Duke loses defense coordinator Robb Smith and already has his replacement in the lineup, according to the Raleigh News & Observer Saturday. The newspaper reports that Texas A&M co-defensive coordinator/linebacker coach Elko Tyler Santucci is trailing for the court.
According to the newspaper, Smith is leaving the staff to be closer to his family in Minnesota. Smith was Minnesota’s defense coordinator from 2017-2018.
Elko and Santucci go back almost a decade. Santucci was Elko’s research assistant at Wake Forest from 2014-2015. The former landed the security job at Texas State in 2016 and returned to Elko in 2017 as a defensive analyst at Notre Dame. Santucci joined Elko at Texas A&M in 2018 in the same role.
Santucci took over the linebacker job at Wake Forest in 2019 and joined Elko a third time in 2020 to return to College Station as linebacker coach. When Elko took over as Duke head coach in 2022, Jimbo Fisher promoted Santucci to co-defensive coordinator.
So Santucci has a lot of experience with the e-cap system and a lot of coaching experience in North Carolina and along the east coast. (Santucci is from New Kensington, Pennsylvania and starred in Stony Brook.)
On the surface, Santucci’s fourth entry into Elko’s company makes perfect sense for both parties.
In his freshman year at Duke, Elko improved the Blue Devils from 3-9 to 9-4. Duke has shed a yard and a half from his yards per game from 2021-22 (7.11 to 5.52) and lowered his pointing average by 17 points per game, moving up from 127th (39.8 points per game allowed) to fourth place 31 (22.1) improved.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.