Duke football thrives in 2-quarterback system

The old saying goes, "If you have two quarterbacks, you have none." But good luck trying to convince that to anybody in the Blue Devil locker room.

Duke has proven the dual-quarterback system is not just a gimmick, but rather a gameplan that can be exercised to perfection in 2013. The two signal-callers for the Duke—redshirt juniors Brandon Connette and Anthony Boone—have led the Blue Devils to their first 10-win season in program history and notched signature victories against then-No.16 Virginia Tech, then-No. 24 Miami and North Carolina to clinch the ACC Coastal Division.

"You see a lot of two-system quarterbacks, the guy comes in he's strictly a runner and then one guy's strictly a passer so you can kind of scheme up your defense to stop each one individually," Boone said. "But with us, we can kinda can do both of the same thing."

This wasn't the case in 2012. Last season, Connette served a similar role for Duke as Blake Bell did for Oklahoma—he was a short yardage specialist, or as head coach David Cutcliffe called it, the phantom. In third-and-short situations, Connette averaged 2.44 yards per rush and converted 66 percent of his attempts into first downs while only attempting 13 passes the entire season.

This type of play under center seemed to be all there was for the Corona, Calif., native. Connette came to Duke as a freshman thinking the starting quarterback would one day be his to compete for after Thad Lewis and Sean Renfree graduated.

“[Coach Cutcliffe] sold me on the fact that there was going to be open competition throughout,” Connette said. “And then whenever Sean Renfree got hurt during Thad’s senior year, coach came to me and asked me to enroll early. So I enrolled early in January, which was something that Anthony was not doing.”

But after Boone starred in the starting role in last year’s 42-17 rout of Virginia and Connette missed spring practice due to shoulder surgery—an injury that had forced him to miss all but two games in 2011—the coaching staff sat him down to talk about playing him in more of a multipurpose position that would see him line up at wide receiver, fullback, tight end, and running back in addition to some sparse time as quarterback.

“I think that’s the route we were going to go and Thomas Sirk was going to be the backup quarterback,” Connette said. “Anthony Boone was going to be the starter and I was going to be the third reserve guy, playing a lot of receiver, tight end, fullback, running back.”

All that changed in the spring when Sirk suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the spring. This forced the staff to rethink their plan for the position entering the season, as without Sirk, they were down to only one other scholarship quarterback, freshman Parker Boehme, who they were not ready to throw in the game. So instead of risking injury by using Connette as an all-purpose player, they moved him back to his original position under center as the backup quarterback.

“When Thomas got hurt, [we had to] change our thought process of saying, ‘Okay we’ve got to be smart with Brandon, because if Anthony gets hurt, we’re not ready to start [Parker Boehme] and try to win with a true freshman coming in, that’s obviously a great challenge,’” Duke offensive coordinator Kurt Roper said.

Come the second week of the season at Memphis, this foresight paid off, as Boone went down with a broken collarbone and the Blue Devils turned to Connette to take the reigns.

Though Connette had proved he was capable of being more than a threat on the ground—he threw for a combined 455 yards and four touchdowns his first two starts against Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh—he struggled with his accuracy, throwing four interceptions in the 55-58 loss to the Panthers.

.After going 0-2 in his first two games as a starter, Connette turned things around against Troy. The redshirt junior signal caller threw for a career-high 324 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more while also managing to not turn the ball over,

But Connette suffered an ankle injury in practice the following week allowing Boone —after being declared fit to play—to slide back into the starting quarterback slot. In his first game in more than month, Boone exploded with 294 passing yards and three touchdowns.

Since the following week’s victory at Virginia, the two have played together in each game and the Blue Devils have yet to lose with the tandem sharing snaps.

New paragraphThe reason the dual-quarterback system works for Duke is because both players bring unique strengths to the game while being able to also manufacture success as dual-threat quarterbacks. Though Boone has taken 63 percent of the snaps on passing downs and Connette has taken 63 percent of the snaps on quarterback rushes, both have thrown for more than 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns and average more than three yards per rush.

"The biggest thing that makes it work is that we're not two totally opposite quarterbacks," Boone said. "We have very similar characteristics as far as our playing styles, as far as our running ability and the way we read defenses."

Listed as the starting quarterback all season, Boone has been accepting of sharing snaps with Connette. The pair—who were roommates during the 2012 season and still room together when the team travels—have made it clear that there are no ill feelings between the two when it comes to sharing time under center.

“The biggest thing with those guys is their character,” Roper said. “It goes back to who they are and how they were raised and understanding the team is the most important thing. Because it’s not an easy, both those guys are talented and very competitive and they want to be out there. But they understand that all we’re trying to do as coaches is win the football game."

Although the focus is squarely on Florida State and the following bowl game, when asked about the future of the dual-quarterback system at Duke, Connette offered a fair warning to opposing coaches for next season.