Zach Morris is going to have to wait another year until he sees live game action at Wallace Wade Stadium.
The freshman defensive tackle will miss the the 2015 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn right ACL last month, according to a report on GoDuke.com Sunday. It was unclear prior to his injury whether Morris would have seen game action this season or if he was going to redshirt.
The Ringgold, Ga., native was a three-star recruit and ranked the No. 63 defensive end by ESPN coming out of Ringgold High School. Morris totaled 54 tackles and 6.0 sacks to earn first team all-state honors from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during a solid senior season in 2014.
Defensive linemen Kyler Brown, A.J. Wolf, Carlos Wray and Britton Grier are slated to start in the trenches for head coach David Cutcliffe, but a flurry of younger players such as Quaven Ferguson, Mike Ramsay and Edgar Cerenord could also see extended playing time at the position. Last season, the Blue Devil defense was one of the best in the country, holding opponents to 21.8 points per game, tied for the 24th-lowest mark in the nation.
Duke opens the season Sept. 3 at Tulane.
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