Fresh Legs

DUKE AND SYRACUSE were tied 3-3 with about three minutes left in the first quarter earlier this season. The ball was at the Syracuse 49. Duke's Darian Mensah handed the ball off to Nate Sheppard. Pulling guard Jordan Larsen and tight end Jeremiah Hasley gave Sheppard some daylight at the line of scrimmage and that was all he needed.

No one in a Syracuse uniform got more than a fingertip on him.

Up 24-3 in the middle of the third period, Duke reached the Syracuse 12. Sheppard took a handoff and ran up the middle. Syracuse defensive back Cornell Perry met Sheppard head-on at the 5. Perry ended up flat on his back, Sheppard ended up in the end zone.

Players with the kind of speed Sheppard displayed on that 49-yard TD run don't often show the kind of power he displayed on that 12-yard TD run. And vice-versa.

Sheppard ended the game with 168 yards on 15 carries, adding 33 receiving yards on four receptions. Duke won 38-3.

This was his first career start, his fifth college game — and just his fifth game after breaking his right fibula as a high school senior.

The Syracuse game was a breakout performance but one totally expected by a Duke team and staff that knew exactly what it was getting. It just wasn't sure it would get it this early.

Sheppard grew up in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. His father William played defensive back for Louisiana Tech, while his mother Rebekah played volleyball at the same school. Older brother Will played football at Vanderbilt for four years, before finishing up at Colorado. He is a wide receiver and currently a member of Green Bay's practice squad.

Will Sheppard is more than four years older than Nate. But both began playing tackle football around the same time, when Nate was four years old.

No, that is not a typo. Both saw their father playing flag football well into adulthood. Football was not exactly a hard sell for young Nate.

"I was very young," he acknowledges. "Watching my father play motivated me. Being able to grow up with the older guys helped me a lot."

Nate says his father coached him until he was around eight, before handing off the reins.

He adds that he also learned from his mother.

"I got her attitude, her toughness. Having two athletic parents helps."

Football wasn't his only prep sport. He played basketball and was a state-level track star in the hurdles and the long jump.

"Track definitely helped me get faster at the high school level, where I could work on my fundamentals on how to get more explosive," he explains.

But he says there's no question that football was his next-level sport. "I've wanted to be a professional football player since I put on a helmet. That's always been the mindset. But I liked being a year-round athlete, so between football, basketball and track, I was always doing something."

Duke fell in love with him after watching him rush for 1,816 yards and 32 touchdowns as a junior; he added four receiving TDs.

"I remember, I think before he got hurt last year, it seemed like every week he'd have five touchdowns at a place that's got a lot of pride," Manny Diaz recalls. "You know, they've got really good high school football in Mandeville."

Sheppard committed to Duke in the summer after his junior year over Northwestern, Tulane and California, among others.

Add those schools to his brother's Vanderbilt and it's obvious that academics are important to the Sheppard family.

"Me and my brother like to think we're pretty smart sometimes. So, academics was a big part of coming here to Duke," Nate says.

His senior season came crashing down on October 25, 2024, against Ponchatoula, when he got rolled up on the first play of the game. He knew it was serious. But he didn't immediately know how serious.

"I got right up. But I couldn't walk. I hopped off the field on one leg. I thought it was just a high sprain. I never thought it was broken. I never thought it was the end or anything like that. It never crossed my mind."

It wasn't the end of his career. But his season was over.

He had surgery in New Orleans, attacked rehab, graduated a semester early and enrolled at Duke for the spring 2025 semester.

Then-running backs coach Willie Simmons was his lead recruiter at Duke. Simmons was gone to FIU as their new head coach by the time Sheppard arrived at Duke.

Manny Diaz says it worked out just fine.

