Duke's stout defense presents a major challenge for FSU's potent offense - TheOsceola: Florida State Seminoles Football & Basketball Recruiting

Published Oct 16, 2023

Duke's stout defense presents a major challenge for FSU's potent offense

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Mike Norvell definitely has an extremely high opinion of the next defense his Florida State team will play this season.

So much so that he couldn't even wait until a question about the Duke defense was finished at his Monday press conference to make his opinion known.

"Great," Norvell finished the question which began "Duke's defense statistically, it's..."

Great may even be a bit of an understatement when discussing how impressive the 16th-ranked Blue Devils' defense has been through six games this season entering Saturday's 7:30 p.m. game at No. 4 FSU (ABC).

Against FBS opponents this season, Duke's defense is 10th nationally in yards per play allowed (4.48) and fourth nationally in yards per pass attempt allowed (5.0). It has allowed just seven touchdowns in 14 red-zone trips, the second-best percentage nationally.

The Blue Devils are one of only four teams in the country currently allowing less than 10 points per game (9.8, fourth nationally) along with Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan.

That's some pretty good company right there.

"You watch them, they're well-coached. They play fast. They're confident with what they're being asked to do," Norvell followed up. "Their defensive front, they roll 10 defensive linemen that can all play. You look at the standard of good defenses, this is one that you would point to. All 11 guys on their defense tackle, they can run, cover. They're disruptive in the schemes that they present. Got really good pressure packages that challenge offenses. They just play good."

Duke was a surprise team a season ago under then-first-year head coach Mike Elko when it jumped from a 3-9 record in 2021 to a 9-4 finish in 2022, tied for the second-most wins in a season in program history.

Many expected the Blue Devils to take a step back in 2023 with a tougher schedule and the surprise factor slightly worn off after their impressive 2022 season. Halfway through the regular season, however, that hasn't been the case.

Duke began the season with a 28-7 home win over then-No. 9 Clemson and has only kept rolling since. The Blue Devils were a fourth-down stop away from beating Notre Dame at home and they would be a perfect 6-0 heading to Tallahassee if they had managed that.

A large part of that is because of the Blue Devils' defense. It's not the most talented group when looking at the recruiting rankings, but the results so far this season are impossible to ignore.

The effect of Elko — previously a very successful defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Texas A&M before he got his first head coaching opportunity — and Duke defensive coordinator Tyler Santucci is undeniable.

Through six games this season, Duke has allowed eight total touchdowns. Two of those eight came late in the fourth quarter with the win well in hand and Duke's defensive starters out of the game.

Perhaps even more important for an FSU offense that has proven capable of being quite explosive this season with talent across the board, the Blue Devils have allowed five plays of 30-plus yards (tied for third fewest nationally), only one play of 40-plus yards and no plays of 50-plus yards so far this season.

"I just think they do a good job of what you want to see in coaching, which is that they get the most out of the talent that they have and you don't see them make a lot of mistakes," FSU offensive coordinator Alex Atkins said of Duke's defense. "I want to say that is because they're talented individuals and they are just maximizing them and not putting them in bad situations. They're allowed to play fast because they totally understand what they're being asked to do and they know how to attack you. So it's gonna be a real challenge...

"We've got to be on point of staying on schedule, making sure we found a way to create some big plays."

FSU defensive coordinator Adam Fuller goes way back with Elko. The pair of coaches were each on the defensive staff at Richmond in 2005 under Dave Clawson, with Fuller coaching the defensive backs and Elko serving as the special teams coach and recruiting coordinator.

"We've kept in touch and he's always been somebody that I've connected well with," Fuller said of Elko. "He's smart, takes a lot of pride in his work, works hard at it. I'm glad for his success.”

Just about the only area that seems particularly exploitable on Duke's defense is running the ball. The two most talented teams the Blue Devils have faced this season, Clemson and Notre Dame, each ran for over 150 yards and averaged over 4.95 yards per carry in those games.

So the timing is certainly good for an FSU run game that has found its footing over the last two weeks and now ranks 11th nationally in yards per carry against FBS opponents (5.46).

"I think now that we've settled in, we're understanding what the line does well, what their vision is seeing, taking opportunities of what the defense is kind of giving up and it is starting to go like we talked about earlier," Atkins said of the run game finding more success. "It's going to start getting better as we go and that's what we want. I think that what we're seeing is we're coaching it better, they're seeing it better, they execute it better, and we are just putting them in better situations."

One thing that makes the Blue Devils' defensive success this season even more impressive is the fact that it's not elevated to its highly-regarded level because of a small group of players. While Duke has 36 tackles for loss, no one player has more than 5.5 this season. No Blue Devil has more than three sacks. No defender has more than two interceptions.

It's a healthy mix of players Elko inherited like standout defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, players he brought in through the high school ranks and transfer additions, of which he's picking from a smaller pool because of Duke's academic standards.

And despite all of that, the Blue Devils, on paper, seem to have the best chance of any team left on FSU's regular-season schedule to snap the Seminoles' streak of 12 straight games scoring 30-plus points. Because no team has scored more than 21 points on Duke this season and only two teams have scored more than seven points.

"We definitely have our hands full this week and our preparation. These are the games you love being a part of," Norvell said. "You love coaching 'em, you love playing 'em. It's going to be a lot of really good players and some fun X's and O's to see who can try to create any type of advantage."