Mike Vukovcan Duke University is one of the top colleges in the country for both academics and athletics.
Everyone knows about the history of Duke basketball under Hall of Fame HC Mike Krzyzewski and while the football program is not to that level, they’re certainly making strides.
Starting with HC Mike Elko in 2022 and now with current HC Manny Diaz, the Duke football program has won 9 games in three of the last four seasons. This past season was the most successful in school history as they defeated Virginia to win the 2025 ACC Championship.
Over the last few seasons, the coaching staff at Duke has made more of an emphasis recruiting Western Pennsylvania and the WPIAL and have had success by landing a couple big recruits from Pittsburgh Central Catholic HS- 2025 4-star linebacker Bradley Gompers and 2026 3-star linebacker Colsen Gatten.
Today, Duke was in Pittsburgh to officially start the recruiting process for one of the top sophomores in the state.
Duke traveled to Hopewell in order to inform Vikings HC Matt Mottes that they were extending a committable offer to 2028 quarterback James Armstrong. This becomes the 5th Power 4 offer for Armstrong- Pitt, Penn State, North Carolina, West Virginia and Duke.
I’m sure the season that quarterback Darian Mensah was brought up in the discussion. At Duke, Mensah threw for 3,973 yards, 34 touchdowns and six interceptions before transferring this offseason to Miami, Fla.
Word is that Armstrong plans on making a visit to Duke for one of their spring practices.
It would not be surprising to see Armstrong’s list of Power 4 offers double over the coming months.
Last week, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and DC Cory Sanders were at Hopewell HS to speak with Mottes. While there, they made sure he knew how much of a priority Armstrong (6’3″, 225-pounds) is to Pitt and how they believe he could become a ‘Hometown Hero’ and become the next great Pitt quarterback.
