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If chemistry in a quarterback room counts toward the starter’s performance — and it can with the right players and coaches — Duke has reason to feel good about the upcoming season. Chase Brice, Chris Katrenick and Gunnar Holmberg sound like they’re in step with each other.
Brice has been considered the front-runner upon announcing last spring Duke as his destination as a graduate transfer, but he doesn’t sound like an outsider after two weeks of fall camp. Nor like someone that assumes the job is his without is teammates’ support.
“It’s been great competition,” Brice said in a Wednesday Zoom call. “We’ve all encouraged each other and helped each other when we see fit and need to speak up. I’ve leaned on them for questions and things they’re used to and accustomed to. They’ve helped with things like that.”
Brice, a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder, had good reason to talk about gaining a leg up after the first scrimmage on Saturday with his numbers. He completed 6-of-9 passes for 151 yards. He had a 53-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Eli Pancol and a 42-yard competition to redshirt junior Damond Philyaw-Johnson. Duke coach David Cutcliffe wants a more explosive offense this year. Those were the two biggest plays.
Katrenick, a redshirt junior that served as Quinton Harris’ backup a year ago, was 4-of-8 for 49 yards. Holmberg was 3-of-5 for 23 yards and 16-yard TD to redshirt freshman tight end Matt Smith.
But Brice spoke as if it what mattered more than his numbers was putting the performance behind him for another day of learning a new offense and with new teammates.
“Part of the game is not being perfect,” he said. “You’re not going to be perfect. I learned that early age. I go out there and try to play fast. I think that’s what they’re trying to do. We’re all trying to be decisive and confident in decision making. And if we mess up, we got back and look at film. What we don’t’ want to do is mess up with the same mistakes. The last couple weeks I’ve seen progress in all of us in decision-making and confidence in the system. It’s been great.”
Katrenick and Holmberg have the built-in advantage of understanding Duke’s offense, but Brice is the more experienced of the three despite spending the past two years as a backup to All-American Trevor Lawrence, a quarterback projected the first pick of the 2021 NFL draft.
Brice combines experience in crunch time as well as mop-up duty. He was a redshirt in 2017 as a 4-star recruit out of Lognansville (Ga.) Grayson, an hour-and-a-half from Clemson’s campus.
His big moment came early in the 2018 season when Lawrence was knocked out of the game with Clemson trailing Syracuse. Brice finished the 27-23 comeback victory, including a 13-play, 94-yard game-winning touchdown drive. He was 7-of-13 for 83 yards.
In 25 games the past two seasons, Brice is 82-of-136 four nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s also rushed 30 times for 187 yards and one TD.
“I’m just trying to use that experience and use it to my advantage in what I need to do to earn the job,” Brice said. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Duke opens the season Sept. 12 at Notre Dame and plays its home opener Sept. 19 against Boston College.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://www.shanahan.report/a/forty-four-underground-railroad-legacy-facts
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, The Integration of College Football, and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans
https://www.augustpublications.com/
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