- BEST IN STATE -

Duke football’s DeWayne Carter tabbed ‘Best In State’ top defensive lineman

Senior will serve as a Blue Devils’ captain for third year in a row

Published

August 16, 2023

Duke football defensive lineman DeWayne Carter

Duke's DeWayne Carter will be a team captain for the Blue Devils for the third season in a row. (Graphics/photo courtesy Duke University athletics).

NC Football News has picked Duke football’s DeWayne Carter as its “Best In State” Preseason Most Valuable Defensive Lineman for the FBS.

Carter, a 6-3, 305-pound redshirt senior from Pickerington, Ohio, will be a team captain for the third year in a row for the Blue Devils – the only player in school history to achieve that honor three times.

He earned preseason All-ACC status earlier this summer and collected preseason All-American honors at defensive tackle from Athlon Sports (fourth team) and Phil Steele’s College Football Preview (fourth team).

Carter has played nearly 2,000 snaps in his Duke career. He has 26 starts and has appeared in 39 games, compiling 86 career tackles, 21.5 tackles-for-loss and 11 sacks. He has a knack for creating turnovers, forcing seven fumbles and recovering three loose balls.

The College Football Network named Carter to its third-team All-American list in 2022. In 2020, Carter earned the Ace Parker Award, an honor given to an individual “who displays unparalleled commitment to the team and overcomes adversity to contribute,” according to the Duke University athletics web site.

Carter’s name appears on the preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski, Chuck Bednarik and Lombardi awards, each a national honor.

Carter comes from a strong football family. According to his bio page at GoDuke.com, Carter’s father lettered at Ohio State three times in the 1990s (being part of a Big Ten championship team), his grandfather lettered eight times in football and track at Youngstown State in the 1950s and his uncle lettered three times as a tailback at Notre Dame in the 1980s.

Carter and the Blue Devils will get a stern test in the first week of the season. Duke welcomes Clemson to Wallace Wade Stadium for a Monday, Sept. 4 nationally televised Labor Day showdown.

DeWayne Carter Quotable:

“We have had the wins and different team trips, but at the end of the day it is just building something new that has been the coolest experience. We are starting something new and are part of history. It is the end of the divisions in the ACC and the Bleed Blue era here at Duke has begun. There are just a bunch of firsts and a lot of lasts, so it has been really cool to be a part of.” – DeWayne Carter in an interview with GoDuke.com last November.