Kansas State defensive back Duke Shelley looks to build off strong freshman season

The defining moment of Kansas State’s secondary didn’t occur on the football field last season.

It happened in a meeting room midway through the year when K-State coach Bill Snyder asked defensive coordinator Tom Hayes about the status of the team’s defensive backs.

“Who is healthy and ready to play this week?” Snyder asked.

“I don’t know,” Hayes replied.

K-State’s secondary was in tatters. The plan was for Morgan Burns and Danzel McDaniel to start at corner, with Kaleb Prewett and Dante Barnett supporting them at safety, but the Wildcats only used that lineup three times. All four starters suffered injuries, including a season-ender to Barnett in the opener. Coaches had little choice but to go with backups, using seven different lineups by season’s end.

The revolving-door strategy was frustrating for everyone involved, but it wasn’t all bad. If not for all those injuries, the Wildcats might not have discovered what they had in Duke Shelley.

“We expect big things out of him,” Hayes said. “He is just a puppy dog getting started, but he has already proven he can play. He was a pure freshman last season, thrown into the fire pretty early, and he didn’t blink.”

Shelley, a sophomore corner with eight starts, seven pass breakups and 28 tackles to his name, certainly looks like a rising star.

Some panicked when coaches pulled the redshirt off Shelley five games into his freshman season and started him against pass-happy TCU, but no one complained when he covered top receivers for the next seven games.

Shelley emerged as the best pass-defender on the team, swatting two passes from Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield and deflecting four against West Virginia.

K-State struggled against the pass last season, allowing an average of 285.5 yards with Shelley making his share of mistakes. But no one had more highlights.

Former K-State receiver Kevin Lockett was so impressed by Shelley that he praised him on Twitter.

“By the end of his career,” Lockett wrote, “Duke Shelley has (a) chance to be the best cover corner to come through KSU since Terrance Newman and Chris Canty.”

High expectations now surround Shelley. Can he live up to them?

It won’t be easy. Much of the success he experienced last season came by tricking quarterbacks into ill-advised throws. As an unknown freshman from Tucker, Ga., Shelley knew opposing teams would try to exploit him. So he often backed away from his receiver, hoping to entice throws he could zoom in and defend.

The strategy often worked, and he made plays on passes despite appearing out of position.

“I like to bait the quarterback,” Shelley said. “You can’t do it all the time, but I know the quarterback is looking to his best receiver on third down. So I might make it look like I’m not covering him, or I’m in cover two and looking somewhere else, and end up making a play on the ball. You just have to know the situation and the quarterback. Some take the bait and some don’t.”

Opposing quarterbacks won’t be so eager to challenge Shelley this time around now that they have seen him on video.

His freshman campaign will be a tough act to follow.

“He plays with more confidence right now and he is a very competitive young guy, but he still has a ways to go,” Snyder said. “He is still a freshman, so to speak, but he has a strong desire to improve his capabilities and compete. I have seen him compete every day, but, like I said, he is still going.”

Shelley is confident he can take a step forward this season.

He was good as a freshman, but he knows he can be better as a sophomore.

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Kansas State defensive back Duke Shelley looks to build off strong freshman season."