Duke vs UNC football field this Saturday!

With 16 seconds left, the victory bell is staying in Chapel Hill for the fourth consecutive season. This is the Adam Gold Show. It's the Adam Gold Show? That was unusually cruel. An unusually cruel return.

What's responsible? Is that a rusty thing? That is all rusty. Oh my gosh. Don't... Dwayne Carter, Duke defensive lineman, one of the best defensive linemen in America, is joining us now on the Adam Gold Show. Do not take this out on me.

I did not know that was going to happen. But what are your thoughts on Carolina Week, sir? How you doing, first of all? Yeah, you know, I'm good, man.

A heck of an entrance, man. But, you know, I'm doing well, man. I've been deciding the weekend. You know, we can't wait to get after it Saturday.

I bet. And yeah, it's been a while, but I think since 2018, since the Blue Devils have beaten North Carolina. But that was at the end of a run where Duke was routinely beating UNC.

This is one of those rivalries that is probably a lot more regional than it is national. But this matters and you guys have a lot of unfinished business to do. Take care of the rest of the way.

I'm going to ask you about some stuff that's already happened this year. But what's your focus on the last three games, starting with this one? Yeah, you know, our whole motto here in this program is, you know, game by game, one day at a time.

And that is throughout. What is the game? What is practice?

What is the myth? Like, you attack what's in front of you. So that's kind of our mindset, you know, taking day by day, getting, becoming the best player we can be that day.

And then, you know, hope that I'll do this Saturday and hopefully lead to a victory. Three time captain, nobody has ever been captain three years for Duke football. Dwayne Carter is, and he joins us on the Adam Gold show.

I've heard this phrase used a lot before this year. They're very good. They're very good for Duke. And then when people watched Clemson, the game that you guys played and beat the Clemson Tigers, I think they left off the for Duke. How important was it for you guys to show that you guys were for real? Yeah, so our thing about us, like we focus about us, you know, expectations are external and standards are internal. And we pride ourselves from our standards and how we play day in and day out. So, of course, you know, of course we see the headlines where, you know, they're good for Duke or, you know, like, oh, maybe Duke is a Cinderella or, you know, whatever else they want to say.

But at the end of the day, we ignore the headlines. And that game was obviously about proving ourselves right more than anything like it is each week. We're not worried about proving nothing wrong. We're just worried about putting ourselves right because we know the work that we put in and how much we put into this game and, you know, how much the program has turned around and what we are or where we are at now, excuse me, and still how much farther we have to go as well.

Dwayne Carter is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. How much fun has this year been for you guys though? Honestly, it's been a blast. You know, it's pretty cool.

I think season three right now. I've played a lot of prime time games. I think the coolest part for me is, you know, other people across the country, people back home getting to see us play live and run a big stage day in and day out. And also, you know, we're playing a good friend of football right now. We hit a cup with two games, five, three counts or whatever it was, but that was tough. But then, you know, I think we found a way again last Thursday, I guess, like for us, you know, the good team and, you know, it's always good when you beat somebody into the same stage as you.

So, you know, we just can't wait to get after it Saturday. We had college game day here for the Notre Dame game. That was just a dynamite setting and a great football game. Night games against Clemson where you're the only game in town. I mean, Duke has had tons of national showcase games.

This one on the ACC network. You're getting used to playing at night now. Yeah, 100 percent. You know, it's funny because if I had my career, there wouldn't be a night game. So, it's definitely a 180 for us.

But, you know, it's pretty cool. Doesn't matter what time it is, we're just ready to play football whenever it is. Dwayne Carter is joining us here for three years, a captain at Duke. I'm curious about this because coaches and fans and whoever, they complain about things like the transfer portal. And Duke didn't really lose anybody through the transfer portal when you guys, everybody knew you guys were going to be good. So, what was that, what was this off-season like? Were you nervous that some guys were going to leave? Did people come after you to see if you would be tempted to leave? If as much as you can, take me back to the summer when there are a lot of questions to answer.

Yeah, 100 percent. So, you know, thinking back a couple of months ago, one about the transfer portal specifically, I think our retention rate and, you know, guys want to come here. I think that speaks to the type of character and type of program that we have here at Duke and the type of people that we have in the building and around us. You know, Duke's a place like not many people understand until you work here or you have some type of parties because most people come here and don't want to leave because of, you know, workplace and the relationships that you build.

So, the environment itself is very positive in a sense. And just, you know, the respect for us as players in our game and specifically now football and the level that we play at, it's a whole different level. And then you talk about, you know, in college football and this day and age where, you know, guys getting essentially recruited to come through NIL or whatever it may be.