"What's really ironic is Willie Simmons did a phenomenal job recruiting, and the school he wanted to go to, if didn't go to Duke, was to play for (running backs coach) Chris Foster at Northwestern. And so I didn't really know that, but you know how it worked out. Willie was blessed to become a head football coach and we were lucky enough to bring Chris here. So anytime that happens, when there's a position change, there's a little bit of uncertainty, but the family (asked) who's gonna be my coach, and I just said, 'I think you're gonna like who it is. Just hang in there.'

"And I didn't really even know the full background story of the relationship between Chris and the Sheppard family, and then when we were able to announce Chris, they were overjoyed."

Sheppard says he was about 85 percent during spring ball but adds that the benefits of early enrollment were numerous.

"I was still having some pain in the ankle. But I was able to run and cut and stuff. I was almost there. It definitely helped, adjusting to the speed of the game, the strength of the game. Obviously it's a different game at this level than at high school, so it really helped to get those early reps in."

Spring became summer, summer became fall, fall being August in college football terms. Even the most talented freshmen running backs have things to learn.

"The biggest thing as a freshman coming in is your ability to protect the quarterback," offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer says. "A lot of guys can come in and carry the football and make people miss. That's a natural ability. But to be able to protect the quarterback, to know protections, for us to call plays and not have to worry about where he's at, that's something he's proved to us. He's proved it through spring camp and obviously fall camp and obviously now. So, there's no hesitation in him being in there."

Sheppard elaborates. "Just focusing on my hands, how to shoot them, how to identify where the blitzes are going to come from pre-snap."

Sheppard came into a running backs room that included sixth-year Appalachian State transfer Anderson Castle and key holdover Jaquez Moore, the latter also trying to get 100 percent healthy after a leg injury. There was no reason to rush him.

Brewer says Duke knew Sheppard would play himself into the rotation.

Sheppard had five carries in each of Duke's first three games. But he had 14 carries for 61 yards in game four, a win over NC State.

He was on pace, maybe a little ahead.

"It was on the trajectory of getting toward the bye week (after game six)," according to Brewer. "He was showing up more and more and more. It's just whenever you get your opportunity, show up, what do you do with the ball? And he showed up."

Brewer gives an expert's assessment of Sheppard's strengths.

"He's a naturally bigger guy. He's got big arms, thick legs. He's a powerful runner. He's a violent runner. He finishes runs, finishes through people. There's an old saying, 'Get him one-on-one with a guy.' We need to get him one-on-one and it's his job to take it from there."

"I've always just been a hard runner," Sheppard acknowledges. "I've never wanted to go out of bounds when someone is coming or I'm getting ready to get hit. Always running through somebody is the best way for me."

If this seems like risky business for a player just off a broken leg, think again.

"When I'm out there on the field I can't worry about getting hurt. You've just got to go out there and play the game as free as possible, so that's just what I do."

Diaz says that Sheppard has responded well to Foster's coaching.

"I think Chris has done a phenomenal job of mentoring Nate, not just with what he does with the ball, because a lot of that, the good Lord gave him. But also with how he plays without the ball, how he is in pass pickup. He plays beyond his years. He has obviously transformed our offense in terms of our ability to be really dynamic in the running game."

Sheppard followed that Syracuse game with 91 rushing yards (12 carries), including touchdown runs of 12 and 46 yards against California. Through seven games he's averaging 7.0 yards per carry. That's fifth in the ACC. The Duke single-season record is 7.67, set by Shaun Wilson in 2014. Ace Parker averaged 7.43 in 1935. No other Blue Devil has averaged over 6.84.

Sheppard isn't sure if his early success has been a surprise.

"It's come a little bit quicker than I thought it would be, being a starting running back halfway through the season. I thought it would take a little bit longer than that. But I always knew I could play at this level, even coming in early. It's definitely worked out."

It should be noted that Sheppard won't turn 20 until next August. He's doing all this as a teenager.

So, yes, it's worked out.

Players Mentioned

Anderson Castle

Jeremiah Hasley

Jordan Larsen

Darian Mensah

Jaquez Moore

Nate Sheppard

Duke information