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David Shumate Sits Down With Nick Morris Jr.
9/4/2025 9:05:00 AM | Football
DURHAM, N.C. - David Shumate, the play-by-play voice for Duke football, recently sat down with linebacker Nick Morris Jr. for an interview for the Duke Football Yearbook.Â
David Shumate: Let's start with your earliest memories of football — what are some of your memories growing up of being around football? Or maybe it wasn't football, maybe it was another sport?
Nick Morris Jr.: No, it was definitely football. It was football and baseball that I that I grew up playing, primarily. I remember when I was, I think, eight or nine years old, first time playing tackle football, I was a quarterback and middle linebacker. I was not a good passer, and I made bad decisions as a quarterback and I was kind of overwhelmed in the pocket. But I ran a lot, and I would use my physicality, and I think a lot of people noticed that. One of my dad's friends made a highlight tape of me. It was a really nice thing for him to do for my family, and I remember just after that season watching that highlight tape in my family room and being like, man, I really love this sport.Â
You know, it's a really fun sport to play. That's my earliest memory of football and when I realized that I genuinely loved it.Â
DS: You mentioned baseball briefly. When did you know football was ultimately going to be your focus? I know everyone has to make that choice at some point.
NM: Funny enough, actually, my dad went to Penn as a quarterback and then he broke his hand playing volleyball and struggled to throw the ball moving forward. So, they moved him to strong safety, and he had a great career, having switched positions like I did. But to get back to your question, I loved baseball growing up.Â
It was really nice having that juxtaposition of football and baseball, where football is such an aggressive sport, very physically taxing. You have to have a mentality of being aggressive, full exertion. And then in the spring season, baseball is more like a mental game. It helps your hand-eye coordination and stuff like that. So, it was really nice having the balance of those two sports growing up.Â
I think I liked both of them equally up until high school and then, you know, my body developed. I noticed I was getting stronger than my peers, lifting more than a lot of other people in my high school. I think having that mentality is maybe more advantageous for football and, in particular, linebacker. So, I realized that I was probably on track to be a much better football player than I would have been a baseball player.Â
DS: Fast forward to your time at Duke, I think people forget because there has been a lot of change over the last few years, but you were recruited by Coach Cutcliffe. What has the journey to Duke been like for you — choosing to come here, but also when you take a step back now that you're a little bit older, in these last five years, what has this been like with all of the change?Â
NM: So I guess the story would have to begin in August 2020. I was living in Connecticut at the time, and it was obviously during covid. There were very stringent covid rules in Connecticut and long story short, the governor of Connecticut cancelled the football season there. My family kind of had this inkling that this was going to happen back in April and May and I had worked so hard that offseason. I was so excited for my senior year in Connecticut, and it was just devastating that the season got cancelled at that point. Thankfully, my dad had a college roommate that lives in a town called Westlake, in the suburbs of Austin, and my dad and I had actually visited that town a few times within the past few years prior to this.Â
I remember saying when we visited their stadium how cool it would be if I had grown up there and played in that stadium. Westlake's stadium has around 15,000 seats and football in Connecticut pales in comparison to what you experience as a high school football player in Texas. So when the season was cancelled, we made a spontaneous decision to move down to Texas as a family, and it was an incredible experience. My defensive coordinator, coach Tony Salazar, who's now the head coach at Westlake, I learned so much from him — not only about the schematics of football, but also what it means to work hard and a lot about preparation.Â
That season I was playing pretty well in Austin and started attracting more attention from colleges. I got an offer from Oklahoma State who was No. 5 in the country at that point but it's important to note that my family also really values academics. My dad went to the Wharton School of Business, and he was given that opportunity by football. He always told me how valuable that was, that decision to use football to secure a spot at a prestigious institution that has helped him throughout his life. So, I got an offer from Oklahoma State, but it just didn't really align with my values.Â
Then I remember Coach Cutcliffe following me on Twitter and it was so exciting. He arranged a call, offered me a scholarship and I just knew immediately that I needed to come here. It was, again, during covid, so there weren't any official visits but my dad, brother and I took an impromptu visit to Durham. We were just there exploring the campus as I wasn't even allowed to meet anyone in person.Â
But when we got here, I immediately realized how it was the most unique school I'd ever seen, and I imagined myself prospering here immediately. My cousin actually went here at the time; she was a senior and she gave us a tour around and I immediately fell in love.Â
I have to say Coach Cutcliffe has a very special place in my heart. He's a phenomenal person. I am so indebted to him for the rest of my life because I'm incredibly happy to be a Duke football player.Â
Now fast forward to these last few years and it has just been an incredible opportunity to play for Coach Diaz. He instills in the program a tremendous culture. Being ambitious about goals, being confident in ourselves, and in doing that he makes it 100 percent clear that you are genuinely valued as an individual on this team. He's an incredible person. He leads meetings and sometimes runs us through a mindfulness exercise, like a breathing exercise, which is something that I never experienced being a college football player and something that I accept with open arms because the mental game is such an important part of football. He's an incredible person to play for.
