and his team can punch above their weight.
“I think it’s just mentality. A lot of these big, 315-pound guys can’t do a lot of things in games. They’re not quick at all, they don’t watch film, they rely on their size too much. But with the film watch we do here, with the quickness and speed we work on with Coach (Gabe) Infante, Coach (Alex) Devine, Coach Bower, with the mentality Coach Patke teaches — all of these things combine to give us the things we need to win on Saturdays.”
Hall adds that strength and conditioning coach David Feeley gives Duke an advantage over everyone, a view echoed by Freeman and Anthony. It’s not just technique Feeley teaches, Hall says, but mental toughness, communication and aggression. Anthony uses the term “fanatical effort.”
The Durham County trio argue that reaching Charlotte and the ACC title game isn’t just a goal but a realistic goal. They trust their body of work, their coaches and most of all their teammates to get them there.
This story originally appeared in the 2024 Duke Football Yearbook - August 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.