It's just different here. You know, obviously we had a couple of transfers come in and their grad transfers. They came in and they've been a great distance to our team, but for the most part, our team is still the same court than it was last year. And even looking back to 2022, that original season with Coach Elko and that team, we had a couple of transfers as well, but for the most part, like the bulk of our team, our guys that had been here. So, I think it just speaks to the type of guys that we always had, but we just always missed some. We couldn't put something together and, you know, luckily we started to turn around last year and continued into this year as well. Dwayne Carter is joining us here. I think it's maybe the untold story of, you know, this season. And again, it was, you know, a lot, most people thought you guys would be better as a team this year than last year, but we all looked at the schedule and went, oh my gosh, how are they going to handle this?

You guys have handled it very well, this just in. But if, I mean, I think a lot of people are surprised that some of you, maybe even you specifically, didn't see an opportunity to go play for a national championship somewhere. There's a lot of schools out there that need a Dwayne Carter or a Jamie and Franklin or a Jordan Waters. By the way, those guys have both been on the program before.

We found out that the Jordan likes to eat a lot of McDonald's. So, I mean, the temptation, I mean, there's, Duke must be so attractive to avoid that temptation, right? Yeah, I mean, 100%. Honestly, I, when I committed to Duke, I committed to Duke, right? I didn't commit to a coaching staff.

I didn't commit to a specific coach. I had committed to the school and I think my feelings and emotions when I made that commitment, it fell through to this day. And I'm forever grateful that I came to this place because I think it's right where I'm supposed to be. And you look back last year and you talk about, you know, potentially leaving and going somewhere else or for whatever reason. And it was just unfinished business left for me. And honestly, for me personally, I feel like if I were to leave as well, I wouldn't be loyal to my brothers, just true brotherhood. Plus, I didn't really see a reason for me to leave as well because I know we play in the lead level football here. I'm going to continue to work through that day in and day out. And our goal this year was to, you know, win the ACC championship and then continue on and see where that takes us.

So, you know, we just take it game by game. But honestly, I didn't feel like there was any reason for me to leave. You mad at Riley Leonard for getting hurt? You should be mad.

Look, Riley is a competitor. I can't be mad at that kid. He gives it all. He gives it all every single day.

So I can't be mad. We tease him a little bit. What is the relationship between offense and defense?

I mean, look, when Riley was there, and it's understandable that things have not gone as smoothly without Riley, he's that good. But what is the relationship between two different sides of the ball? Yeah, so like I said, we're all friends first. So we get on the field, the practice field, game field, scrimmage, whatever it may be. It's all competitive nature. Like we talked a lot of trash. Like, you know, obviously it starts in the locker room, especially, you know, we got a big competitive day from a scrimmage standpoint, or, you know, my game, whatever it may be, like, we know the big days, there'll be a lot of trash talking in, and it just ups our level of play. And it doesn't distract us from the game.

Like, you know, a lot of times you get caught up in your emotions trying to prove something to somebody else. Like, it's just trash talking and just ups our competitive level. So I think it's also a part of the reason why we practice so hard and why we're able to maintain that practice though, because, you know, we're all friends the other day, but we all want to be great football players. We want to be a great football team.

So we don't accept mediocrity from anybody on the team. Before I let you go, Duane Carter, Duke defensive lineman, one of the best in the country, and I can't wait to watch him play Saturday night and then next week and the week after and whatever bowl game is coming up. And then on Sundays, starting next year in basketball, when we get, when we talk about this rivalry, the Duke Carolina game, there's like legendary stories about guys just kind of being friends, even though you might play for the other school and they see each other at the barbershop and things like that. Is there any camaraderie at all for football?

I've never talked about it in a football sense, but I am curious. Are you friends with any of the guys in the other color blue? Yeah.

A hundred percent. I know specifically me and come on Morales on a safe attorney. So we actually joined the same year. So we became close to that as well as come on record.

The defense event we actually met at a, it was a NIL, some actually in Atlanta over summer. And we stayed in touch from here and there. And there's a couple other guys on the team, but for most part, you know, outside of ball, like it's not like I hate you. Like I despise you.

If I see you out, like I'm not just going to punch you in the face. Like it's always, I can find nature of course, and they're definitely separation of Duke and, you know, school down the road. But at the end of the day, I was seeing, you know, of course there's a mutual respect thing, especially now, can we just compete at a high level?

And as you think about the last year, we went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So again, it's just definitely a mutual respect and, you know, I can't wait to get back to those guys on Saturday and good luck to you on Saturday. Good luck against Drake May.

I hear he's good too. And we know you are and I appreciate your time, Dwayne. Best of luck and good health. And we'll see you soon. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon.

You got it. Dwayne Carter, Duke defensive lineman. One of the best defensive linemen in the country. There's very few mock drafts that don't have him going day one. He's a really, really good player.