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Football Notebook: Training Camp Opens
8/9/2016 9:25:00 AM | Football
DURHAM -- David Cutcliffe opened Duke's 2016 pre-season football camp Monday – his ninth season in Durham.
“2016 is here now, can you believe that?” Cutcliffe said. “And I'm younger now. I promise you I'm younger now than I was eight years ago.”
The Duke coach has guided Duke to 27 wins in the last three seasons and to four straight bowl games. Several Blue Devil players suggested that the team's recent success makes them even hungrier for more.
“Coach Cut preaches to us that we have to leave a place better than we found it,” senior cornerback Breon Borders said. “When I was a freshmen, the seniors then took it from 3-8 to 10-4. He challenged us to do the same thing.”
A year ago, Duke beat Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl – the program's first bowl win since the 1961 Cotton Bowl. But that's not enough, according to senior wide receiver Anthony Nash.
“After winning a bowl game, our standards just skyrocketed,” Nash said. “Yeah, we won a bowl game, but that's not our ultimate goal. We want to go to the ACC championship game and actually win the championship and get a playoff berth. So our standards are rising. It's up to the seniors to uphold that standard.”
Cutcliffe acknowledged some the hurdles this team will face – a tougher overall schedule, a revamped coaching staff and several key players who enter practice with physical issues. But he also suggested that the talent level of his roster is rising. Two weeks ago at the ACC Football Kickoff, the Blue Devil coach said this will be both the strongest and the fastest team he's had at Duke.
He focused on strength Monday after several players talked about their efforts in the weight room during the offseason.
“I told them way back in February that this was the Year of the Beast,” Cutcliffe said. “I met with [strength coach] Noel Durfey and I told our strength staff that we needed to be aggressive. We're a very fit team and have been. But I wanted to see some progress. I wanted to see visual progress in what we looked like, so we intensified the amount of work we were asking them to do.
“I hope some of them feel like beasts right now. We've had great progress. Now we've got to prove it.”
Redshirt junior defensive tackle Mike Ramsey is ready to do that.
“If you take extra time in the weight room, it's going to pay off,” he said. “We took a little longer before spring ball to focus on making sure everyone was working hard in the weight room. I think Coach Durfey has done a great job. I'm definitely a lot stronger myself.”
Casey Blaser, the team's most experienced offensive lineman, said the extra work in the weight room will pay off in more than strength. He suggested that the players will have better endurance and a more aggressive attitude.
“There were a few games last year when we felt we weren't as physical as the other team,” he said. "So this summer, the emphasis was getting bigger, getting stronger and making sure that doesn't happen again.”
INJURY UPDATE
Health concerns are always an issue as a team opens camp. For Duke in 2016, several key players will report at less than 100 percent:
-- QB Thomas Sirk, who started 12 of 13 games last season and finished with the No. 3 total offense average (per game) in Duke history, ruptured his Achilles tendon during a workout last February. Cutcliffe had earlier detailed Sirk's amazing recovery, which has put him in position to begin drills with the team this week.
“Thomas will be practicing [Monday], albeit on a limited basis,” Cutcliffe said. “We're going to put him on a little like a pitch count. We've got a good plan. Day-to-day, we'll see how he progresses. We can't really give you any updates until a week and a half into this thing when we can see where he really is. He is going to do every quarterback drill … we may limit how much team work he does.”
-- DT Quaven Ferguson injured his knee two weeks ago and had arthroscopic surgery.
“He's already back,” Cutcliffe said. “Not quite full speed. But he looks good.”
-- CB Bryon Fields, a starter in 2014 who missed last season with an ACL injury, is back.
“Bryon Fields is a go,” Cutcliffe said. “He's going to be on the field; absolutely back. You watch any ACL injury – you don't want a blowup swelling. But right now, he's going to be doing everything.”
-- OG Tanner Stone, a returning starter, is recovering from offseason back surgery.
“As an offensive lineman, you just have to be smart,” the Duke coach said. “He will not be in any contact to begin with. He'll do a lot of footwork. Then the test will be day to day.”
NEW FACE ON THE ROSTER
The Blue Devils will feature one veteran newcomer this season – tight end Daniel Helm.