DS: Let's talk football and about last year. Heading into the season you were coming off a 2023 season where you were starting to play a little bit more. You had that monster game against Pitt at the end of the regular season, you had a fumble recovery up at Connecticut in your home state. The coaching change obviously happens and I would think for a linebacker, it's kind of cool. You're going to play in a 4-3 defense — you can fly around, you can make plays and I would imagine you were eager to get started. Then in game one you get hurt and just like that, your season's over. What was the emotional roller coaster like last year?Â
NM: I was definitely so excited for the season last year. It's a phenomenal defense to be a mike linebacker in particular. In general, the defense is super fun, but to be a mike — it's hard to explain how fun it is. It's an aggressive defense, and I was so excited to get started. I had a great summer getting ready, hit a bunch of PRs in the weight room and I was excited to see that work come to fruition.Â
Then, obviously, the season ended very very fast for me. I was just looking forward to the whole season at one moment, and then the next, my view of the future changed drastically. It was tough to digest. But I think that having gone through that experience, I'm coming out of it in the end a much more resilient, focused, and motivated person because I've experienced what it's like to not have football and to not be a contributing member of the team. I'm just so excited to get back to a place where I was and hopefully go beyond that. I have a new perspective on football in general because the experience has just drastically increased my gratefulness that I'm able to play football healthy and that I'm a part of this incredibly great program that supported me a lot through the difficulties I endured.Â
DS: You mentioned that you're fully healthy, that's obviously a piece of it, but for Duke fans that obviously know what you're capable of, how would you say you've changed physically as a player, in terms of stuff you've worked on that people are going to get to see this year?Â
NM: I'm really happy to say that I had by far the best offseason I've ever had since I've been at Duke. I challenged myself at the beginning of the offseason that I wanted to look back in July and tell myself confidently that I did everything in my power to put myself in put in a position where I can perform at my absolute best this coming season, and I'm really proud to say that I feel like I accomplished that.Â
I was incredibly focused, made great improvements in terms of nutrition, sleep and intensity during workouts. I was really cognizant about the encouragement of others during workouts as well, and more broadly increasing my ability to be a good leader. I'm incredibly excited about this season. Physically, I feel the best I've ever felt by far. I feel faster, stronger, more agile and more focused mentally than I ever have. As you can probably tell, to say that I'm excited for this season is an understatement.Â
DS: When you go through an injury, obviously, you can't be on the field so strength training, all that stuff, becomes very important. Everyone talks about their relationship with Coach Feeley and I'm curious about yours because I saw you broke the power clean record. When you guys do those days where you PR and everyone gets dressed up, I normally can see Coach Feeley in there to help spot you guys and as you finish the lift he's running away so you guys can celebrate. But I noticed when you hit yours, you wouldn't let him get away. He was the first person you ran to — and I feel like that said something. Can you talk about your relationship?Â
NM: Yes, it's hard to communicate how lucky I feel to have Coach Feeley in my life. He is, besides my mom and dad, the most important person that I've had in my life. I've been with him for four years now. He's completely changed the way I view hard work.Â
I'm proud to say I'm now a person that completely accepts a challenge in front of me. Whether it be a hard workout, a hard practice, or even a difficult game, I approach that challenge with open arms and enthusiasm because of what he's instilled in me. Even this summer, at the beginning of the summer, I remember I had my pre-summer meeting with him to outline goals in terms of strength, speed, agility and everything like that. I mentioned to him that I wanted to break the power clean record again, and he said, "Alright, well, it's going be hard — I don't know if you can do it." But Coach Feeley and I have this thing where he knows that I'm motivated by that challenge, being told that I might not be able to do something.
