Duke's Ben Frye: We Have As Much To Play For As We Want To Play For

Duke DT wants to pressure quarterback

Duke defensive tackle Ben Frye isn’t happy with the team’s 1-5 start, but he isn’t pointing fingers anywhere but at himself.

“You can look at it and say our record isn’t where we want it to be,” he said. “As a competitor, I think with a competitive mindset, every week’s a new week. If you don’t come in and do it with the same attitude you started with, you’re going to lose games. We have as much to play for as we want to play for. Every week, it resets. So, I mean, you never know. We don’t let our guard down just because we lost in the past. We’ve got to have a short memory, keep competing, always improving.”

Part of that involves putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

“To get after the quarterback and create pressure makes it easier in the backfield,” he said. “We’ve got some young guys back there and guys who’ve played a lot of reps with a lot of experience. It’s not a next man up mentality. There’s opportunity in front of those guys. I think they’re going to take that opportunity. We’re going to get after them up front. Interceptions will happen and quarterbacks will hit the ground. It’ll be good.”

Frye thinks the bye week helped the team.

“It’s extremely important, not just mentally but physically. It’s a week you can focus on healing. It’s a long physical ACC season. It adds up. Any time you get some R and R, it’s definitely much needed. Mentally, you can look at it as this is a break. It divides the season a little bit. We can regather our mind and go back on attack. We want to go five, six and 0.”