Duke Spring Football Notebook: Blue Devils Begin

Duke held its first spring football practice on March 20.

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Duke Spring Football Notebook: Blue Devils Begin

3/24/2025 7:38:00 AM | Football

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DURHAM, N.C. – Duke began its spring football practice period Thursday with a two-hour session inside the Pascal Field House. The Blue Devils finished 9-4 in 2024 and capped the season with a trip to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Duke returned to the practice field for its second spring workout Saturday afternoon.

DIAZ THOUGHTS ON DAY ONE
Following Duke's first spring practice, head coach Manny Diaz gave his assessment of the workout.

"We got to embark on our own version of March Madness starting spring football," Diaz said. "I'm really, really proud of our guys. We had great energy and great focus. It's crazy to think of a year ago and how much further ahead we are today. There is a lot to correct as always, but that's what makes this part of the year so fun. You really get to pull a team apart and really work on the individual parts before you put it back together for the fall."

JUST ONE COACHING STAFF ADDITION
The offseason brought just one position coach change to Diaz's staff with the addition of Chris Foster, who will guide the Blue Devil running backs.

Foster arrives in Durham after a two-year stint (2023-24) at Northwestern University serving as the running backs coach. During his time in Evanston, Foster helped the Wildcats to a 14-7 victory against Utah in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl to cap the 2023 campaign. Before his tenure at Northwestern, Foster spent two seasons at East Carolina serving as the recruiting coordinator and running backs coach.

13 EARLY ENROLEES
A total of 13 signees from this year's crop enrolled at Duke in January and are spending spring practice with the Blue Devils. Jamin Brown (OL), Julius Columbus (DT), Bryce Davis (DE), Kolbe Harmon (CB), Ma'khi Jones (S), Bariate Kara (DT), Kaleb Lanier (CB), Jamien Little (WR), Dan Mahan (QB), Elliott Schaper (LB), Evan Scott (OL), Nate Sheppard (RB) and Maliki Wright (S) will go through spring drills with Duke.

FOUR TRANSFERS JOIN FOR SPRING
Duke's spring roster is also bolstered by the addition of four transfers. Running back Anderson Castle (Appalachian State), linebacker Jaiden Francois (Utah State), defensive lineman Josiah Green (Dartmouth) and quarterback Darian Mensah (Tulane) are going through spring drills.

Castle, Francois and Green have one season of eligibility remaining while Mensah has three.

A NEW FORMAT FOR THE SPRING
With Duke playing in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in January, the break between the end of the season and the start of spring looked a little shorter for the Blue Devils. This time frame also meant a smaller window for injury recovery. As a result, Diaz is taking a different approach to some periods of the spring practices.

"It's so common in college football now to have long-term rehab guys in the spring," Diaz said. "I'm trying to keep our [recovery] guys involved in spring practice. In the middle of the practice, we're turning up the speed and then down. We're doing some 11-on-11 as jog-through reps. We're trying to keep guys who are not ready for full contact able to participate. What we're really trying to do is get as many guys some type of reps as possible. Even if the speed is turned down, we're still seeing things and making adjustments. That's why I was really proud of the maturity of our team. It's really hard to go full speed and then dial it down, just to go back up. They handled it like champs. That allowed a lot of reps. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? It gives guys the ability to take plays in a team setting. We didn't know if it would work as well as it did today. It's a credit to our players' maturity – to be able to incorporate that into our practice."

THE QUARTERBACK ROOM RESET
Duke's 2024 starting quarterback Maalik Murphy transferred to Oregon State. He completed 254-of-421 (.603) passes for 2,933 yards with 26 touchdowns. He set or matched Blue Devil single-season standards for touchdown passes (26), games with two or more touchdown passes (9), games with three or more touchdown passes (6), touchdown passes of 20+ yards (15), game-winning touchdowns in the fourth quarter or OT in the same season (3), games with 200 or more passing yards (11) and wins by a starting quarterback (9).

