Michael Carter II's Message to the Duke Team

Safety, captain supporting young players after 0-4 start

Duke struggled to tackle Khalil Herbert all day on Saturday. The five-foot-nine, 212 pounder gashed the Blue Devils for 208 yards, gaining 10.4 yards per carry on the ground. He scored two touchdowns, including a 60-yarder with 2:20 remaining that served as a dagger after Duke had cut the Hokies lead to three. Herbert added 150 yards on three kickoff returns.

“I was definitely difficult,” said Duke safety Michael Carter II. “It was a challenge. He was a good back, very fast, explosive, powerful. All the backs in the ACC are good. We’ve just got to be able to tackle all of them. It was a unique challenge this week. He’s a smaller back, but he’s just as powerful as a bigger back and also faster. We’ve just got to be able to bring him down to the ground.”

Carter said that even though the defense struggled, there were positives to take from the outing.

“It’s always good to take from wins and losses,” he said. “I think we played pretty hard. The only thing is to finish. When you finish, we win the game.”

Carter is one of Duke’s captains, meaning the responsibility of keeping younger players from losing hope in an 0-4 start falls on him.

“Stay the course,” he said of his message to the team. “We can turn this thing around. We just need everybody to be on board and buy into what we’re trying to do. We’ve got to go to practice and practice like it’s the game. So when we go out here everything is not as fast. Just continue to have fun. I think that’s what we need to do for sure.”