Duke Blue Devils College Football Pregame Quote, 08/26/2019

I know everyone wants to ask about playing Alabama and about what we think. Obviously, we have had quite a summer and a very intense study of them. They are probably the most talented team top to bottom in the country, that is what I honestly think. Along with that, they are extremely well-coached. They don’t have a lot of penalties. They don’t bust assignments. They don’t make errors. They make you play to their strengths. How do you defend that? You take your team and you work as hard as you can starting on August 2nd on what you believe your strengths are and how you have to go about developing those. That is why games of this magnitude are good for your program and good for your team. Starting back in January when we returned to school, you knew the significance and they knew the significance of preparation. We are still in the midst of that. They had a good Tuesday practice today, full pads. You cannot turn the crowd noise louder than we did today. It was challenging and will be challenging in Atlanta. It was good to get that and we will do the same thing tomorrow. Again, good work today on both sides of the ball. Knock on wood, nobody banged up from today and we need to have good solid work tomorrow and that will be our last physical practice before we play the ball game. Our team has been focused. We have a lot of young people. We have some inexperienced people in certain places. We are counting on our veterans to step up and we are counting on our inexperienced people to step up and be the best that they can be.

On Koby Quansah’s availability.:

He practiced today but I would call Koby day-to-day. The whole focus with any player that is injured, especially coming off of surgery, is can we put him in a situation where he is protected completely, will have no chance for further injury whatsoever and can be effective. We don’t know the answer of his effectiveness yet. I think the doctors and the trainers feel good about him being able to play. We are still working toward it day-to-day to see where he is.

On Shaka Heyward:

Shaka is an outstanding tackler. He is big. He has been really decisive. He is getting off the spot and getting downhill. He is playing like an experienced player. He has played enough a year ago in situations and I think that made a difference with him. He has played like a veteran to this point. Brandon Hill had some muscle issues and missed some work and Shaka took advantage of the opportunity.‚Äù 
 
On Zach Bakers progression from last season:

Zach had one of those ‚Äòprior to your senior year’ incredible summers. I was around all but one week during the summer and every day I came in Zach was the first one to work. He was really focused and committed to his team. He was a great leader for us and I think the team voting him for a captain proved that. He has been starting for us at left guard as Julian Santos has been hurt most of camp off and on. He just took advantage of that opportunity. I think it is awesome. I have seen a lot of seniors take that opportunity and make the most of it. It is what you tell all your seniors and we don’t have very many of them. Seniors are supposed to play like seniors and that is what Zach is going about doing.

On being from Alabama:

I’m so old I can barely remember Alabama. Alabama, not only the university but also just growing up there, shapes your passion for college football. I was there and being privy to Coach (Paul [Bear]) Bryant and then the other great coaches, Mal Moore had a great influence on me, Ken Donaghy and Jack Rutledge. Unfortunately, all those men are gone. I think I understood a lot about the right way to go about this coaching business. There is a great benefit in that. The other part that is a reality when you do go to Alabama and anything involving Alabama football then and now, you learn to expect to win. You don’t step away from that. You expect to win. You understand that it comes with a price. It comes with a price in offseason and it comes at a price with preparation. There is no question that it helped start molding me and we are all a product of that… No question that Alabama football, the way the entire state thinks about it, changed what your passion level is for college football.

On when the offer to play in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff came:

Our recruiting has just continued to rise. You are always looking two years ahead at the quality of your athletes, the speed… We have a fast football team. To play these caliber teams, you have to be able to run. If you can’t run with them, you can’t tackle them. If you can’t run with them, you can’t get away from them, etc. I felt like our program had earned this type of opportunity. It wasn’t so much that it was Alabama. It was the opportunity to be in a kickoff type game for the 150th year of college football. Duke has had a storied history in part of its own tradition with Coach (Wallace) Wade coming from Alabama. I’ve viewed it as a tribute to Duke Football’s past and Duke Football’s present. How do you walk away from this opportunity? I still feel great about this decision, no question. Challenging, yes. But how do you grow? This is what you are supposed to do.

On what he is looking for from this weekend:

You are looking for a competitive fierceness. You don’t go play in this game and not get exposed if you are not a fierce competitor. Your first effort is not enough in a big game. That is one thing I tell players and even young coaches, your first effort is never enough. It is your second, it is your third. The other test is focus, whether it is noise or a very difficult opponent. Your focus is challenged. All of us, when it comes to facing adversity, any opponent like this will create adversity. More than not, fairly often throughout the game, it does not mean you are defeated unless you let it define you. I am looking at all of those things, but obviously we are going down there to win a football game. Those things have to be elements that exist for us to be able to do that.

On Duke’s strength:

This team can run. We are diverse offensively, there a lot of different people and different weapons that will come into play. We are more physical than we have been in both lines of scrimmage, particularly the defensive front. You better have some strength there to face a team as strong as Alabama is on both lines of scrimmage. Their strengths are pretty obvious as soon as you tune into the tape. Again, there is no weakness to attack. You are fighting every strength they have. We believe that in all three phases, defensively, offensively and in the kicking game, that we have strengths that we have to play to the highest level, which we can. We have to demand that of ourselves. Part of our strength has to be the amount of work that we put in, not only in January, February and spring practice but always in college football, your June and July are going to meet with another team’s June and July. I think that has been a strength of ours and we have to back that up.

On Tua Tagovailoa:

I think he is terrific. He has everything you want to start with as a quarterback. The thing that is most obvious is his unbelievable accuracy. He has a great quick release. The biggest and most difficult part of it is that if he has time he is going to be accurate and deadly with the ball down field. You have to mix up coverage. You have to mix up rush. You have to do a great job to consistently make it as hard as you can for him. I just think he is terrific. Everything I see from him yells great for a lot of years. There is no question that he is as good as there is out there in the college game right now.