I'm not sure why everyone wants to keep handing Duke star RB Nate Sheppard extra motivation this season, but I'm also not going to discourage it.
Sheppard got plenty in the preseason due to being overlooked on several preseason All-American and All-ACC teams. He was also bafflingly left off the Doak Walker preseason watchlist despite his 1100 yard freshman season. Over 60 running backs made the list, but Sheppard wasn't one of them.
And then, heading into the season-opener against Tulane, Green Wave LB Dickson Agu dropped a quote that fired up Sheppard and the entire Duke offense:
"If we can stop 20, stop him from going for 200 yards, we'll win the game. I think everyone just do their job and we'll win," Agu said.
After his career-best 227 yards in Duke's 17-3 win, Sheppard said he and the entire offense found the comment to be disrespectful.
"I think our O-line, our offense kind of took that personal a little bit," Sheppard said. "It was disrespectful not only to those guys, our wide receivers, our quarterback, our tight end Jerry Hasley, who I think is one of the best in the country,” Sheppard said. “They didn’t mention any of them.
“And then it’s disrespectful to think they can stop me. … So, we kind of took that and ran with it."
Stanford CB Brandon Nicholson just repeated that same mistake ahead of Duke's ACC opener against the Cardinal.
“Nobody's going to run against our defense,” Nicholson said this week, via Duke Wire.
Duke RB Nate Sheppard gifted extra motivation by Stanford Brandon Nicholson
Despite a 45-6 loss to Miami in their last outing, Stanford has confidence in its run defense. The Cardinal were lit up by Hurricanes QB Darian Mensah through the air, but they held Miami to just 121 rushing yards. Star Miami RB Mark Fletcher mustered only 40 yards on 13 attempts.
But Sheppard is a different beast altogether.
Stanford will key on the running game to try to take Sheppard away. Good luck. That's the same strategy that Tulane and Illinois took, too, with little success. Sheppard followed up his career-high performance against the Green Wave with 147 rushing yards and three total touchdowns in last week's four-point road upset over the Illini.
He's the focal point of everyone's defensive game plan. It just rarely matters.
Even if Stanford is able to slow Sheppard, and that's a gigantic if, the Blue Devils should still find success on offense. The Cardinal has struggled against the pass in both games, and Walker Eget has lit them up in two previous meetings during his time at San Jose State.
But chances are, Stanford is going to find the same success in slowing down Sheppard as the others have so far this season:
None.
And in the aftermath of another big game by the Duke superstar back, fans can send their thanks to Nicholson for adding a little bit more fuel to Sheppard's fire before the matchup. He would've been fine without it, but it's always appreciated.
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