Of all the stories to come out of SU’s 2021 football season, the emergence of freshman cornerback Duce Chestnut was one of the most compelling. Chestnut’s ballhawking style earned him runner-up honors in ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year voting - and established him as a starter. Dwayne Savage, who coached Chestnut at Camden High School in New Jersey, still notices the same mix of charisma and play-making that helped Duce stand out.
“He’s basically gonna tell you what he’s gonna do before he does it…he has that swag. One thing about Duce, he’s always had an aura where the ball goes to him,” Savage said. “He had a knack for the football. It’s the same thing he has going with the ‘Cuse.”
Nearly two seasons later, Chestnut has lived up to the billing as SU’s highest rated recruit last year, but it doesn’t shock Duce that he’s no longer the highest rated Camden defensive back on SU’s roster.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, but Alijah Clark, him being over the top, him making plays, I’ve been seeing it since we were younger,” Chestnut said. “It definitely surprised the team as a whole and just seeing him as a ball hawk, that’s what we knew he was going to come in and be.”
When former 4-star safety Alijah Clark transferred to SU from Rutgers last winter, the move didn’t just mark an infusion of talent for the ‘Cuse. For Clark, the change reunited him with a childhood friend he calls family, and fulfilled a vision he and Chestnut had shared since middle school.
“What came into my decision [to transfer] was pretty much “my best friend goes here,” Clark said. “When I got in the portal, I was looking for some place I could feel like was home. He welcomed me, the coaches welcomed me, and I felt like this was a place I could be great.”
If not for one another, the two very well may have never reached this point. Clark and Chestnut have bonded both on the field and through personal tragedy. When Clark’s grandmother passed away during his junior year of high school, he considered quitting the sport altogether. It was Chestnut who was there to help him find refuge though football - something the two have shared and used to elevate one another since eighth grade.
“Those guys drove each other,” Savage said. “Each one forced the other one to be better. They wouldn’t let one walk off the field without getting extra reps, or vice versa. They basically pushed each other to reach the level they’re at right now.”
Fittingly, SU’s two former Camden Panthers now anchor half of an Orange secondary that ranks second in the ACC against the pass. From middle to high school to college and through thick and thin, it’s Syracuse’s pair of brothers - connected not by name, but by bond - who have anchored the defensive backfield and the program’s resurgence.