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Line Drive: Veteran Defensive Front Motivated to Keep the Pressure On
8/26/2025 7:05:00 AM | Football
DURHAM, N.C. -- When asking the starting four players along Duke's defensive line about hobbies they enjoy away from the field, it is fascinating to learn that one likes kayaking, another enjoys painting and cooking Southern-style food, one spends his down time practicing saxophone, and another has loved building LEGOs his entire life.
However, for offenses that will face the Blue Devils this fall, knowledge of those wholesome, gentle pastimes will offer no relief from the pressure and threat they are about to face on the field.
This quartet — which includes graduate defensive tackle Aaron Hall, senior defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr., redshirt junior defensive end Wesley Williams and graduate transfer tackle Josiah Green — enters the 2025 season as arguably the most experienced defensive line in the country, with a total of 5,037 career snaps between them over the last four-plus years. In fact, Hall, Williams and Anthony have patrolled the front together for Duke for much of the last three seasons, while Green is a transfer portal pickup from Dartmouth College, where he was a unanimous All-Ivy League selection in 2024.
In other words, this group has been good. They have been consistent. They have proven themselves. And heading into the 2025 season, the group has a mission.
"I think dominance is the word," said Williams, a product of Gainesville, Virginia, who is majoring in public policy. "We have the ability and the will to suffocate a lot of teams, and hopefully we can go out and accomplish that. We pride ourselves on defense — grittiness and toughness — and I think it just translates to how we play football. There's not really a secret to it or anything. I think we just go hard and that translates to great defense."
Indeed, that approach has served Duke well over the last three years, as the defensive unit has been a foundational ingredient in the Blue Devils' winning recipe. It is an approach that has resulted in 26 wins, three bowl appearances and two bowl victories over that time frame.
For Hall, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound Durham native who spent his childhood hanging out in the family kitchen and learning to prepare his mother's favorite meals, being part of a winning recipe has meant a great deal — especially considering the Blue Devils had struggled in the years preceding his arrival on campus in 2021.
"A lot of pride," said Hall, who played at Southern High School and is currently a graduate student studying management in the Fuqua School of Business. "We came here knowing what Duke football was, especially my class. We were struggling a lot in terms of football at that time. We were last in the ACC, and just our goal — especially the class of 2025 — was to build something here. Leave the place better than you found it. Leave a program that is wanted by the institution, but more importantly, wanted by the fans and the players and the coaches that reside here. I think that's something that drives us a lot."
One person who took notice of Duke's recent success was Green. Having finished his time at Dartmouth — where he helped the Big Green to back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2023 and 2024 — the 6-1, 285-pound native of Indianapolis, Indiana, was looking for a place where he could fit in seamlessly and have an opportunity to compete for championships.
Duke not only offered that chance, but also provided a stage in a Power 4 conference like the ACC. However, there was even more to Green's decision than football.
"The decision to come to Duke was really a mix of a bunch of things," said Green, who is joining Hall in the management graduate program at Fuqua. "The first was what kind of education are you going to get? What Duke offered made a lot of sense for me. Then it was the culture here. People actually care about each other. I got a bunch of people's (phone) numbers on my official visit, and it wasn't like that anywhere else. I wanted to go somewhere where people really cared about each other, wanted to win games, and I'm going to get a great education."
That cultural element was a consistent theme for the entire quartet. A winning culture has taken root both within the position group and throughout the team. And while it comes with demands for characteristics such as excellence, togetherness, and hard work — both on and off the field — there are also moments to smile, to play with joy, to laugh at each other (or at one's self).
Enter Anthony, the self-described jokester of the group.
Like Hall, Anthony is a fellow Durham native who played his prep football across town at Jordan High School. The 6-6, 260-pound end takes great pride in playing for his hometown and having built a winning tradition at Duke. He has not only provided a relentless edge-rush element to the group, but has also served to relieve the anxiety and pressure of stressful in-game moments with a free-spirited, joyful approach to the game.
"That's just my personality," said Anthony, a double major in African American studies and cultural anthropology. "It makes my day when I see other people laughing. We all crack jokes — Aaron, Wes, we all do it. But I'd say out of all of us, I'm doing it the most. It's a way to lighten the mood and get people to relax. I just like to have fun. That's just me. For every sack or TFL (tackle for loss), I'm going to do a different dance every time and bring that excitement to the field that everybody loves to see, even my teammates."
That free-spirited, aggressive approach to defense has served Duke well in recent years. Described as being "vertical" by all four players, the defensive scheme aims to bring pressure whenever possible, relying on all 11 players on the field to do their jobs, and trusting in the preparation provided by the coaching staff.