He told me that he wanted me to adopt the mentality of every single time I have a rep in the weight room, it is the most important thing in the world. Every single rep of power clean I should adopt the mentality of what I would be thinking about if I was going to PR. I remember the whole summer, I was so amped up when I was power cleaning and trying to focus as hard as I could on every single rep of my form and the amount of power I was generating and everything. I was honestly super nervous for that day when I power clean maxed because I challenged myself to do it, and I was worried that I was going to fail. I just remember when I finished the lift everything that Coach Feeley and I had discussed, and it all kind of came rushing back into my head.
Â
I knew how proud he was of me, and it was a really fun moment. I was obviously doing it for myself and for the team, but almost for him as well because he does get really excited when guys PR and are putting up impressive numbers. So it was just a really great moment.Â
DS: That's awesome. There is one other topic I wanted to hit on. Coach Diaz has talked about, given the ongoing conversations around college sports and transfer portal and NIL and the state of everything, he always talks about the fact that it's an advantage to be at Duke because there are things here beyond football that draw people. I don't want to overstate it, and feel free to tell me if I'm wrong, but to me, you're kind of the embodiment of that. You already have your degree, you're studying at Fuqua, and I was hoping you could share what Duke has meant to you beyond football.Â
NM: Again, it's hard to state how much Duke means to me. If I were to be a high school student and foresee my college experience, what I've experienced at Duke so far and what I have in front of me would completely exceed any of my wildest ambitions for what college would be.Â
It's just such a unique school. Because of my injury last year I have one more year and I know we've we talked about this, but there's no doubt in my mind that I'm coming back to Duke. There's no amount of money or opportunity that could be presented at any other place that would even come close to what Duke offers me. That obviously is a result of the incredible prestige that Duke offers as an academic institution, but it's also a result of the incredible people that this this program is filled with, like Coach Feeley, Coach Patke and Coach Diaz.Â
I couldn't ask for a better group of people to play for on a day-to-day basis and I'm excited every day I wake up in the morning to come in here and work really hard and that's the most valuable thing in life, in my opinion. No amount of resources, money or otherwise, can compete with being happy on a day-to-day basis, you know? Like I said at the beginning, I'm indebted to Coach Cutcliffe forever for giving me the opportunity to be here in the first place, but I absolutely love the school and this football program and I'm really hoping that I can establish a positive legacy over the next two years and be remembered for years to come in this program.
Â
David Shumate: Let's start with your earliest memories of football — what are some of your memories growing up of being around football? Or maybe it wasn't football, maybe it was another sport?
Nick Morris Jr.: No, it was definitely football. It was football and baseball that I that I grew up playing, primarily. I remember when I was, I think, eight or nine years old, first time playing tackle football, I was a quarterback and middle linebacker. I was not a good passer, and I made bad decisions as a quarterback and I was kind of overwhelmed in the pocket. But I ran a lot, and I would use my physicality, and I think a lot of people noticed that. One of my dad's friends made a highlight tape of me. It was a really nice thing for him to do for my family, and I remember just after that season watching that highlight tape in my family room and being like, man, I really love this sport.Â
You know, it's a really fun sport to play. That's my earliest memory of football and when I realized that I genuinely loved it.Â
DS: You mentioned baseball briefly. When did you know football was ultimately going to be your focus? I know everyone has to make that choice at some point.