Now in the fold are transfer Mensah, early enrollee Mahan and redshirt junior Henry Belin IV. Mensah arrived from Tulane, where he started 13 games in 2024 and completed 189-of-287 (.659) passes for 2,723 yards with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in his first season as a starter.

Belin IV, who lettered in 2023, started the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in place of Murphy and completed 25-of-44 (.568) passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns. His 25 completions are tied for the sixth most by a Duke quarterback in a bowl game in program history while his 44 attempts and two touchdown passes are the fourth most.

Mahan joined the Blue Devils in January as a consensus three-star prospect from Walter M. Williams High School in Burlington, N.C. At the time of his signing, he was ranked as the No. 9 dual threat quarterback nationally by Rivals.com.

"I'm excited in terms of how Darian has mixed in with our guys," Diaz said. "Our team has really taken to him and his work ethic in the weight room and our offseason program. He fits in culturally with who we are. We put him right on the spot. We did our ring the bell drill. The first rep was a one-on-one in the red zone and Darian threw an absolute dime on a fade for a touchdown. That was encouraging. He'll get more comfortable as he gets into the scheme more and more, but we're glad he's here. I'll say Henry Belin has really taken a big jump. I think he's taken some confidence from how he played in the bowl game. And Dan Mahan did a really nice job getting thrown in there for his first day as a quarterback here. Getting our quarterback room to something that can be a strength of our program is one of our long-term goals. I feel like we have taken a step towards that right now."

SPRING OFFENSIVE LINE SITUATION REVERSED
In a full reversal from the 2024 spring when Duke had four departed starters, the Blue Devils return four starters, including Second Team All-ACC selection Brian Parker II. The lone departed starter is Second Team All-ACC pick Caleb Krings, who exhausted his eligibility after four years at Elon and one at Duke.

Despite the many new faces on the field in 2024, the group ranked second in the ACC, and tied for ninth nationally, in fewest sacks allowed per game (0.92). Duke did not yield a sack in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl to an Ole Miss team that entered the contest averaging 4.33 sacks per game.

"Bringing back four starters and Micah Sahakian, who we really consider a starter, is huge," Diaz said. "It's going to be a big spring for those guys and their comfort level. We're proud of our numbers in terms of protecting our quarterback a year ago. It is a goal to run the football better than we did a year ago. Our offensive line also impacts our defensive line. It was very hard for our defensive line when it had half an offensive line to go against at this time last year."

Returning starting center Matt Craycraft was graded by Pro Football Focus (PFF) as having the 10th-highest pass blocking grade among Power 4 centers (76.1) and the fourth-highest mark in the ACC. According to PFF, Parker II played the most pass blocking snaps nationally without allowing a sack in 2024 with 515. Justin Pickett was a team captain in 2024 and started 11 games at right guard while Bruno Fina started 12 of 13 games at left tackle and was a College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Second Team selection.

DEFENSIVE LINE RETURNS DEPTH
Aiding Duke's defensive effort in 2025 will be the line, which returns a trio of starters with ends Vincent Anthony Jr. and Wesley Williams as well as tackle, and 2024 captain, Aaron Hall. Williams and Hall were Honorable Mention All-ACC selections last fall.

The Blue Devil defensive line helped Duke rank second nationally in tackles for loss per game (8.9) and fourth in sacks per game (3.3) at the end of the 2024 campaign. Anthony Jr. and Williams were a large piece of the puzzle, combining for 73 tackles, 23.0 tackles for loss, 12.0 sacks and 22 quarterback pressures. Williams' 7.5 sacks are the eighth most in a year in program history while Anthony Jr.'s 13 quarterback pressures rank as the seventh most in a Duke campaign.

Plenty of young talent also experienced action in 2024 and will look to continue development this spring. Two of Duke's four true freshmen to letter in 2024 were along the defensive line in Tyshon Reed (5 tackles; 1.5 TFL) and Preston Watson (7 tackles; 1.0 TFL).

PRO DAY COMING
A collection of former Blue Devils will turn their attention to Duke's Pro Day, set for Monday, March 24.

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