Duke recruited the blue chip prospect out of Glenwood High School in Chatham, Ill., where he was rated the No 1 tight end prospect in the nation by Rivals.com (No. 3 by Scout.com; No. 4 by 247 Sports and No. 7 by ESPN).
But Helm didn't have any initial interest in the Duke program.
“To be honest, it was the summer before my junior year – the summer before they went to the Belk Bowl,” he said. “They were coming off a 3-8 year and I didn't give them a look – my fault.”
Helm picked Tennessee, where he played 12 games as a true freshman, including two starts. But he was not happy in Knoxville and when he looked for a new landing place, Duke looked a lot better.
“I heard some very positive things about Coach Cut,” he said. “That was the main reason I was interested.”
Helm had to sit out last season after transferring, but he was able to practice with the team.
“I'm very anxious to play some real football again,” he said. “I think the redshirt year really prepared me. Being able to play the year before gave me an idea of what to expect at the college football level. I've been able to use that to train.”
Tight end is a hybrid position that requires the pass-catching skills of a receiver and the blocking skills of an offensive lineman.
“I'd like to say that I can do both,” he said. “I came into college widely known as a pass catcher and I've done a lot of work and had a lot of great coaches help me develop the blocking side of my game.”
Helm will be competing with senior Erich Schneider and his roommate, sophomore Davis Koppenhaver for the starting job at tight end this fall.
THE NEW LAYOUT
Cutcliffe showed off the new practice field, which now stretches almost 150 yards between the Brooks Building and the open end of Wade Stadium.
The field – which was less than the length of a regulation football field when Cutcliffe arrived at Duke in 2008 – now contains three side-by-side fields: one for defense, one for offense and one for the kickers. It can be used long ways for scrimmages.
The Duke coach said the new surface is very heat resistant.
“There's close to a 20-degree difference in temperature when that sun hits that turf,” he said.
AN OLYMPIC PROPOSAL
Coach Cutcliffe said that he has gotten a kick out of watching the Olympic Games so far and admits to pulling for the USA.
But he pointed to several Duke connections to the games, including Mike Krzyzewski and Jeff Capel with the men's basketball team and athletic director Kevin White, who is in Rio as a member of the USOC Board of Directors.
Then there is Abby Johnston, a Duke undergrad when she won a Silver Medal in diving in the 2012 London Games, now a student at Duke medical school as she competes in Rio.
As it turns out, Johnston also has a connection to Duke football.
“I got a text from Sam McGrath, one of our assistants,” Cutcliffe said. “It's a picture of he and Abby on the beach. Apparently, the sunflower is her favorite flower and there's a sunflower out on the beach. She went over there and there's a nametag like she wears on her medical gear. And instead of saying Johnston, it says McGrath. He proposed to her on the beach. So they are engaged.
“So I am going to let Sam McGrath, a newly engaged guy, leave practice and go to Rio to watch his fiancée compete.”
FRESHMEN LINEMEN
In his first eight seasons at Duke, Cutcliffe has redshirted every offensive lineman that he's recruited.
But he said last spring that one or more of the four offensive line prospects in his most recent recruiting class – Robert Kraeling, Julian Santos, Liam Smith and Jaylen Miller – might be able play this season as true freshmen. He repeated that prediction two weeks ago at the ACC Football Kickoff.
Of course, none of that will be determined until Cutcliffe and his staff get a chance to see the newcomers in real workouts.
But Casey Blaser, who first started on the offensive line as a redshirt sophomore in 2014, said the newcomers look like the real deal.
“The freshmen o-linemen coming in definitely look the part,” he said. “They look a lot better than when I came in as a freshman. They all look pretty good.”
He pointed out that physical ability, while a good starting place, is not enough.
“To play as a true freshman, just mentally, it's tough -- just knowing the playbook, knowing that games are a lot quicker than practice. How quickly can they pick up on all that?”
THE LAST HURRAH
Cutcliffe opened his press conference by saluting Duke's long-time radio play-by-play man, Bob Harris, who will retire after the current school year.
Harris, who has been the voice of Duke football and basketball since 1976, enters the 2016 season having broadcast 459 straight Duke football games.
