Duke's Mataeo Durant on the Running Game

Running back Mateo Durant provided half of Duke’s big explosion in the running game last week. He hopes to continue the ground game’s success against NC State.

“As an offense, we’ve just been clicking more, and we’re building that team chemistry,” he said. “We didn’t have much of an offseason to work out together as a full team, because of COVID, but I feel like as we played we got better and better every quarter. Now, it’s just about sustaining it and being consistent as an offense overall.”

He shares the running workload with Deon Jackson, and both backs feed off each other.

“Me and Deon are pretty similar,” he said. “He’s a bigger back. We both have a lot of speed. We’re both pretty powerful. I know from first look, people may not think I’m as strong as I am, but I feel like I run with a lot of power. We’re a great one-two punch overall. There’s not a lot of dropoff when he goes in or I go in. It’s like we both believe in each other. I know we’re not selfish. We want to see each other shine together.”

Duke had a rough start to the season, but Durant thinks the Blue Devils are on the right track.

“We’re a very resilient team. We can find a way to win games, as long as we clean up on our turnovers and be consistent. We’ll be very hard to beat. We’ve just got to work on more of the little things, and we’ll be fine.”

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