Michael Carter II on Duke's Scrimmage: Good to Be Live and All Out
Duke held its first scrimmage of the preseason on Saturday. Safety Michael Carter II was ready for the live action.
“It feels good to fly around and really hit each other, but also take care of each other at the same time,” he said.
The defense had some positive moments, but Carter sees areas to improve. “We need to continue to get in better shape,” he said. “We ran around though pretty good. We made plays on the ball. The offense had a great day running the ball. Everybody looked really good though.”
Carter was impressed with Duke’s running game.
“Deon (Jackson) and Jordan Waters looked really good running the ball,” he said. “They looked strong, definitely hard to bring down on first contact, for sure. They were running through guys. They looked pretty good coming out of the first scrimmage.”
It was a hot day, but the defense held up.
“We looked good, conditioning-wise,” he said. “We looked like we were in shape. I think we’ve just got to keep improving on that. We’ve got to be able to maintain the level of conditioning all the way through those plays, until we get off the field, as well as throughout the whole game. We’ve got to keep the intensity up and feed off each other’s energy.”
The energy level was ratcheted up for the first scrimmage action of fall camp.
“It felt good,” he said. “It was just good to be out there in a game simulation, live and all out, and not have any restraints as far as how we play out there. Everybody’s energy is definitely up. A lot of guys want to prove to themselves and coaches that we can play ball. I think the energy is always high when we get to play on the field.”
