Duke's Leonard Johnson: Syracuse is Good but Very Beatable
Duke plays at Syracuse this weekend, and the Blue Devils’ memories of last year’s game against the Orange is fresh in their minds. Duke lost to Syracuse at Wallace Wade last November, 49-6.
“We’re using the loss for motivation,” cornerback Leonard Johnson said. “Last year, we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. We’ve been game-planning. We know they like to hurry up on offense. We’re getting ready for that.”
The Duke defense has been preparing to deal with the pace of Syracuse’s no-huddle offense.
“Today, at practice, we had two different huddles for scout team,” Johnson said, “running in and out plays radiply, at rapid speed. It was not the usual practice, with the hurry-up. They just ran in and out. We didn’t come off the field. We just stayed on.”
Duke has struggled with its conditioning this year, so keeping up with Syracuse will be a challenge.
“We’ve got to practice hard,” Johnson said. “We can’t get tired with the hurry-up offense, because you know they can run a lot of plays real quick. We just have to condition during practice, stay up during practice and prepare for this Saturday.”
Duke also needs to work on stopping the run after Virginia Tech’s Khalil Herbert topped 200 yards on the ground against the Blue Devils last week.
“We’ve got to keep getting better in our scheme,” Johnson said, “do what the coaches are telling us and execute. V-Tech, give that guy credit. Give their backs credit. They did a good job running the ball, but we’re prepared, locked this week to stop the run.”
Johnson thinks Duke has the chance to begin turning around its slow start.
“We can’t let the 0-4 start stop our momentum,” he said. “Going into Syracuse—good team but very beatable, and again on the road with NC State. We’ve got seven more games. Get it cranked up. It’ll be tough, but we’re ready for the challenge.”
