DURHAM – Duke football head coach Mike Elko met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference.
The Blue Devils travel to Evanston, Ill., on Saturday for a matchup with Northwestern. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 with Eric Collins and Devin Gardner on the call. Kickoff is slated for 12 noon. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD through the Varsity app or goduke.com
Mike Elko Duke Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
“Thanks for coming. Recapping the game from Friday night, I thought it was a really good start for our program. The atmosphere was really good. We had an awesome turnout from our students, and I am very appreciative of that. I’m just really happy with how we started the game. I thought both sides of the ball were ready to go and we started fast. I thought the execution in the early part of the game was really good and to get out to the lead that we got out to 24-to-0 at halftime, I thought was good. I wish we’d have finished better. I wish we’d had kind of continued the level of execution that we had in the first half through the second half. Certainly, that gives us something to build on heading into next week.
“Some individual performances that stood out – I thought Shaka Heyward played really well at the linebacker position. He was our defensive player of the week. Really happy with DeWayne Carter and what he did up front. He was our defensive lineman of the week. Offensively, Riley Leonard, for him to play the way he did and started the way he did in his second game as a starter was really special. We were really happy with how he executed the passing game. I thought Mo (Maurice) McIntyre had a really good game, he was our offensive lineman of the week. Ryan Smith is a kid I’d just like to mention, because he’s one of those unsung heroes. He was our special teams player of the week. Ryan got moved to defensive end and has really embraced it and improved at that position tremendously. He has gotten in position where he can give us some depth at defensive end, but really has become a core special teams guy for us. He did a lot of really nice things Friday night and made a big time play on kickoff. He did a nice job on punt and just really happy with what he’s doing. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t get mentioned, who’s really adding a lot of value to our program. I am so happy for him to go out and play the way that he did.
“I told our guys, it’s onto the next week. We didn’t come here just to win a game. We’re here to build a program and now we’ve got to take our show on the road and go up to Big Ten country and play a really talented Northwestern football team. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach (Pat) Fitzgerald and the job that he does. I’ve known Pat for a long time. We used to go over and work his camps when I was at Bowling Green. He was a coach that I always kind of modeled things after and thought did an amazing job running a program. To go toe-to-toe with him this week will be a unique opportunity for our program to kind of see if we can take it to the next level. I think they’re an extremely physical football team, something you would expect that from a Big Ten team. They have a lot of experience. If you look at their offense, they have eight starters returning. They have a lot of experience up front, and they are a big physical team. They did a really good job running the football against Nebraska. They have three running backs who I think are really talented. It’ll probably be one of the better core group of running backs that we see this year. Ryan Hilinski, I feel like he’s been playing for a long time. I played against him when I was at Texas A&M when he was a young kid. But you’ve seen a much higher level of maturity from him. He threw the ball around really well against Nebraska. They’ve got some talent outside at wide receiver. They’ll be a challenge for us defensively for sure. Defensively, Jim O’Neil is a guy who I’ve known him for a really long time. I think his second year as the defensive coordinator. You’re seeing that group be a lot more comfortable with what they’re doing. I think they’re playing the system a lot faster, so they were able to make a lot of stops against Nebraska and put themselves in position to be very successful. I think they’ve got a really talented secondary. I think they’re going to be a challenge for us to get open on. They’re a big physical front four, so we’re going to have a much different type of match-up. It’s a much different scheme in terms of what they do up front. It’s going to be a challenge for our guys, but we’re looking forward to it, to go out there next week and put our best show forward and see what happens.”
(Ref.: On what stood out about the defense to make them so successful)
“I thought we executed well. I thought we tackled well and when you go into an opener, those are going to be the two things that kill you. If you don’t play well in an opening football game, you’re going to come back and see a lot of missed tackles and a lot of guys not on the same page. I was happy with the way we communicated and the way we tackled. I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage. I still think all of those things can take another level. I think that’s the challenge week one to week two. I still think there’s room to grow and get better but was we really happy with how we started.”
