The biggest storyline of fall camp for Duke is the QB competition between San Jose State transfer Walker Eget and rising sophomore Dan Mahan. While outsiders have assumed that Eget is the obvious starter, Manny Diaz has signaled time and time again that Mahan is very much making this a competition.
Mahan has a year of added experience in the system and took advantage of Eget missing spring practice to get all the first-team reps. Eget is healthy now and holds a vast edge in game experience after starting for San Jose State the last two seasons, but Mahan is a guy the staff has been high on since he stepped on campus last year.
Even still, Eget's starting spot is far from a foregone conclusion, even if the majority of people believe that he will eventually snag the job.
Having an experienced, veteran option like Eget is a godsend for Diaz and the Blue Devils. After the late transfer of Darian Mensah, Duke was short on options in the portal, with the majority of the top available QBs having already found landing spots. Diaz recently described the addition of Eget as somewhat of a miracle.
"To get a guy of Walker's experience and production, 5,000 passing yards over the last two years, where we were timing-wise in the portal, was really kind of a miracle," Diaz said, via the ACC Network. "And so, he had some eligibility issues he had to overcome, which he did. He's working his way back from an injury, which he is."
Dan Mahan is making Walker Eget earn the Duke starting QB job
Everyone in and around the program has signaled that the Duke offense will look significantly different next season. It will no longer be QB-focused as it was last year, with Mensah leading the charge. The offense will revolve around sophomore RB Nate Sheppard and the ground game, buoyed by a veteran group of offensive linemen up front.
Duke wants to be a run-focused team, something they had begun transitioning to late in the season. Sheppard had four games of 20+ carries last season, all four of which came during the final four games of the season. All were Duke wins, including the ACC Championship over Virginia and the Sun Bowl over Arizona State.
So the winner of the QB competition will be the guy who can prove to the staff that they can take care of the football and effectively manage the game. That's been a bit of a struggle for Mahan in his two seasons of starting previously. He threw 19 interceptions over the last two years.
He'll have more talent around him in Durham than he did with the Spartans, but he'll have to prove he can avoid the back-breaking turnovers that could prove costly to Duke.
While it's likely that Eget separates and wins the job to open the season, Mahan will continue breathing down his neck into the season, and if given an opening due to Eget reverting to his turnover-happy ways, then Mahan might get an opportunity that he doesn't give back.
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