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Duce Chestnut’s rise to prominence at SU has been years in the making

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True freshman Duce Chestnut wasn’t nervous during his collegiate debut against Ohio on Sept. 4, his mother, Leslie Brown, said. But he was nervous when he saw his mom standing on the side, behind a crowd of reporters, while he was giving his first postgame press conference at SU. Brown was listening, making sure the newcomer didn’t say anything he shouldn’t. She described it as just being “more of a mom.”

For just under four minutes, Chestnut fielded questions about his team-high eight-tackle performance, his fourth-quarter interception and what head coach Dino Babers later described as the first time in 35 years he’d ever heard of a player getting the game ball after their debut.