(Ref.: On how to live up to the challenge of a well-balanced Northwestern offense)
“They can do a lot of things, so you’ve got to be able to be multiple in how you attack them. You’ve got to be able to take away the run at times without making yourself susceptible on the outside to the pass game. That’ll be a little bit of the cat and mouse game is how do we make sure the running backs don’t hurt us but also make sure we don’t expose our secondary and put them into bad situations. Any time you see a team that’s balanced, that obviously presents the biggest problems to you as a defensive coordinator because you have to be able to play that cat and mouse game.”
(Ref.: On the balance of tackling in camp and how it translated to game one)
“I would probably say we did go live more than I’m used to. We did have periods; we did have drill work. A lot of people get scared tackling one-on-one in training camp and we did it. We felt like our runners and receivers had to learn how to make people miss and we felt like our second and third level had to learn how to tackle in space. You have to get creative with the way the rules have changed. You only get full pads eight times, so you’ve got to get your guys to buy into learning how to tackle without tackling, right? Some of that is individual work. You see us doing a lot of stuff with the donut tackle rings and different footwork things, but then even when you get into periods where you’re not tackling, there’s a certain body position that you demand they get into on the finish because it’s the position that you can finish the tackle from. If they can get into that body position, they should be able to finish it. Even in periods where we’re doing seven-on-seven and no one’s going to the ground, there’s still a level of coaching that goes into tackling that we’re really trying to emphasize. That’s something I think we’ve just had to evolve to as we’ve pulled the pads off more, as we’ve had to tackle less and as we’ve had to be a little bit more protective through fall camp.”
(Ref.: On what was done well in preparation to have success last Friday)
“I thought our kids just really bought into the plan and the preparation. One of the mistakes kids make going into the opener is you envision the results. You go to bed and dream about scoring that touchdown and what the celebration dance is going to look like. You envision the sack and what you’re going to do after you get the sack, but you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the level of execution it takes to score the touchdown or get the sack. We are really challenging them to embrace that part of it. Spend your time thinking about the plan. Spend your time thinking about the details and the execution that you’re going to need to go out and get the result that you want. Then at the end of the day, you’ll look up and you’ll have the result that you want. I thought our kids bought into that really well.”
(Ref.: On picking out the positives, but still focusing on the things that need to be fixed)
“Successful people in life want to know what they did wrong. That’s just what brings success to people, to programs, to organizations. I don’t need someone to wake up in the morning and tell me what I did well, I need them to tell me the three things I can get better at because that’s how I get better tomorrow. I said, ‘I’m proud of you. I’m proud of how you played. I’m proud of the result, but you don’t need to hear any more than that. You should have confidence. You’ve worked extremely hard. You should be aware that we have another game to play. We’re all in this thing and we all understand what we’re doing. Focus on the things that you can improve. Focus on the things you did right so you can repeat them, but then focus on the things that you can improve. And that’s how we’ll grow as an organization.’ That’s just our mindset going into every week is there’s going to be a handful of plays every week and they’re either going to be the things we better fix or we’re going to lose next week, or they’re going to be the reasons why we lost. Identify those things and try to clean them up and get better at them.”
(Ref.: On developing a road routine as a new head coach)
“That’s part of the journey for me. I was able to spend a lot of time with Dave (Clawson) and how we did things at Wake Forest and then you go to Notre Dame and that’s a whole different way to do your game weekend operation. At Texas A&M it was completely different. I was able to draw the things that I liked about each of those or some ideas that popped into your head while you were going through those weekends to say, ‘okay, hey, I think I can do it this way, and I might enjoy that a little bit.’ You just kind of build those weekend itineraries off of past experience and then feel really good about them going. Obviously, you constantly evaluate what you’re doing every weekend to make sure you feel good about it when it’s over.”
(Ref.: On specific things that have been implemented on the road)
“One of the things that we try to do is set when we eat pregame meals. That’s the last thing we do before we leave the hotel, and that’s something that I think is a little bit different. There’s a traditional wisdom that you eat four hours before kickoff, that puts you in the fourth quarter, seven hours from your last meal. We kind of eat the meal a little bit closer to when we leave the hotel. Everyone has those little nuances to their trips, but that would be probably one of the things that we do that’s a little bit unique.”
