DURHAM, N.C. – With Duke’s third consecutive bowl win secured and the 2018 Walk-On’s Independence Bowl trophy proudly on display in the Yoh Football Center, the Blue Devils have turned the page to the 2019 campaign.
Throughout February, GoDuke.com will sit down with members of the program and look at how each is preparing for spring practice, which begins March 1.
For the second edition, GoDuke.com caught up with rising redshirt junior offensive tackle Robert Kraeling. A Bishop, Ga., native, Kraeling shared Most Improved Offensive Player honors with running back Deon Jackson at the conclusion of the 2018 spring practice session. Last fall, Kraeling started all 13 games at right tackle and helped the Blue Devils close the year as one of four ACC teams to compile 2,000 or more rushing yards and 3,100 or more passing yards, joining Clemson, Syracuse and Virginia Tech.
GoDuke.com: Your offensive line is replacing a pair of starters in Zach Harmon and Christian Harris this spring. How do you try to replace two who played so much for Duke?
Robert Kraeling: “Obviously, we have to have guys step up and step into those leadership roles. I think we have people who can definitely do that. Jaylen [Miller] has always had absolutely great energy. He has always been a guy I look to when I need an extra boost.
“Jaylen is always the guy I look at, but we also have Julian Santos. He’s one of the most experienced guys on the line right now. He and Zach Baker are just absolute units. They are guys who can really lead. I know Jack Wohlabaugh pretty well and he’s definitely a qualified leader. He doesn’t really talk much, but shows it through his actions, which is great.”
GoDuke.com: How do you try to be a leader for your group as a returning starter this spring?
RK: “I want to try to lead by example this year. Obviously throwing myself wholly into it, as I do every year, but this year is going to be a little different. It’s going to take a little bit more out of me. I’m hoping I can match the energy levels the other guys are outputting."
GoDuke.com: At the end of last spring Deon Jackson and you shared the Offensive Most Improved Player award. How did that momentum carry into the season for you?
RK: “Winning that award was great and everything, but I knew that once I got that, there was another steppingstone that I had to get to, another checkpoint that I had to cross. My performance in the season needed to show it. I tried my best to reflect that I had gotten to that point. There was all the hard work, all the effort I put into it, all the blood, sweat, and tears I put in with my teammates, my fellow linemen.
“A lot of the improvement was focusing out the noise and focusing out the extra stuff. I had a couple blunders throughout the season. But overall, it was a good season for our offensive line. We had Christian [Harris] and we had Zach [Harmon] who were absolutely fantastic leaders to rally around.
“Christian helped me a lot last season. Having him around was great. Harmon was one of the good friends I was able to make this past year and to grow closer to him.
“Really taking my game to the next level was sort of looking up to those guys and figuring out what I could do to fit the role on the team I was supposed to fill.”
GoDuke.com: This is going to be your third spring, so you're certainly not a rookie in spring ball anymore. What do you try to focus on during these spring workouts?
RK: “During the spring workouts and spring training, I try to focus on my fundamentals, not just physically but mentally. Going back through plays with the inside zones, outside stretch, pin and pulls, down and around and all sorts of stuff. I’m focusing on the fundamentals of the play and sort of each individualized position. It’s focusing on the zone versus man play and the basics. I want to just focus on the small stuff first and adding each small thing into a bigger thing. It ends up building into a finished product.”
GoDuke.com: What was it like working with Coach [Jim] Bridge last fall? How did he help you as an offensive line?
RK: “I think Coach Bridge has definitely helped us, especially since we went to Detroit. [Bridge served as the interim offensive line coach for the 2017 Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit.] He stepped in and he helped us refocus ourselves. He helped us not just work hard, but work hard in the right areas, the small stuff, the basics. He realizes that is important and he puts a heavy emphasis on it all, like staying underneath the chute, specific steps, how quick a step is, breaking the step down: How long was the step? How long was the step in the air for? How much distance are you covering with each kick and how much of angle are you taking with it? He puts a lot of emphasis on the details of it. That helps us a lot because we're covering the fundamentals and the small stuff first, so we can get to the big stuff later. He’s really helped us focus ourselves on specific things and keep ourselves focused on one thing at a time.”
GoDuke.com: You think about Detroit and Shreveport and consecutive bowl wins for the Blue Devils. What have those postseason experiences meant to you?
RK: “Obviously winning games like that is just absolutely great to share with all my teammates. I love all these guys. I can tell you that each one of them would tell you the exact same thing – we just had a blast together. We get to do all this cool stuff during bowls like helping at the food shelters and seeing cool stuff, but I think in the end what really makes it is just each other. Having those shared experiences, being able to look down the road to relive those memories, that’s one of the best things about it. Win a bowl game and you can share that for the rest of your life with these guys. We’ll all remember it like it was yesterday."
GoDuke.com: What has been the best thing about being a Duke student-athlete?
RK: “Obviously the connections you make here are going to last a lifetime. Not just guys on my team, but guys outside of the team. I have met people in my Spanish class that I hope to reconnect with in the future.
“You never know who you’re going to shake hands with. You could be shaking hands with a Fortune 500 or even a Fortune 50, a Forbes Top Ten or a CEO. The people you meet here are absolutely fantastic, not just intelligence wise, but the quality of people.
“I feel as Duke student-athletes, we’re expected to hold to a higher standard. We are able to connect to people who have these high standards and have people around the university trying to uphold those same standards. It is just absolutely fantastic. It creates a great environment.”
GoDuke.com: What has been your favorite class at Duke?
RK: “This is a little throwback to my old high school days. I took a theater class my freshman year with Julian Santos and Tre Hornbuckle, Introduction to Acting. It was just an absolutely fantastic class. We always started with this game to get the energy going. I think it was called 'I’m It.'
“If you tag somebody, you’re out until the person who tagged you is out, then you can come back in. Everyone is in this small, really cramped room playing a weird game of tag. It was a lot of fun. I met a lot of really cool people. Just all around a great experience for me. I always wanted to take a theater class in college and that was my best memory.”
GoDuke.com: Favorite cartoon character?
RK: “Izuku Midoriya – My Hero Academia. It’s an anime, technically. It’s a really good show. I recommend it to anybody. I love Izuku so much. He’s so driven.”
GoDuke.com: Hidden talent?
RK: “It’s not so much hidden, but everyone knows I can play guitar pretty well. I video game stream on the side as well. I’ll be with Julian all the time. We play on our computer and we live stream our games. We don’t get a lot of viewers, but it’s just something fun we do. Technically, we’re entertainers.”
GoDuke.com: Would you rather spend five days exploring Disney or New York City?
RK: “Disney is great. I love Disney, but I don’t get the same feel as I did when I was a kid. It’s not the classic Disney experience anymore, so I have to choose New York. I have never been to New York, but I feel like there’s a lot of cool stuff and so many hole-in-the-wall places. You get to see tons of cool restaurants. I can get a deep dish pizza, a classic New York style pizza. You can go to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. All sorts of stuff. There seems to be a lot of really cool stuff in New York.”
GoDuke.com: What do you think is the greatest invention of all time?
RK: “If we’re going to talk the most practical, the discovery of the AC current by Nikola Tesla. I think that was one of the most practical inventions, obviously because we use electricity so much these days. If we’re just talking greatest invention of all time, that’s tough.
“Actually, the most practical would be the microchip computer. Everything is microchip nowadays. If an EMP went off, everything would shut down.
“But for the greatest invention of all time – the Nintendo 64. Classic game console with all the classic games. The Game Cube is good, but it’s not the same.”
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