Opening statement
Important week in our training camp preparation as we really get into week three, today was day 11. And it's the week where as individuals, you want to see guys make a big step. We had our first scrimmage, we have another one we go this Saturday, and really after the weekend is when we'll have to start making decisions in terms of the batting order. So everything is still to play for, everything is still in flux. So to me, what we look for is just the spirit of the team competing, not enduring, attacking, not surviving. And we've had great heat and humidity, which has been a really good test for us to work through. And I think to the guy's credit, they continue to push through. So with that, we'll do questions.
On Sunday’s scrimmage and playing a bunch of guys
No, it's really the way we do it. I mean, everybody got the same amount of reps. We can move the knob between going live tackle and thud tackle. But I would say for the most part, everybody on defense played in the live periods and pretty much mostly everybody on offense did as well. So for first scrimmage, it was inconsistent. As you expect a little uptight at first, guys trying to be perfect. Not everybody, but for the most part. So some silly mistakes, inconsistencies, but none of that is unexpected for the first time stepping foot in the stadium. It's just a little different in there, a little different under the lights, which is why we do it. And it's a reminder, we have a young football team and a lot of our players, similar to 24, just started practicing with us 10 days ago. So it was a good exercise.
On defense during live tackling
I was pleased at how the defense tackled. I've been pleased at their energy and their spirit through training camp so far. But I was also pleased that from a ball security standpoint on offense, that for 120 some odd plays scrimmage, the ball was only on the ground one time, not counting snaps, but one time in the field of play. And that's still one time too many, but our backs were able to protect the ball well, which is obviously their number one job.
On experience in linebacker room
Yeah, what that breeds is familiarity. Really, the defensive end room is almost similar. There's familiarity with the scheme. You've got guys now that have understood the same thing for three years or even two years for the newer ones, so they get what we're doing. That also allows us to be flexible so we can play with different lineups, different guys at different positions and sort of match what the offense is doing and use guys as tools and different tools in different situations. So I do like the way that that room is playing. I do like the way that room is competing against each other. I think they're all getting better because of the competition they have, which is really sort of what you want. And ideally that's the model for our entire program where you see guys that have come through the development arc. And again, guys like Luke Mergott were a perfect example of that a year ago, just continue to develop, develop, develop.
Any position group stand out during scrimmage?
It'd be hard, Anna, to focus on one group because when you play so many people, there's just bound to be inconsistencies through the different ages of experience and whatever. So I think what we'll see by this weekend is what you hope is the gap lessons. There's two things you want to see. You want to see your ceiling raise of your football team, but you also want to see your floor raise. And because rule one of winning is don't beat yourself. And so there were enough self-inflicted wounds where Duke was kicking Duke's butt on Sunday night that if we can just eliminate those, then we can make ourselves harder to beat and actually try to begin the process of trying to kick somebody else's butt.
On quarterback situation
We're not even considering the separation aspect of it. We're looking at Walker and Dan, and are they able to move the football and execute in our offense? They certainly both have slightly different skill sets. And now you have a chance to maybe this week really try to highlight each of their strengths. But I think the team believes in both guys, I think they both have enough evidence of what they've done in the first 11 practices to show that they can quarterback the team. What it's going to come down to as we get through the weekend, again, is who can eliminate the negative plays, the decisions that really have a chance to impact winning and losing. So that's where every house, you have to build it with the foundation first. If that's strong, then again, we can build stories on top of that, but if we have a rocky foundation or a soft foundation, then eventually we'll have trouble.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Everything Duke head coach Manny Diaz said following practice 11