(Ref.: On how important it is to get pressure on the quarterback)
“I think that’s always a priority. I think you have to disrupt the quarterback and it’s not just sacks like we talked to our guys about that all the time. Sacks are obviously good and they’re the end result of it all, but you could sack the quarterback twice and not impact them on 38 other plays and not help yourself win. You can sack them zero times and impact them on 20 plays and win a football game. That’s hands in throwing windows, that’s reducing the pocket. Hopefully it leads to sacks, but it’s really like we have a controlled mindset of how we’re going to affect the quarterback and that’s something to me that’s really important.”
(Ref.: On how being successful on both sides of the ball benefits)
“I have appreciation for the fact that I told Nina (King) in my interview that we were going to score points and stop people and that defensive coordinators didn’t have to pick one or the other. She actually believed me. So, I appreciate her for that. That’s our goal. We want to score points and we want to stop people and we don’t try to play the game one way or the other. We allow our offense to go out and do the things that they think they’re capable of doing to have success. Defensively, we want to set up a system that can stop people and then as the game goes on, I think you saw it like we started to manage the clock. We got a big lead and started to manage the clock a little bit. We started to reduce the possessions left in the game because we wanted to put ourselves in the best position to win. Certainly, we want to try to score as many points as we can.”
(Ref.: On the struggle or benefit of keeping local kids at home)
“We always want to have an inside out approach to recruiting. I think that’s really important. I think you want to identify as many players close to home that can help your program as you possibly can, because they’re the easiest ones to recruit. They have the most access to get on campus. You can get around their families the most, you can visit with them the most and you can know a lot more about them than you can kids from further away. You always want to start inside out. I think one of the things that has happened over the years is recruiting has become so national because social media, because of the way we can get access to film. I can sit at my desk and watch a game film of any high school in the country right now and that’s new in the last 10 years. I think you have a lot of knowledge now about the entire country and the recruiting landscape across the entire country. You’re always trying to balance doing right by your local area, doing right by your home state with building the best program that you possibly can and not lowering your standards. I think that’s a balance as a coach, you’re always trying to keep.”
(Ref.: On keeping two local kids on the roster and building those relationships)
“VJ (Vincent Anthony Jr.) and Jake (Taylor) go in line with what I just said because those were two of the guys that I actually got to meet before signing day. When I came in here on Sunday, they were able to drive over here. I got a chance to spend some time with Jake and his family. I got a time chance to spend time with VJ and his family. There was only a couple of people that I can do that with and that was because they were local. Some of the kids that signed from out of state I didn’t meet until January face to face. I think it plays a role in trying to add and get those guys that had a more veteran team or your program further down.”
(Ref.: On balancing the time spent on tackling in camp)
“In my opinion, and I say this to our guys all the time, ‘to get better at football, you have to play football.’ Obviously, there’s always risk and you’re always afraid of injury, but I think sometimes being afraid of injury cannot get your team ready in the way that you want them to. Philosophically, that’s just always something I believe that football is a game that you have to play to get better at. We are always smart about it. You always want to be as smart as you possibly can because if you have a talented, experienced team, you want to get them to the fight and you want to be healthy in the opener. You certainly would kick yourself if you lost one of your better players in training camp, so it’s a balance that you’re always working for sure.”
(Ref.: On how the receivers showed a lot of growth against Temple)
“We did a good job. I thought we got released. I thought we got open. I do think there were some opportunities to make some contested catches later in the game that we didn’t come down with. I’d like to see us improve that a little bit, but I thought we did a good job and I thought Riley (Leonard) did a good job delivering the ball on time. I think that was the key to the passing game is timing. We were able to come open and then as we came open, the ball was coming on time. I think some of the struggles we had early on in camp with the passing game was just timing. We just weren’t in rhythm the way we wanted to be, which throws the whole thing out of whack. I thought we had good rhythm and timing with our game. I thought guys caught the ball well. I thought we made some things happen after the catch. Overall, really happy with what we did last weekend.”
(Ref.: On if the team is looking back at the success against Northwestern last season)
“No. Obviously, we’ve watched the game and studied the match-up and you just try to get a feel for philosophically of what they thought of us and what they tried to do to us and see how it applies. It’s part of living in the now that we talk about is just, every game has its own mindset. I told the guys this morning, I said, ‘last year we lost our opener and we beat Northwestern. This year we won our opener. It has zero impact on what we do against Northwestern. It’s each an individual entity. We’ve got to go out, we’ve got to prepare. We’ve got to have a great Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then we’ve got to go out and execute on Saturday. And that’s how we’ll win. If we don’t do any of those things, we won’t have a chance.'”