NM: Funny enough, actually, my dad went to Penn as a quarterback and then he broke his hand playing volleyball and struggled to throw the ball moving forward. So, they moved him to strong safety, and he had a great career, having switched positions like I did. But to get back to your question, I loved baseball growing up.Â
It was really nice having that juxtaposition of football and baseball, where football is such an aggressive sport, very physically taxing. You have to have a mentality of being aggressive, full exertion. And then in the spring season, baseball is more like a mental game. It helps your hand-eye coordination and stuff like that. So, it was really nice having the balance of those two sports growing up.Â
I think I liked both of them equally up until high school and then, you know, my body developed. I noticed I was getting stronger than my peers, lifting more than a lot of other people in my high school. I think having that mentality is maybe more advantageous for football and, in particular, linebacker. So, I realized that I was probably on track to be a much better football player than I would have been a baseball player.Â
DS: Fast forward to your time at Duke, I think people forget because there has been a lot of change over the last few years, but you were recruited by Coach Cutcliffe. What has the journey to Duke been like for you — choosing to come here, but also when you take a step back now that you're a little bit older, in these last five years, what has this been like with all of the change?Â
NM: So I guess the story would have to begin in August 2020. I was living in Connecticut at the time, and it was obviously during covid. There were very stringent covid rules in Connecticut and long story short, the governor of Connecticut cancelled the football season there. My family kind of had this inkling that this was going to happen back in April and May and I had worked so hard that offseason. I was so excited for my senior year in Connecticut, and it was just devastating that the season got cancelled at that point. Thankfully, my dad had a college roommate that lives in a town called Westlake, in the suburbs of Austin, and my dad and I had actually visited that town a few times within the past few years prior to this.Â
I remember saying when we visited their stadium how cool it would be if I had grown up there and played in that stadium. Westlake's stadium has around 15,000 seats and football in Connecticut pales in comparison to what you experience as a high school football player in Texas. So when the season was cancelled, we made a spontaneous decision to move down to Texas as a family, and it was an incredible experience. My defensive coordinator, coach Tony Salazar, who's now the head coach at Westlake, I learned so much from him — not only about the schematics of football, but also what it means to work hard and a lot about preparation.Â
That season I was playing pretty well in Austin and started attracting more attention from colleges. I got an offer from Oklahoma State who was No. 5 in the country at that point but it's important to note that my family also really values academics. My dad went to the Wharton School of Business, and he was given that opportunity by football. He always told me how valuable that was, that decision to use football to secure a spot at a prestigious institution that has helped him throughout his life. So, I got an offer from Oklahoma State, but it just didn't really align with my values.Â
Then I remember Coach Cutcliffe following me on Twitter and it was so exciting. He arranged a call, offered me a scholarship and I just knew immediately that I needed to come here. It was, again, during covid, so there weren't any official visits but my dad, brother and I took an impromptu visit to Durham. We were just there exploring the campus as I wasn't even allowed to meet anyone in person.Â
But when we got here, I immediately realized how it was the most unique school I'd ever seen, and I imagined myself prospering here immediately. My cousin actually went here at the time; she was a senior and she gave us a tour around and I immediately fell in love.Â
I have to say Coach Cutcliffe has a very special place in my heart. He's a phenomenal person. I am so indebted to him for the rest of my life because I'm incredibly happy to be a Duke football player.Â
Now fast forward to these last few years and it has just been an incredible opportunity to play for Coach Diaz. He instills in the program a tremendous culture. Being ambitious about goals, being confident in ourselves, and in doing that he makes it 100 percent clear that you are genuinely valued as an individual on this team. He's an incredible person. He leads meetings and sometimes runs us through a mindfulness exercise, like a breathing exercise, which is something that I never experienced being a college football player and something that I accept with open arms because the mental game is such an important part of football. He's an incredible person to play for.
DS: Let's talk football and about last year. Heading into the season you were coming off a 2023 season where you were starting to play a little bit more. You had that monster game against Pitt at the end of the regular season, you had a fumble recovery up at Connecticut in your home state. The coaching change obviously happens and I would think for a linebacker, it's kind of cool. You're going to play in a 4-3 defense — you can fly around, you can make plays and I would imagine you were eager to get started. Then in game one you get hurt and just like that, your season's over. What was the emotional roller coaster like last year?Â
NM: I was definitely so excited for the season last year. It's a phenomenal defense to be a mike linebacker in particular. In general, the defense is super fun, but to be a mike — it's hard to explain how fun it is. It's an aggressive defense, and I was so excited to get started. I had a great summer getting ready, hit a bunch of PRs in the weight room and I was excited to see that work come to fruition.Â
Then, obviously, the season ended very very fast for me. I was just looking forward to the whole season at one moment, and then the next, my view of the future changed drastically. It was tough to digest. But I think that having gone through that experience, I'm coming out of it in the end a much more resilient, focused, and motivated person because I've experienced what it's like to not have football and to not be a contributing member of the team. I'm just so excited to get back to a place where I was and hopefully go beyond that. I have a new perspective on football in general because the experience has just drastically increased my gratefulness that I'm able to play football healthy and that I'm a part of this incredibly great program that supported me a lot through the difficulties I endured.Â
