Just a quick look at Duke's snap counts by position to get a feel for their offense if you didn't watch.
Duke ran 65 plays, passing 30 times and running 35. However, 11 of those runs were by QB Riley Leonard, at at least some were scrambling out of passing looks while a variety of others were reads out of the RPO, so we're realistically looking at passing looks about 60+% of the time plus more passing options on their constant RPO look.
RB Snaps: 68 snaps by RBs, with 3 RBs equally sharing the vast majority of the work. All 3 RBs run routes and run the ball, so there isn't a major key there. Our LBs need to be ready to tackle and cover these guys. All three guys are right around 200 lbs too, so they don't have a classic bruiser and speedster combo, at least from the standpoint of size.
TE snaps: 75 snaps. They usually have 1 TE on the field along with their 1 RB.
WR: 192 snaps. Duke almost always has 3 WRs on the field and mostly runs 11 personnel.
As per my comment in another thread, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see a lot of light star nickel with Heard again in this game unless there is a receiver that Metz can line up against from a speed perspective or NU wants to utilize a lot of zone under type looks with help over the top. That would put an awful lot of pressure on the LBs to really really read the RPO well with the safeties taking on the over the top pressure though. NU has to account for Leonard every single down too as Duke's leading rusher, so it's possible we could see a lot of Metz to keep an additional eye on Leonard if he can run with him and then stretch the safeties in coverage again.
I look for Coco to be important too since he could be a guy with a lot of assignments to have full coverage assignments but need to rush up to deal with a running Leonard a lot.
Duke ran 65 plays, passing 30 times and running 35. However, 11 of those runs were by QB Riley Leonard, at at least some were scrambling out of passing looks while a variety of others were reads out of the RPO, so we're realistically looking at passing looks about 60+% of the time plus more passing options on their constant RPO look.
RB Snaps: 68 snaps by RBs, with 3 RBs equally sharing the vast majority of the work. All 3 RBs run routes and run the ball, so there isn't a major key there. Our LBs need to be ready to tackle and cover these guys. All three guys are right around 200 lbs too, so they don't have a classic bruiser and speedster combo, at least from the standpoint of size.
TE snaps: 75 snaps. They usually have 1 TE on the field along with their 1 RB.
WR: 192 snaps. Duke almost always has 3 WRs on the field and mostly runs 11 personnel.
As per my comment in another thread, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see a lot of light star nickel with Heard again in this game unless there is a receiver that Metz can line up against from a speed perspective or NU wants to utilize a lot of zone under type looks with help over the top. That would put an awful lot of pressure on the LBs to really really read the RPO well with the safeties taking on the over the top pressure though. NU has to account for Leonard every single down too as Duke's leading rusher, so it's possible we could see a lot of Metz to keep an additional eye on Leonard if he can run with him and then stretch the safeties in coverage again.
I look for Coco to be important too since he could be a guy with a lot of assignments to have full coverage assignments but need to rush up to deal with a running Leonard a lot.
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