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Barkate needs more targets

Yeah, where is Cooper? The second leading receiver in the ACC last season, I don’t know if he needs more targets or is he getting open? All I know is Where’s Cooper?
 
LuCane said:
No, he didn’t get all 1100 yards on a broken play, but he’s not the ‘beat his man 1 on 1’ guy people think, either. I brought up the play because people used it as evidence of big play ability without the context of what happened. Barkate can win, but he’s not winning consistently enough the way some may want: physically dominating the man across from him through speed or strength or quickness off the line. Essentially, more like a Split End. At least it’s not been shown in his game. He is precise in his route, often requires timing and double moves, and Duke’s OC last year did a solid job of finding him leverage. Should we do the same? We have already when we had him inside in trips against Stanford and he smoked a matchup. Should we do that more? Of course! I came here mainly to respond to people who had insinuated - on and off the board - that ‘we had a 1000 yard receiver, and he didn’t show up.’

Re: Clemson play, see below:

It’s the third play here:

During the 2025 college football season, Duke wide receiver Cooper Barkate scored a 77-yard touchdownagainst the Clemson Tigers on November 1, 2025. The long touchdown pass was thrown by quarterback Darian Mensah in the first quarter, capitalizing on a major defensive miscommunication and coverage bust by Clemson that left Barkate completely uncovered in the secondary.

I didn’t say constantly. I read other people wanting him to be something he is not.
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So we bought in 3 wr and all of them cant play here? Barkate was locked in as starter and they pushed every other WR to battle it out at other spot. Moore, Upshaw, and jacobs gets a scrap rep here or there.. None of these guys can get open? Against Wake forest? We cant get none of these guys layups down field, Dagger concept or something? Just screens or we cooked?
 
skyman said:
So we bought in 3 wr and all of them cant play here? Barkate was locked in as starter and they pushed every other WR to battle it out at other spot. Moore, Upshaw, and jacobs gets a scrap rep here or there.. None of these guys can get open? Against Wake forest? We cant get none of these guys layups down field, Dagger concept or something? Just screens or we cooked?
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Not what I’m saying, my bro. He can play here. He’s just not the guy you line up tied to the line and ask him to smoke his matchup outside each time. I don’t see any evidence of him being that bailout guy.

But, yes, he would be well-served in many different concepts. I couldn’t tell you why we didn’t try more last night. We went into a shell. In the second half, we didn’t even test WF out as much as Purdue did.
 
Odysseus said:
He got 1100 yards last year as the #1 guy at Duke. Yall acting like he forgot how to play football
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Really need watch how he did it. And, watch what we’d have needed from him last night outside. Matchups and skill sets matter. When I watched him closely outside, he did not separate. Move him around more and run him on better intermediate concepts.
 
LuCane said:
Not what I’m saying, my bro. He can play here. He’s just not the guy you line up tied to the line and ask him to smoke his matchup outside each time. I don’t see any evidence of him being that bailout guy.

But, yes, he would be well-served in many difference concepts. I couldn’t tell you why we didn’t try more last night. We went into a shell. In the second half, we didn’t even test WF out as much as Purdue did.
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Im just confused, that second half was as bad of offensive football as I have seen. I was saying in game thread, we needed to Barkate involved in second half. I know Mali is cheat code but becoming too Mali dependent on offense is not good overall, we cant call some layups for the guy. We actually moved him off his spot to throw mali the ball at his position, I laughed like thats kinda disrespectful but then Mali gets nicked up, Marty goes down, Fletcher goes down, Mensah seems to maybe tweak something? and we shut down offense. Sigh.

Which WR can line up and ask him to smoke matchup?
 
skyman said:
Im just confused, that second half was as bad of offensive football as I have seen. I was saying in game thread, we needed to Barkate involved in second half. I know Mali is cheat code but becoming too Mali dependent on offense is not good overall, we cant call some layups for the guy. We actually moved him off his spot to throw mali the ball at his position, I laughed like thats kinda disrespectful but then Mali gets nicked up, Marty goes down, Fletcher goes down, Mensah seems to maybe tweak something? and we shut down offense. Sigh.