In fact, head coach Manny Diaz, who is entering his second year on the Blue Devils' sideline, points to the fact that Duke's success up front is also derived from its depth. As good as Hall, Williams, Anthony and Green may be, they are only part of an overall position group that thrives on competition and togetherness.
"We're proud of what we have up front, but defensively you're only as good — when I talk about sustaining a level of play for 48 straight quarters — as your two-deep," Diaz said. "That's something we've got more of this fall than we did a year ago. We've got proper competition."
It's hard to argue with Diaz's approach and the results of that crew up front.
Williams began his career with two blocked field goal attempts in the Blue Devils' season-opening win over Clemson in 2023 and posted a career best eight tackles against Virginia Tech a year ago. Hall was an honorable mention All-ACC performer last season and will serve as a team captain this year. Anthony has recorded 19 quarterback pressures and 7.5 sacks in 28 careers starts while being on the field for 1,237 snaps. Those three accounted for 31 tackles for loss to buoy a Blue Devil unit that finished second in the country in TFL at 8.9 per game.
Meanwhile, as he joins the group, Green brings the experience of being on the field for 1,567 snaps at Dartmouth, including a 10-tackle performance against Harvard in 2023.
However, beyond the on-field performances, it's who these men are away from the field that is even more intriguing.
While Green picked up a kayaking habit during his time at Dartmouth, he also has the goal to live abroad following his time at Duke. And if he were a superhero? His superpower?
"To be able to understand every language," said Green, who has an identical twin brother who is also currently playing college football. "It would be nice to know what other people are saying all the time … and it would really be great to know what other teams are saying on the field."
Meanwhile, Anthony may see himself as a bit of a comedian, but he is also an amateur musician.
"'I've been playing the saxophone since I was in the sixth grade," he said. "I was in band in middle school, but even though I started playing football in high school and stopped band, I just kept playing. I like doing it to take a break, to relax."
And while Hall likes to cook and take time to paint, Williams has carried on a childhood hobby into his time at Duke.
"I'm big into LEGOs," said Williams. "I lean into building airplanes, cars and stuff like that. I even do time-lapses sometimes when I'm building them."
To a man, the group talked about family and closeness. In fact, Hall and Anthony had only one degree of separation while growing up in Durham. "VJ's mom was my dentist for 18 years and we didn't even know each other until we got here to Duke," Hall said with a laugh.
And where does this family expect to go this year?
"An ACC championship and a shot in the playoffs," Anthony said. "We have the talent on the field. Having that type of team to end my last year at Duke? That's what I would want.
"That's what we would want."
However, for offenses that will face the Blue Devils this fall, knowledge of those wholesome, gentle pastimes will offer no relief from the pressure and threat they are about to face on the field.
This quartet — which includes graduate defensive tackle Aaron Hall, senior defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr., redshirt junior defensive end Wesley Williams and graduate transfer tackle Josiah Green — enters the 2025 season as arguably the most experienced defensive line in the country, with a total of 5,037 career snaps between them over the last four-plus years. In fact, Hall, Williams and Anthony have patrolled the front together for Duke for much of the last three seasons, while Green is a transfer portal pickup from Dartmouth College, where he was a unanimous All-Ivy League selection in 2024.
In other words, this group has been good. They have been consistent. They have proven themselves. And heading into the 2025 season, the group has a mission.
"I think dominance is the word," said Williams, a product of Gainesville, Virginia, who is majoring in public policy. "We have the ability and the will to suffocate a lot of teams, and hopefully we can go out and accomplish that. We pride ourselves on defense — grittiness and toughness — and I think it just translates to how we play football. There's not really a secret to it or anything. I think we just go hard and that translates to great defense."
Indeed, that approach has served Duke well over the last three years, as the defensive unit has been a foundational ingredient in the Blue Devils' winning recipe. It is an approach that has resulted in 26 wins, three bowl appearances and two bowl victories over that time frame.
For Hall, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound Durham native who spent his childhood hanging out in the family kitchen and learning to prepare his mother's favorite meals, being part of a winning recipe has meant a great deal — especially considering the Blue Devils had struggled in the years preceding his arrival on campus in 2021.
"A lot of pride," said Hall, who played at Southern High School and is currently a graduate student studying management in the Fuqua School of Business. "We came here knowing what Duke football was, especially my class. We were struggling a lot in terms of football at that time. We were last in the ACC, and just our goal — especially the class of 2025 — was to build something here. Leave the place better than you found it. Leave a program that is wanted by the institution, but more importantly, wanted by the fans and the players and the coaches that reside here. I think that's something that drives us a lot."
