Duquesne ready to build off solid football season, starting Saturday at Florida State

A peculiar bit of music will continue to permeate the air on campus at Duquesne leading into this weekend.

On the orders of football coach Jerry Schmitt, the Florida State War Chant song has been blasted through the speakers at Rooney Field this month as the Dukes conduct practices.

With Duquesne opening the 2022 season at 5 p.m. Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla., Schmitt wants to do everything possible to prepare his players for the environment at Doak S. Campbell Stadium, which holds nearly 80,000 people.

“Fortunately, we played at TCU last year and some of our transfers have played in those environments, so we’ll rely on those guys to help the younger guys,” Schmitt said. “We’ll just channel our excitement to playing our best football game we can.”

Schmitt, entering his 18th season at Duquesne, hopes the combination of returning veterans, young faces and transfer portal reinforcements will help the team build off last year’s campaign, when the Dukes tied for second in the Northeast Conference.

Quarterback Joe Mischler’s 2021 season was over nearly as quickly as it began last fall, as the then-sophomore suffered a knee injury in Week 1 at Texas Christian.

As a result, Darius Perrantes was thrust into action as a true freshman, completing 59.6% of his passes for 1,620 yards and 17 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

With Mischler healthy, he is in the driver’s seat to reclaim the starting gig.

“They’re both working really hard, and they both have different kinds of talents,” Schmitt said. “Joe’s been taking the majority of the first reps at this point in time because he was the starter last year. Darius is getting as many reps, so we just feel good that we have two guys that can play good quarterback for us.”

The Dukes suffered a considerable amount of turnover at wide receiver, with the team’s leaders in yards from last year (Cyrus Holder, Davie Henderson, Wykeen Gill and Dominic Thieman) having graduated, or, in Holder’s case, signing with the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent (he was released in May).

However, Schmitt has bolstered position coach Luke Smith’s room with several transfers: Dwayne Menders from Marist, where he recorded a team-best 45 catches and 525 yards in 2021; Jalin Cooper via Toledo; and Rahmiere Knight from Youngstown State.

In addition, shifty sophomore Joey Isabella could be primed for a breakout season. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound speedster saw action as a punt and kick returner last fall, and with 12 catches for 75 yards, he is Duquesne’s leading receiver back.

“Being young and new, we think we have really good depth, but everybody’s learning the system and learning the quarterbacks,” Schmitt said. “It’s a continued work in progress, but we feel good and think we have some talented guys that are learning here.”

Duquesne’s running backs are led by sophomore Billy Lucas, who shined as a freshman last year, racking up 699 yards and averaging 5.1 yards per carry.

Samford transfer DeMarcus Ware, a senior, also figures to play a key role.

Junior DeMarcus Townsend is expected to miss a few weeks of the season with an injury, while underclassmen Damon Macklin (University Prep), Jamario Clements and Malik Thomas also will have a chance to contribute.

Up front, Schmitt said seven or eight guys are taking reps with the first- and second-team units.

Duquesne notably lost standout left tackle Jake Dixon, who in May was scooped up by the Steelers as an undrafted free agent before being cut Aug. 16.

Thus, Dixon’s old position and that of left guard remain question marks. Duquesne does return starters at center and right guard: sophomore Michael Dorundo and graduate student Matt Fest.

Defensively, Duquesne enters a new era, with Mike Craig replacing Dave Opfar, who retired after 12 seasons as the coordinator.

Craig, who served on Schmitt’s staff from 2010-13, rejoined the program after six seasons as defensive coordinator at Cal (Pa).

He brings with him former NFL lineman Reggie Wells, who will oversee the defensive line.

Mike Fuhrman (outside linebackers) rounds out the first-year defensive staff under Schmitt.

Craig and co-defensive coordinator Scott Farison are switching the Dukes from a 4-2-5 to a 3-4 base defense.

The team has a number of proven veterans on the line.

Starting defensive ends Kevin Kurzinger (team-high eight TFLs in 2021) and A.J. Ackerman (Elizabeth Forward), both sophomores, are back, as is 6-2, 315-pound senior nose tackle Maxi Hradecny.

The aforementioned three, who each started all 10 games for the Dukes in 2021, will look to anchor a larger group of rotating players.

Iowa Central Community College transfer defensive end Nathan Proctor is another notable addition.

“The last couple years, we were thin there,” Schmitt said. “But we worked real hard in recruiting, and it’s starting to pay off. We do feel we’re deep on the defensive line. Hopefully we’ll stay healthy and it stays that way. But we can play a lot of guys and get them to play at a top level for 60 minutes.”

At linebacker, the Dukes return Todd Hill (Steel Valley), whose 38 tackles ranked fourth on the team last year, in addition to Shane Stump (Thomas Jefferson), who played in all 10 games as a freshman.

Gone is Jahan Worth, who transferred to East Stroudsburg after tying for the team lead in tackles last year.

Key returners in the secondary are Jeremiah Josephs (Gateway), Ryan Webb, Tim Lowery (who led the team with six pass breakups last season) and grad student Jon Muehlbauer (Thomas Jefferson).

“There’s a couple veterans there but we’ve got a bunch of young, talented guys that are working really hard in this new system,” Schmitt said.

Schedule

Date, Opponent, Time

8.27 at Florida State, 5

9.3 at Youngstown State, 2

9.10 Thomas More, noon

9.17 at Hawaii, midnight

10.1 at Stonehill*, noon

10.8 Merrimack*, 1

10.22 at Central Connecticut State*, noon

10.29 LIU*, noon

11.5 Sacred Heart*, noon

11.12 at St. Francis (Pa.)*, noon

11.19 Wagner*, noon

*NEC game