Which WR can line up and ask him to smoke matchup?
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Probably Moore, Jacobs, or maybe Wingo (by projection), but then you have to actually be willing to take the shot while up 31-7 and 31-13. You know where I stand on continuing to take shots as a way to protect your team from unnecessary physical and mental dogfights.

I’m rewatching the game right now and I see a mesh concept in the second half. Protection failed. So, I guess we said f it to that, too.

I want to be clear I don’t think there is any excuse to go into a shell. Put the second team in there and run your offense in full attack. I don’t care.
 
LuCane said:
Probably Moore, Jacobs, or maybe Wingo (by projection), but then you have to actually be willing to take the shot while up 31-7 and 31-13. You know where I stand on continuing to take shots as a way to protect your team from unnecessary physical and mental dogfights.

I’m rewatching the game right now and I see a mesh concept in the second half. Protection failed. So, I guess we said f it to that, too.

I want to be clear I don’t think there is any excuse to go into a shell. Put the second team in there and run your offense in full attack. I don’t care.
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I have to watch back also because that was some bizarre ball played. But oline is a mess and SJ is one of best we got. just off watching live it felt like they couldnt trust oline to grind yards or hold up both pass pro RB hurt, QB nicked, Mali Nicked, they didnt trust to let Mensah air it out..
 
LuCane said:
He’s not that guy and I think you all were expecting something that doesn’t exist in his game. He needs to be a complementary WR running routes in designed matchups and combination patterns out of bunch, trips, etc. Watch all of his plays from last season at Duke. Many of them were from offensive design and leverage. A couple times tonight he was alone one one side of the formation and didn’t get clean releases.

So, before you all freak out, I agree he is solid, but he’s not a ‘consistently beat an outside CB’ type of WR. We need that to come from Moore or Jacobs or give Wingo a chance.

If Mali is limited, your offense cannot go into a shell. But, there’s a lot more to talk about our personnel grouping choices anyway.
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When you see the all 22 I think you’ll notice that he had a lot more separation than you think. I don’t really understand what’s going on with this.
 
Hurricane23 said:
Yeah, where is Cooper? The second leading receiver in the ACC last season, I don’t know if he needs more targets or is he getting open? All I know is Where’s Cooper?
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We don’t target anyone but Mali unless it’s screens. Mali nice, but he’s overused and during a long season that can become an issue. We don’t make defenses have to cover the entire field by throwing to the WR on the wide side. That’s why Horton transferred and why Colby Young transferred prior to that. Brown didn’t return. They were just at the top/wide side being played 10 yards off and not getting the ball. Cooper is just another victim of Dawson’s slot centric scheme
 
Mnhurricane said:
A good OC who could scheme guys open would help. Only Mali has an ability to consistently get open in the offense. Moore when he’s in maybe.

Not to mention Dawsons offense is entirely built around throwing to the slot
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Dawson doesn't scheme guys open through sequencing, misdirection that often but pay attention to how often folks note how wide open [XXXX] was on whatever negative play or misread on a passing play. His real issue is his running game sucks, but in his defense he took a job with a HC passionate about the run game to ostensibly complement himself.

If Dawson ever takes a HC job he better go full Hal Mumme and just never call running plays.
 
Ispyin said:
When you see the all 22 I think you’ll notice that he had a lot more separation than you think. I don’t really understand what’s going on with this.
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I’d love to watch. Can you share clips or screenshots? I’m thinking specifically in the 2nd half at the sideline (our sideline). I saw him isolated 2-3 times and watched. He had an outside release and didn’t separate till too late, but again, I was in the stands watching. By the time he got any separation, our protection was shot, which was a theme. When we ran mesh and had guys running across the field, protection also broke down.

I think Barkate is a killer in the intermediate game. That’s what I saw him crush last year against ACC competition, and it’s how I’d love to see him used with us when needed most.
 
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