Duke linebacker Brown out for season following scrimmage

Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network
Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network
Peter Koutroumpis, Triangle Sports Network

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke Blue Devils will begin the 2014 football season without senior linebacker Kelby Brown due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee as announced by the team on Tuesday.

Brown suffered the injury during the team’s 80-snap practice session held at the Brooks Practice Facility on Monday.

The preseason training regimen for last season’s Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Coastal Division championship squad was put to the test in the scrimmage and the final result was mixed.

Redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Boone completed 11-of-16 passes for 175 yards and threw for two touchdowns.

Boone connected on scoring passes to Isaac Blakeney and Jamison Crowder for 35 and 70 yards respectively, while wideout Max McCaffrey led the receiving unit with three catches for 32 yards.

Duke’s rushing game was headlined by junior running back Shaquille Powell, who gained 65 yards on 10 attempts, while redshirt freshman Joseph Ajeigbe rushed five times for 40 yards, and rookie Shaun Wilson added two carries for 14 yards.

In Brown’s absence during the scrimmage, senior linebacker C.J. France led the defense which claimed two sacks along with Jordan DeWalt-Ondijo, a redshirt senior defensive end, who finished with 1.5 sacks and a pair of QB pressures.

“I’m not sure the crispness or the effort was what we’re used to seeing,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said following the scrimmage.

“We normally don’t see a scrimmage from up top, so I’m getting to see it as I would see it on tape, but I would like to see it a lot crisper than what I saw.  There were some people individually that I saw, like Jordan DeWalt-Ondijo, who continues to show up. He did some really good things. There were some other people in the secondary who made some plays. I didn’t see anyone on offense really stand out, other than probably the three running backs. I thought they did some solid things in the scrimmage.”

Without Brown, who finished the 2013 season with 114 tackles, two interceptions, and 11 tackles for loss, the Blue Devils will have to fill the void quickly.

Brown, who has previously overcome two surgeries on his right knee in 2010 and 2012, is scheduled to undergo surgery on Wednesday.

He graduated from Duke in June, 2014 with a degree in evolutionary anthropology while posting a cumulative grade point average of 3.729, and was named to the Academic All-ACC team in both 2011 and 2013.

“Obviously our hearts go out to Kelby and his family,” Cutcliffe said on Tuesday.

“As I said last night, here is a young man who is an All-ACC and All-America-type player on the field, and even a better person off the field.  He has been and will continue to be an integral part of our program.  He’s as fine a representative of our program as we have, and nothing will change that.  He’s seen this type of adversity before, and I’m confident he’ll overcome this challenge.”