Marquis Waters Duke Will Start Off Fresh After Off Week
Duke safety Marquis Waters and the rest of the Blue Devils are back at practice after getting a few days off during their bye week.
“Practice was full of high energy,” he said, “a lot of hard work, picking up the old concepts, a lot of high energy just moving around, trying to stay confident and build from what we got going on. We’re going to move forward looking at this as another half season, starting fresh and working hard.”
After going 1-5 prior to the break, Duke has work to do to turn around the season. “Most likely, just keeping our confidence and conditioning up,” Waters said of the bye week priorities, “continuing playing hard every play with the same effort we start off with. That’s really all it is, just conditioning and being able to go on extended drives, continue playing as hard as you can, giving 100 percent effort every play with no mental breakdowns, just staying focused.”
The week off comes later than originally scheduled, after the Virginia game was moved up.
“It’s coming at the perfect time,” he said. “Basically, we did what we did the first half. We’re going to pick up from it, stay energetic and look at it as a new season. Start off fresh, work hard and change everything around.”
Duke beat Syracuse and then lost a tough game with NC State to hit the off week.
“We’re becoming more consistent as far as our play,” Waters said. “We’re definitely keeping our energy up, playing longer. It’s just about finishing the game. That’s all it really comes down to, conditioning. We’re conditioned well enough. We can always be more conditioned. This is about finishing games.”
