With the 2023 season on the horizon, the Blue Zone breaks down each of the eight major position groups for this Duke squad: Specialists, defensive line, offensive line, linebackers, defensive backs, receivers, running backs and quarterbacks:
Key players lost: Chance Lytle, Andre Harris
Aside from the losses of Darius Joiner and Shaka Heyward in Duke’s secondary, the departures of Lytle and Harris are probably the second-biggest from this offseason. The duo completed the backbone of a highly-experienced offensive line which featured three graduate students, a senior and a junior.
Harris transferred in from Arkansas State to start 11 of the Blue Devils’ 13 games in 2022. Meanwhile, Lytle started all 13 games at both right and left guard last season, helping to create an invaluable line of security to both quarterback Riley Leonard and any of Duke’s rushing trio.
Projected starters: Graham Barton, Maurice McIntyre, Jacob Monk, Jake Hornibrook, Justin Pickett
Much like the defensive line, which returned all of its 2022 starters, the offensive line returns serious talent in 2023 — with a few notable additions.
Preseason All-ACC first teamer Graham Barton headlines the group at left tackle, transforming massively throughout his time in Durham to become one of Duke’s, the conference’s and even the nation’s best blockers. McIntyre returns to the Blue Devils after suffering a season-ending injury just six games into the 2022 season, while Monk — one of the team’s four captains — reprises his role at center. Together, Barton, McIntyre and Monk contributed to allow an ACC-best of just 17 sacks and were in large part responsible for quarterback Riley Leonard’s sophomore-season surge as both a passer and rusher.
The two new additions to the line — Hornibrook and Pickett — hope to fill the decorated shoes of Lytle and Harris. The former, a graduate transfer from Stanford, brings a 6-foot-5, 300-pound frame and has 23 starts in the Pac-12 under his belt. The latter, a redshirt sophomore from Carmel, Ind., started Duke’s last three games in 2022 and saw action for 358 total snaps.
While the continued production of Barton, Monk and McIntyre is expected and Hornibrook and Pickett bring their own talents to the line, a significantly harder conference slate in 2023 will test its resolve — especially now that Leonard is a known threat.
Dark horse: Scott Elliott
The reason for his dark horse selection has primarily to do with how many snaps Monk will take — and why he’ll need rest. Short answer: a whole lot.
Although Elliott doesn’t possess the same notoriety as Monk, he may provide a useful rotation option when the captain needs a break, adding some energy and veteran know-how to a unit experiencing a refresh in 2022.
Elliott, a three-star prospect out of high school and three-year letterwinner at Harvard, started 20 games for the Crimson and was named to the Third-Team All-Ivy League in 2022. He was brought in this offseason to help shore up an offensive line made slightly weaker by the departures of Lytle and Harris, and after four years of college football, comes to Durham with experience by the boatful.
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Andrew Long is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.