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

How he projects

Moves between deep coverage and the slot.

Grades highest in speed and zone coverage.

The full scouting read

The story

Senior safety on Duke's 2026 roster.

Transferred from North Texas to Duke in 2026.

The full story, with sources

Next upSat Sep 26 · 3:30 pm ETvs William & MaryWallace Wade Stadium

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

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

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.

Defensive profile

Defender profile · Production by role

Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet

70 tkl · 1 TFL · 3 PD

PD rate

4%3 pass breakups

Tackle volume

70tackles this season

TFL rate

1%1 TFL

70 tackles · 1 for loss · 3 pass breakups.

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

Pass share

36.5%

73 pass / 127 run

Plays / game

66.7

3 games

Team sack rate

2.5%

79 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy.

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

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…

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