Palmetto Proving Grounds

From what coaches and the staff here have said, he is giving a good effort, and had a good offseason in the workouts. But, he still has a ways to go, and will not be a major contributor this year. Dixon Jr, Surratt and Green are ahead of him. Dixon Jr and Green are the two Lawing seems most excited about right now. He talks about Surratt a little bit to.

He's a work in progress.

Carolina fans haven't quite adjusted to where we are...In the past we would have been forced to throw Dukes into the fire and he would be further along right now as a result. The bottom line is that we are not dependent on Freshmen on the DL. it's a place where we have always wanted to be, and it's nice up here.

Dukes will come around when he is supposed to, as a RS So., Jr., and Sr.

I think he has a great point. In years past, we looked to the Marque Hall's of the world to come in as true Freshman and save our DL and that never happened. And by "save", I mean come in and start from day 1 and be an upper tier player in the SEC. Same is true with Ricardo Hurley, Mark Barnes, George Gause and a host of others. Now we have 3 proven starters plus a Senior on our DL. We have adequate back ups at DE, which we've never had. We have a choice of at least 4 bodies backing up the interior DL which we have
NEVER had. Its a nice place to be.

He'll probably be a RS So or RS Jr by the time he is really ready to contribute. I am not really convinced that is a bad thing.

Why? Do you think Jerideau is incapable of being the role player we are going to ask him to be? I personally think the starting four will be more than adequate, whoever starts opposite Kelcy. Kelcy should be improved and cause havoc on the interior this year, the ends speak for themselves and while Jerideau is no Travian, he can fill his role just fine. Remember with him its never been about playmaking, its been about conditioning. As for Dukes, yeah he seemed to have the most hype of th interior DL guys last year, but I always thought Dixon, Jr. would be better(or do I have him confused ith just Dixon? Still not sure who is who.) I think it would be nice if Dukes was a stud, no doubt. But I not sure he is the best DT from his recruiting class right now, or even is he the guy with the most upside.

See this is the problem to me. So we're not in dire need for a redshirt freshman, bc we have a redshirt fresh coming off knee surgery, an undersized dt, a senior who hasn't played significant minutes in three years, and another redshirt freshman. Doesn't make sense to me.

you don't know what you're talking about.He said dukes could just a matter of him getting the playbook. He said that the redshirt did him good and he wish more kids would do it.

agreed.

I thought we were gonna be talking about mayonaise.

i forgot about JT Surratt. Think he can actually play a little bit.

stars are part of my high expectations for dukes. He was a jumbo athlete (300+ pounds, played basketball, does backflips) and very physical coming out of high school. And his performance at the shrine bowl was dominant despite the fact he played hurt. And he plays with intensity which i love. and yes teh 4 stars means something. They mean alot in some circles

hopefully dukes' story will mirror kelcy's. Kelcy wasn't projected to contribute much (if at all) right up until last season started. There was talk of him playing DE. I can't think of a better example of the light coming on than kelcy last year.

the DL already projects to be one of the best in the nation and if the light can come on for dukes like it did for kelcy that would be great

I agree. From all indications, Green, Quarles, Dixon Jr, and Surratt are the better players. It is definitely weird, because this board is awfully quick to criticize almost every player that does, or even is thinking of playing here, yet Dukes is untouchable. Some players contribute, yet are constantly criticized. Others have not contributed, yet can do no wrong.

These same posters would hear nothing of the 'young' excuse during basketball season.