Grayson Loftis shares lessons learned during 2023 season

Duke quarterback Grayson Loftis is no stranger to life without Riley Leonard, as the rising sophomore claims he picked up on quite a few lessons throughout 2023 to prepare him to be called on again in 2024.

Nowadays, freshmen see less action than ever at the power conference level thanks to COVID years allowing 5th, 6th and 7th-year guys, while the transfer portal allows for teams to simply build with older pieces in general. So it’s certainly rare when a rookie quarterback, who is not a former five-star, gets a lot of playing time on an ACC team. Grayson Loftis fits that description.

He topped out at 1,006 total passing yards with eight touchdowns vs. just four picks in the eight games he appeared in last fall. With Leonard in and out of the lineup, and largely out thanks to injury, Loftis was called on often, and came through as best he could. At the very least, he learned quite a bit more than most freshmen.

“Yeah, I think the main thing I’ve learned through that process was — I didn’t know how to be a college quarterback when I started playing,” Loftis admitted at ACC Media Days when asked about his lessons from the year prior.

“I think what I mean by saying that is, I didn’t have a lot of knowledge in how to do it,” he continued. “Being in a room with guys like Henry and Riley who had starts, snaps in big-time games, I learned the value of asking questions, being able to talk to veterans and guys who had done it before, really figure out how to do my process.”

This time around, Loftis is still a youngster as merely a true sophomore, but after being thrown to the wolves in year one and learning on the fly, he’s much better equipped to handle the challenges 2024 brings.

“Going into this year, building that foundation to be able to grow off my processes and the questions I can ask to better myself as a player,” he added of his goals.

Loftis isn’t currently the presumptive starter as he and Texas transfer Maalik Murphy are jostling for position as the Duke starter in Manny Diaz’s first season at the helm.

Murphy also has just one season of play under his belt, however, he has been at Texas for two total seasons and got to play in place of Quinn Ewers on a CFP team last season, so he’s got the slight experience nod, although not at Duke, like Loftis.