One person who took notice of Duke's recent success was Green. Having finished his time at Dartmouth — where he helped the Big Green to back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2023 and 2024 — the 6-1, 285-pound native of Indianapolis, Indiana, was looking for a place where he could fit in seamlessly and have an opportunity to compete for championships.
Duke not only offered that chance, but also provided a stage in a Power 4 conference like the ACC. However, there was even more to Green's decision than football.
"The decision to come to Duke was really a mix of a bunch of things," said Green, who is joining Hall in the management graduate program at Fuqua. "The first was what kind of education are you going to get? What Duke offered made a lot of sense for me. Then it was the culture here. People actually care about each other. I got a bunch of people's (phone) numbers on my official visit, and it wasn't like that anywhere else. I wanted to go somewhere where people really cared about each other, wanted to win games, and I'm going to get a great education."
That cultural element was a consistent theme for the entire quartet. A winning culture has taken root both within the position group and throughout the team. And while it comes with demands for characteristics such as excellence, togetherness, and hard work — both on and off the field — there are also moments to smile, to play with joy, to laugh at each other (or at one's self).
Enter Anthony, the self-described jokester of the group.
Like Hall, Anthony is a fellow Durham native who played his prep football across town at Jordan High School. The 6-6, 260-pound end takes great pride in playing for his hometown and having built a winning tradition at Duke. He has not only provided a relentless edge-rush element to the group, but has also served to relieve the anxiety and pressure of stressful in-game moments with a free-spirited, joyful approach to the game.
"That's just my personality," said Anthony, a double major in African American studies and cultural anthropology. "It makes my day when I see other people laughing. We all crack jokes — Aaron, Wes, we all do it. But I'd say out of all of us, I'm doing it the most. It's a way to lighten the mood and get people to relax. I just like to have fun. That's just me. For every sack or TFL (tackle for loss), I'm going to do a different dance every time and bring that excitement to the field that everybody loves to see, even my teammates."
That free-spirited, aggressive approach to defense has served Duke well in recent years. Described as being "vertical" by all four players, the defensive scheme aims to bring pressure whenever possible, relying on all 11 players on the field to do their jobs, and trusting in the preparation provided by the coaching staff.
In fact, head coach Manny Diaz, who is entering his second year on the Blue Devils' sideline, points to the fact that Duke's success up front is also derived from its depth. As good as Hall, Williams, Anthony and Green may be, they are only part of an overall position group that thrives on competition and togetherness.
"We're proud of what we have up front, but defensively you're only as good — when I talk about sustaining a level of play for 48 straight quarters — as your two-deep," Diaz said. "That's something we've got more of this fall than we did a year ago. We've got proper competition."
It's hard to argue with Diaz's approach and the results of that crew up front.
Williams began his career with two blocked field goal attempts in the Blue Devils' season-opening win over Clemson in 2023 and posted a career best eight tackles against Virginia Tech a year ago. Hall was an honorable mention All-ACC performer last season and will serve as a team captain this year. Anthony has recorded 19 quarterback pressures and 7.5 sacks in 28 careers starts while being on the field for 1,237 snaps. Those three accounted for 31 tackles for loss to buoy a Blue Devil unit that finished second in the country in TFL at 8.9 per game.
Meanwhile, as he joins the group, Green brings the experience of being on the field for 1,567 snaps at Dartmouth, including a 10-tackle performance against Harvard in 2023.
However, beyond the on-field performances, it's who these men are away from the field that is even more intriguing.
While Green picked up a kayaking habit during his time at Dartmouth, he also has the goal to live abroad following his time at Duke. And if he were a superhero? His superpower?
"To be able to understand every language," said Green, who has an identical twin brother who is also currently playing college football. "It would be nice to know what other people are saying all the time … and it would really be great to know what other teams are saying on the field."
Meanwhile, Anthony may see himself as a bit of a comedian, but he is also an amateur musician.
"'I've been playing the saxophone since I was in the sixth grade," he said. "I was in band in middle school, but even though I started playing football in high school and stopped band, I just kept playing. I like doing it to take a break, to relax."
And while Hall likes to cook and take time to paint, Williams has carried on a childhood hobby into his time at Duke.
"I'm big into LEGOs," said Williams. "I lean into building airplanes, cars and stuff like that. I even do time-lapses sometimes when I'm building them."
To a man, the group talked about family and closeness. In fact, Hall and Anthony had only one degree of separation while growing up in Durham. "VJ's mom was my dentist for 18 years and we didn't even know each other until we got here to Duke," Hall said with a laugh.
And where does this family expect to go this year?
"An ACC championship and a shot in the playoffs," Anthony said. "We have the talent on the field. Having that type of team to end my last year at Duke? That's what I would want.
"That's what we would want."
Players Mentioned
DE
/ Football
DT
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DT
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DE
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