(Ref.: On how Pat Fitzgerald influenced him during his early years of coaching)
“I don’t know that I modeled it exactly after him. It just was something that you kind of studied. Pat built the program at Northwestern. They were having more success than Northwestern was used to having. There was a certain element of toughness that was built into that program. Pat was a defensive guy and so as a defensive coordinator that was something we were always clinging to defensive guys that were having success. I don’t want to say that I know the intricacies of what he was doing because I don’t have that knowledge, but certainly it was something from afar that you look closely at.”
(Ref.: On the concern of the kicking game)
“It’d be naive to say not a little bit concerned. Hopefully it was a one-night mistake. I’ve seen Charlie (Ham) through spring. I’ve seen Charlie through fall. He’s been extremely consistent. And he was 22-of-23 kicking for us in fall camp in competitive situations. He stretched back to 53 yards all the way through training camp. I’ve got a lot of confidence in Charlie. I think he knows, and we all know we’ve got to kick the ball better. I fully expect him to do that this week.”
(Ref.: On moving on from win No. 1 and looking toward this weekend)
“I think about midway through the third quarter the cloud nine aspect wore off. We were coaching hard, and we were trying to make sure that our kids didn’t slack off. I think there was always an eye to what was next. That’s just kind of how I’m wired and that’s how I want this program to be wired. We want to accomplish things, but we don’t ever want to stop accomplishing things. It’s great to win a game. It was a great night. I certainly soaked it all in. I don’t want it to sound like I didn’t. I am certainly very appreciative for everything that went down and what happened that night, but again, it’s just on to the next. It’s time for the next game.”
(Ref.: On how the offensive line played with new faces)
“I thought we played solid. We thought their front was good. We thought that was probably the strongest part of their defense was their front four. I thought we were able to keep a very clean pocket most of the night we were able to establish some running game. I thought the passing game allowed us to establish some running game, which is kind of what we thought would have to happen in the game. I think across the board, there’s a level of physicality on both sides of the ball that we can still achieve. I think offensively, up front, we can be more physical than we were in that game. That’s our challenge to our guys this week is to turn that up even a couple more levels.”
(Ref.: On the ACC playing and defeating quality non-conference opponents)
“We have to win football games. Nobody’s shying away from that. I mean, it’s a competitive market. It’s a competitive landscape in college football. We also are very quick to pull the panic button on things like this and overreact. You know, we weren’t gone coming into the season and we certainly haven’t re arrived after week one. You know we’re a very strong football conference. We have very strong football brands. It’s not that long ago that we were having multiple teams in the playoff contention. It’ll be that way again, it’s a very cyclical system. You know, there was a time when everyone wanted to break up the SEC East because it was so lopsided and all the teams in the SEC East were the good ones. ‘How can the league be like that? We’ve got to flip it right.’ And now it’s the exact opposite. The last time I was in this league, we had the same number of draft picks as the SEC. When I left in 2016, we were right on par with them. It’ll cycle back to that. It’s just a very cyclical sport. The way media works nowadays and no disrespect to you guys, but everything has to just be a story. We want to kind of overdo things or over lean on things. ACC football is very good and we’ll be fine.”
(Reg.: On Riley adapting to when he should fight for extra yards or protect his body)
“I’m chuckling because Riley (Leonard) and I had a really long conversation about this yesterday. Early in the game, there was a 3rd-and-5, where Riley went out and made it 4th-and-1. I was a little bit frustrated because I felt like he could have made a different cut and given us an opportunity to get the first down. I think he took that the rest of the night and tried to get every extra yard he possibly could. There’s probably about seven other times where I wish he would have slid and not tried to get the extra yard. He and I had a very long conversation yesterday, watched some film together, and got on the same page with what we were looking for and what we were talking about. There are certain times in the framework of the game where your quarterback has to be tough and he has to get you that yard that you need, but certainly we don’t want him taking extra hits when it’s not necessary.”
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