Patrick Smith-Young

Senior safety on Duke's 2026 roster.

S · Duke · Sr. · #2

5′9″ · 190 lb · Sugar Land, TX · Clements

CFB Index 49 · #281 of 544 safetiesMedium confidenceTransferred North Texas → Duke for 2026

Next upSat Sep 19 · 4 pm ETvs StanfordWallace Wade StadiumDuke by 9.5

How he projects

Moves between deep coverage and the slot.

Grades highest in speed and zone coverage.

The full scouting read

The story

4 safety on Duke's 2025 roster.

Transferred from North Texas to Duke in 2026.

His career, year by year

Patrick Smith-Young

S · Duke · Sr · #2

Moves between deep coverage and the slot. Patrick Smith-Young has played for two head coaches across two seasons and two programs. One game to point at: 11 tackles against Army — Week 4, 2025.

Low coverage — composed from the verified record.

positional archetype classification
head-coach lineage
game log

2025 snapshot

Season context · Team result + system

2024Old Dominion5-7HC: Ricky Rahne · Run-leaning

2025North Texas12-2HC: Drew Svoboda · Balanced

Where this defender ranks vs the field

Box-score production percentiles vs the position cohort

49Rotational starter #281 of 544?

Medium confidence7 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: solo tackles (94th percentile). Strength: tackles (91st percentile). Concern: qb hurries (22nd percentile).

Box-score production (7)

Solo tackles#165 / 2975 · 94th pct

Tackles#268 / 2975 · 91st pct

Passes defended#517 / 2975 · 78th pct

Forced fumbles#36 / 687 · 47th pct

Tackles for loss#1936 / 2975 · 28th pct

1.0

Sacks#1575 / 2975 · 24th pct

0.0

QB hurries#1662 / 2975 · 22nd pct

Percentiles are versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score production. There are no play-by-play efficiency bars here: CFBD's play-value model credits offensive players only, so no defensive EPA exists to rank.

Splits & context

Splits · Per-game

2025 season · 13 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Home6g	4.7	0.0	0.0	0.0
Road7g	6.0	0.1	0.0	0.4

First half vs Second half

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Weeks 1-76g	5.3	0.0	0.0	0.2
Weeks 8+7g	5.4	0.1	0.0	0.3

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Manny Diaz

Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.

Awards

Player standing · 2025

Starter

Tackle volume for the position at a full-time starter's level.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

49 · #281 of 544 safeties

Career stats

Season	Team
2025	North Texas	70	42	1.0	0.0	3	--	--
2024	Old Dominion	41	18	2.0	0.5	--	1	--
Career		111	60	3.0	0.5	3	1	--

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 13 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	TKL	SOLO	TFL	INT	PD	Note
Wk 1	W 51-0vs Lamar	2	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 2	W 33-30@ Western Michigan	8	4	0.0	—	0
Wk 4	W 45-38@ Army	11	6	0.0	—	0	Season-high 11 tackles
Wk 5	W 36-22vs South Alabama	1	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 7	L 36-63vs South Florida	8	5	0.0	—	0
Wk 8	W 55-17vs UTSA	5	3	0.0	—	0
Wk 9	W 54-20@ Charlotte	2	1	0.0	—	2
Wk 10	W 31-17vs Navy	7	4	0.0	—	0
Wk 12	W 53-24@ UAB	4	3	0.0	—	0
Wk 13	W 56-24@ Rice	7	5	1.0	—	0
Wk 14	W 52-25vs Temple	5	3	0.0	—	0
Wk 15	L 21-34@ Tulane	8	6	0.0	—	0
Bowl	W 49-47@ San Diego State	2	0	0.0	—	1
Total		70	42	1.0	—	3

How he plays

Play style

Moves between deep coverage and the slot — the modern positionless DB.

CFB Index positional classification

Activity vs finishing · season enumeration

What the box score actually says

13 games

70Tackles

42Solo

1TFL

0Sacks

3Pass def.

0INT

70 tackles. 3 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 1 TFL.

Week 11 PD
Week 92 PD

Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.

DNA match

Player DNA

Hybrid Nickel

Moves between deep coverage and the slot — the modern positionless DB.

His 2025 production profile sits closest to Darrian Lewis’s 2023 season.

Darrian Lewis

86%match

Akron · 2023

Irshaad Davis

Troy · 2023

All-Sun Belt

86%

Jeremiah Harris

Jacksonville State · 2023

All-Conference USA

82%

Jerrick Reed II

New Mexico · 2021

All-Mountain WestNFL Rd 6

80%

CJ Brown

Northern Illinois · 2022

79%

Matches Darrian on

Height

Weight

Tackle volume

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Ryan Nolan's sophomore season at Texas State (2025).

Ryan Nolan

83%match

Texas State · 2025

Darrian Lewis

Akron · 2023

78%

Jerrick Reed II

New Mexico · 2021

All-Mountain WestNFL Rd 6

74%

Zyeir Gamble

App State · 2025

74%

Andrew Powdrell

UNLV · 2025

74%

Matches Ryan on

Tackle volume

PD rate

Weight

Player DNA

Players who play like Patrick Smith-Young

Ronnie Royal III

NC State · 2025

74%

Cole Martin

UCLA · 2025

72%

Darrian Lewis

West Virginia · 2025

72%

Kevin Adams

Tulane · 2024

69%

Background

2026: Graduate transfer from North Texas ... a three-year member (2022-23, 25) of the Mean Green program while spending the 2024 campaign at Old Dominion … in 39 career games (25 starts), has compiled 194 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 1.0 sack, one INT, two caused fumbles, three fumble recoveries and five PB...

via goduke.com ↗

The secondary · Duke

#8DaShawn StoneS · Jr.86 tackles · 2025
#2Patrick Smith-YoungS · Sr.70 tackles · 2025
#3Landan CallahanCB · So.42 tackles · 2025
#5Kimari RobinsonCB · Jr.34 tackles · 2025
Dylan FlowersCB · Sr.33 tackles · 2025

12 more on the roster · Duke team page

Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology