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Duke football's Chandler Rivers ready to lead young Blue Devil cornerback room
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- Duke football's Chandler Rivers ready to lead young Blue Devil cornerback room
Duke football 's Chandler Rivers is used to playing a big role in the Blue Devils ' secondary. This season, he is ready to do even more.
The senior cornerback, a returning All American and First Team ACC selection, has logged 2,557 career snaps and started all 26 games over the past two seasons. He is coming off a junior season that saw him be named as Duke 's 2024 defensive most valuable player, tallying 54 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and three interceptions while surrendering 13 completions.
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Now, as Rivers enters his fourth season in Durham, he's taking on a new challenge: leading a young and largely inexperienced Duke cornerback room. The 5-foot-10 Beaumont, Texas native enters 2025 as the lone returner in the group with meaningful starting experience after Joshua Pickett, who started opposite him last season, exhausted his eligibility, going on to join the NFL's Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent.
"We have a young cornerback room, obviously," Rivers said last week at the 2025 ACC Media Kickoff. "But I feel like me setting the standard of what the corner room needs to be for the coming years, even after I'm gone, me setting the standard is going to help guys elevate their game. Because we're going to need a bunch of those guys to step up, that's just a spade a spade."
Rivers enters the 2025 season tabbed as Pro Football Focus' No. 5 returning cornerback and ESPN's No. 7 defensive back. In the cornerback room with him is redshirt sophomores Kimari Robinson and Moussa Kane, sophomore Vontae Floyd, redshirt freshmen Landon Callahan and Kyren Condoll and freshmen Kolbe Harmon and Kaleb Lanier.
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Of the group, only Robinson has started in a contest, getting the nod in Duke's 2024 contest vs. Miami, finishing with two tackles. Floyd, Callahan, Kane, and Condoll all saw game action last season, but none have yet cracked the starting lineup.
Duke coach Manny Diaz has been clear about the vital role Rivers plays, along with his expectations of him this season.
"He's been extremely valuable because he affects winning in so many ways," Diaz said at last week's media days. "... I also want him to inspire the younger guys in his room to take the same type of leap he did coming from his first to second to third year for us to really be a complete defense."
Duke officially opens its 2025 season on Aug. 28, hosting Elon at Wallace Wade Stadium. As Rivers prepares for his final collegiate season, his mindset is simple.
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"Just being better than I was last year," Rivers said. "Take it a day at a time, just be better than I was yesterday. That's really my goal, keep my head down, prepare to the best of my ability because, ultimately, we're a team that believes our preparation, that breeds our confidence. That's my mindset."
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke football: Chandler Rivers ready to lead young cornerback room