DS: You mentioned that you're fully healthy, that's obviously a piece of it, but for Duke fans that obviously know what you're capable of, how would you say you've changed physically as a player, in terms of stuff you've worked on that people are going to get to see this year?Â
NM: I'm really happy to say that I had by far the best offseason I've ever had since I've been at Duke. I challenged myself at the beginning of the offseason that I wanted to look back in July and tell myself confidently that I did everything in my power to put myself in put in a position where I can perform at my absolute best this coming season, and I'm really proud to say that I feel like I accomplished that.Â
I was incredibly focused, made great improvements in terms of nutrition, sleep and intensity during workouts. I was really cognizant about the encouragement of others during workouts as well, and more broadly increasing my ability to be a good leader. I'm incredibly excited about this season. Physically, I feel the best I've ever felt by far. I feel faster, stronger, more agile and more focused mentally than I ever have. As you can probably tell, to say that I'm excited for this season is an understatement.Â
DS: When you go through an injury, obviously, you can't be on the field so strength training, all that stuff, becomes very important. Everyone talks about their relationship with Coach Feeley and I'm curious about yours because I saw you broke the power clean record. When you guys do those days where you PR and everyone gets dressed up, I normally can see Coach Feeley in there to help spot you guys and as you finish the lift he's running away so you guys can celebrate. But I noticed when you hit yours, you wouldn't let him get away. He was the first person you ran to — and I feel like that said something. Can you talk about your relationship?Â
NM: Yes, it's hard to communicate how lucky I feel to have Coach Feeley in my life. He is, besides my mom and dad, the most important person that I've had in my life. I've been with him for four years now. He's completely changed the way I view hard work.Â
I'm proud to say I'm now a person that completely accepts a challenge in front of me. Whether it be a hard workout, a hard practice, or even a difficult game, I approach that challenge with open arms and enthusiasm because of what he's instilled in me. Even this summer, at the beginning of the summer, I remember I had my pre-summer meeting with him to outline goals in terms of strength, speed, agility and everything like that. I mentioned to him that I wanted to break the power clean record again, and he said, "Alright, well, it's going be hard — I don't know if you can do it." But Coach Feeley and I have this thing where he knows that I'm motivated by that challenge, being told that I might not be able to do something.
He told me that he wanted me to adopt the mentality of every single time I have a rep in the weight room, it is the most important thing in the world. Every single rep of power clean I should adopt the mentality of what I would be thinking about if I was going to PR. I remember the whole summer, I was so amped up when I was power cleaning and trying to focus as hard as I could on every single rep of my form and the amount of power I was generating and everything. I was honestly super nervous for that day when I power clean maxed because I challenged myself to do it, and I was worried that I was going to fail. I just remember when I finished the lift everything that Coach Feeley and I had discussed, and it all kind of came rushing back into my head.
Â
I knew how proud he was of me, and it was a really fun moment. I was obviously doing it for myself and for the team, but almost for him as well because he does get really excited when guys PR and are putting up impressive numbers. So it was just a really great moment.Â
DS: That's awesome. There is one other topic I wanted to hit on. Coach Diaz has talked about, given the ongoing conversations around college sports and transfer portal and NIL and the state of everything, he always talks about the fact that it's an advantage to be at Duke because there are things here beyond football that draw people. I don't want to overstate it, and feel free to tell me if I'm wrong, but to me, you're kind of the embodiment of that. You already have your degree, you're studying at Fuqua, and I was hoping you could share what Duke has meant to you beyond football.Â
NM: Again, it's hard to state how much Duke means to me. If I were to be a high school student and foresee my college experience, what I've experienced at Duke so far and what I have in front of me would completely exceed any of my wildest ambitions for what college would be.Â
It's just such a unique school. Because of my injury last year I have one more year and I know we've we talked about this, but there's no doubt in my mind that I'm coming back to Duke. There's no amount of money or opportunity that could be presented at any other place that would even come close to what Duke offers me. That obviously is a result of the incredible prestige that Duke offers as an academic institution, but it's also a result of the incredible people that this this program is filled with, like Coach Feeley, Coach Patke and Coach Diaz.Â
I couldn't ask for a better group of people to play for on a day-to-day basis and I'm excited every day I wake up in the morning to come in here and work really hard and that's the most valuable thing in life, in my opinion. No amount of resources, money or otherwise, can compete with being happy on a day-to-day basis, you know? Like I said at the beginning, I'm indebted to Coach Cutcliffe forever for giving me the opportunity to be here in the first place, but I absolutely love the school and this football program and I'm really hoping that I can establish a positive legacy over the next two years and be remembered for years to come in this program.
Â
Players Mentioned
LB
/ FootballCoach Diaz Media Availability: Illinois
Wednesday, September 03
Jeremiah Hasley Media Availability: Illinois
Tuesday, September 02
Sahmir Hagans Media Availability: Illinois
Tuesday, September 02
Coach Diaz Press Conference: Illinois
Monday, September 01