“One the greatest careers in sports – not just in sports broadcasting,” Cutcliffe said.
--30--
“2016 is here now, can you believe that?” Cutcliffe said. “And I'm younger now. I promise you I'm younger now than I was eight years ago.”
The Duke coach has guided Duke to 27 wins in the last three seasons and to four straight bowl games. Several Blue Devil players suggested that the team's recent success makes them even hungrier for more.
“Coach Cut preaches to us that we have to leave a place better than we found it,” senior cornerback Breon Borders said. “When I was a freshmen, the seniors then took it from 3-8 to 10-4. He challenged us to do the same thing.”
A year ago, Duke beat Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl – the program's first bowl win since the 1961 Cotton Bowl. But that's not enough, according to senior wide receiver Anthony Nash.
“After winning a bowl game, our standards just skyrocketed,” Nash said. “Yeah, we won a bowl game, but that's not our ultimate goal. We want to go to the ACC championship game and actually win the championship and get a playoff berth. So our standards are rising. It's up to the seniors to uphold that standard.”
Cutcliffe acknowledged some the hurdles this team will face – a tougher overall schedule, a revamped coaching staff and several key players who enter practice with physical issues. But he also suggested that the talent level of his roster is rising. Two weeks ago at the ACC Football Kickoff, the Blue Devil coach said this will be both the strongest and the fastest team he's had at Duke.
He focused on strength Monday after several players talked about their efforts in the weight room during the offseason.
“I told them way back in February that this was the Year of the Beast,” Cutcliffe said. “I met with [strength coach] Noel Durfey and I told our strength staff that we needed to be aggressive. We're a very fit team and have been. But I wanted to see some progress. I wanted to see visual progress in what we looked like, so we intensified the amount of work we were asking them to do.
“I hope some of them feel like beasts right now. We've had great progress. Now we've got to prove it.”
Redshirt junior defensive tackle Mike Ramsey is ready to do that.
“If you take extra time in the weight room, it's going to pay off,” he said. “We took a little longer before spring ball to focus on making sure everyone was working hard in the weight room. I think Coach Durfey has done a great job. I'm definitely a lot stronger myself.”
Casey Blaser, the team's most experienced offensive lineman, said the extra work in the weight room will pay off in more than strength. He suggested that the players will have better endurance and a more aggressive attitude.
“There were a few games last year when we felt we weren't as physical as the other team,” he said. "So this summer, the emphasis was getting bigger, getting stronger and making sure that doesn't happen again.”
INJURY UPDATE
Health concerns are always an issue as a team opens camp. For Duke in 2016, several key players will report at less than 100 percent:
-- QB Thomas Sirk, who started 12 of 13 games last season and finished with the No. 3 total offense average (per game) in Duke history, ruptured his Achilles tendon during a workout last February. Cutcliffe had earlier detailed Sirk's amazing recovery, which has put him in position to begin drills with the team this week.
“Thomas will be practicing [Monday], albeit on a limited basis,” Cutcliffe said. “We're going to put him on a little like a pitch count. We've got a good plan. Day-to-day, we'll see how he progresses. We can't really give you any updates until a week and a half into this thing when we can see where he really is. He is going to do every quarterback drill … we may limit how much team work he does.”
-- DT Quaven Ferguson injured his knee two weeks ago and had arthroscopic surgery.
“He's already back,” Cutcliffe said. “Not quite full speed. But he looks good.”
-- CB Bryon Fields, a starter in 2014 who missed last season with an ACL injury, is back.
“Bryon Fields is a go,” Cutcliffe said. “He's going to be on the field; absolutely back. You watch any ACL injury – you don't want a blowup swelling. But right now, he's going to be doing everything.”
-- OG Tanner Stone, a returning starter, is recovering from offseason back surgery.
“As an offensive lineman, you just have to be smart,” the Duke coach said. “He will not be in any contact to begin with. He'll do a lot of footwork. Then the test will be day to day.”
NEW FACE ON THE ROSTER
The Blue Devils will feature one veteran newcomer this season – tight end Daniel Helm.
Duke recruited the blue chip prospect out of Glenwood High School in Chatham, Ill., where he was rated the No 1 tight end prospect in the nation by Rivals.com (No. 3 by Scout.com; No. 4 by 247 Sports and No. 7 by ESPN).
