You’d never guess from the way wide recievers Conner Vernon and Donovan Varner work together on offense that the two used to be fierce rivals in high school. But rather than competing on gameday, the pair faced off on the practice fields of Gulliver Prep in Miami.
Whenever Vernon lined up at receiver, it was Varner blanketing him in coverage. Whenever Vernon kicked off in practice, it was Varner waiting to return the ball. During their high school football careers in Miami, the sight of Varner and Vernon competing during practice was commonplace, even though the pair now lines up on the same side of the ball for the Blue Devils.
And now, that competitive instinct might be one of the driving forces that has revitalized Duke’s offense, and consequently the outlook of the entire football team. “I got to stick Conner a lot in high school, so that was a lot of fun,” Varner said. “But we would battle and compete every day in practice and talk a lot of trash to each other. But off the field, we were cool, and in games we would make big plays, so it was a pretty fun experience.
“He makes fun of me sometimes about how I couldn’t catch in high school, but I used to tell him I shut him down at cornerback.”
While Vernon did not admit to being “stuck” by Varner, he agreed with his teammate that the competition at Gulliver Prep was fierce.
“It got heated at times,” Vernon said. “We would both get ours—I’d get him, he’d get me—so it was never one-sided.”
The energy the pair exerted during practice became evident in the numbers the two put up. As a junior at Gulliver, Varner not only recorded six interceptions, but also amassed more than 1,300 total yards of offense and was named to the All-County team. Vernon, meanwhile, made the jump to the varsity squad late his freshman year and never looked back. In his senior season, with Varner already at Duke, Vernon caught 60 passes for 1,163 yards and 11 touchdowns, leading Gulliver Prep to a 12-2 record and a berth in the state championship game.
For Gulliver head coach Earl Sims, who took over the Raiders in 2005, what distinguished the two athletes was their competitiveness and intense work ethic. “What made them special... is all the extra work they put in to get better in the offseason,” Simms said. “Conner got so much faster, Donovan put on more weight and got faster and those guys used to go and run routes.”
Still, both went under the radar during the recruiting process. While Vernon was rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, only three other BCS schools—Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest—offered the receiver a scholarship.
Varner, meanwhile, was listed as a two-star defensive back. Part of what hindered his recruitment was his relatively short stature for a receiver, as Varner is listed at only 5-foot-9. The common thread for both players, though, was the lack of significant interest from any of the Florida football powerhouses, even the hometown Miami Hurricanes.
“A lot of schools in Florida passed up on us, especially me because of my size,” Varner said. “I knew I had a lot of ability and I had a lot of speed and agility, and I didn’t understand why they would pass up on me.”
That opened up an opportunity for Duke to make a play for both overlooked players, an effort that Sims said certainly did not go unnoticed. “Duke was the first school that actually showed a lot of interest in Donovan,” Sims said. “Even though the other schools came onto him late, he honored that, and Coach [Scottie] Montgomery did a great job recruiting both of those guys.”
“As far as Conner, he [and his family]... were looking at Wisconsin, and once Duke called for him, I think they sat down and understood how that would probably be a great fit for him not just athletically but academically.”
And once Varner committed to Duke and got acclimated to college life last year, he knew that playing for the Blue Devils would also be an excellent situation for his former teammate and practice rival.
“I had a big part in the recruitment of [Conner] and I told him we can come out here and it would be just like high school,” Varner said. “We could be successful and make big plays and have a lot of fun together.”
Needless to say, the instant impact of the pair has been a major factor in a high-octane Duke passing attack this season.
While Varner only recorded 164 receiving yards last season, the sophomore leads the team in that category with 674 already this year. Vernon, meanwhile, needed little time to get used to the college game. After catching four balls in his debut in the Blue Devils’ season-opening loss to Richmond, the freshman broke out with four catches for 128 yards in a loss to Virginai Tech four weeks later, followed by back-to-back 100-yard performances against Maryland and Virginia in the following weeks.
“I haven’t had a true freshman receiver like what Conner’s done,” Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said. “I’d have a hard time not voting for him on an All-ACC team.” The two have combined for 1,257 yards and eight touchdowns so far this season, a jarring number that their high school coach didn’t expect.
“I gotta be honest, it’s very surprising,” Sims said. “Knowing who they are... there was no doubt about it they were going to be successful. But nobody knew it would be this soon.” The two might have finally hit their first major speedbump in last weekend’s loss to North Carolina, though. In a game in which the entire Duke offense struggled, the normally prolific combination combined for only five receptions for 35 yards.
But as these “Killer V’s,” as some fans have taken to describing them, continue to grow in Duke’s offensive system, at least Sims thinks the pair could make the Florida schools who overlooked them envious.
“I already know they’re going to push each other. They’ve got something inside of them that’s different from a lot of other players,” Sims said. “So they know what time it is... there’s no limit to how good they can become if they continue to push themselves.”
And the competitive fire that was present between Varner and Vernon at Gulliver Prep should continue to drive them now, even if the competition is no longer as direct.
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