But Helm didn't have any initial interest in the Duke program.
“To be honest, it was the summer before my junior year – the summer before they went to the Belk Bowl,” he said. “They were coming off a 3-8 year and I didn't give them a look – my fault.”
Helm picked Tennessee, where he played 12 games as a true freshman, including two starts. But he was not happy in Knoxville and when he looked for a new landing place, Duke looked a lot better.
“I heard some very positive things about Coach Cut,” he said. “That was the main reason I was interested.”
Helm had to sit out last season after transferring, but he was able to practice with the team.
“I'm very anxious to play some real football again,” he said. “I think the redshirt year really prepared me. Being able to play the year before gave me an idea of what to expect at the college football level. I've been able to use that to train.”
Tight end is a hybrid position that requires the pass-catching skills of a receiver and the blocking skills of an offensive lineman.
“I'd like to say that I can do both,” he said. “I came into college widely known as a pass catcher and I've done a lot of work and had a lot of great coaches help me develop the blocking side of my game.”
Helm will be competing with senior Erich Schneider and his roommate, sophomore Davis Koppenhaver for the starting job at tight end this fall.
THE NEW LAYOUT
Cutcliffe showed off the new practice field, which now stretches almost 150 yards between the Brooks Building and the open end of Wade Stadium.
The field – which was less than the length of a regulation football field when Cutcliffe arrived at Duke in 2008 – now contains three side-by-side fields: one for defense, one for offense and one for the kickers. It can be used long ways for scrimmages.
The Duke coach said the new surface is very heat resistant.
“There's close to a 20-degree difference in temperature when that sun hits that turf,” he said.
AN OLYMPIC PROPOSAL
Coach Cutcliffe said that he has gotten a kick out of watching the Olympic Games so far and admits to pulling for the USA.
But he pointed to several Duke connections to the games, including Mike Krzyzewski and Jeff Capel with the men's basketball team and athletic director Kevin White, who is in Rio as a member of the USOC Board of Directors.
Then there is Abby Johnston, a Duke undergrad when she won a Silver Medal in diving in the 2012 London Games, now a student at Duke medical school as she competes in Rio.
As it turns out, Johnston also has a connection to Duke football.
“I got a text from Sam McGrath, one of our assistants,” Cutcliffe said. “It's a picture of he and Abby on the beach. Apparently, the sunflower is her favorite flower and there's a sunflower out on the beach. She went over there and there's a nametag like she wears on her medical gear. And instead of saying Johnston, it says McGrath. He proposed to her on the beach. So they are engaged.
“So I am going to let Sam McGrath, a newly engaged guy, leave practice and go to Rio to watch his fiancée compete.”
FRESHMEN LINEMEN
In his first eight seasons at Duke, Cutcliffe has redshirted every offensive lineman that he's recruited.
But he said last spring that one or more of the four offensive line prospects in his most recent recruiting class – Robert Kraeling, Julian Santos, Liam Smith and Jaylen Miller – might be able play this season as true freshmen. He repeated that prediction two weeks ago at the ACC Football Kickoff.
Of course, none of that will be determined until Cutcliffe and his staff get a chance to see the newcomers in real workouts.
But Casey Blaser, who first started on the offensive line as a redshirt sophomore in 2014, said the newcomers look like the real deal.
“The freshmen o-linemen coming in definitely look the part,” he said. “They look a lot better than when I came in as a freshman. They all look pretty good.”
He pointed out that physical ability, while a good starting place, is not enough.
“To play as a true freshman, just mentally, it's tough -- just knowing the playbook, knowing that games are a lot quicker than practice. How quickly can they pick up on all that?”
THE LAST HURRAH
Cutcliffe opened his press conference by saluting Duke's long-time radio play-by-play man, Bob Harris, who will retire after the current school year.
Harris, who has been the voice of Duke football and basketball since 1976, enters the 2016 season having broadcast 459 straight Duke football games.
“One the greatest careers in sports – not just in sports broadcasting,” Cutcliffe said.
--30--
Players Mentioned
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OG
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WR
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OG
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QB
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