In my lifetime, I have had the honor of meeting three of the world's greatest sports figures -- the late Thurman Munson, a World Series MVP; Michael Jordan, history's greatest basketball player; and Bobby Poss.
What? You've never heard of Michael Jordan? . . . Oh, you've never heard of Poss. Well, neither has the football team and head coach Barry Wilson.
You are probably wondering how Poss, an elementary school physical education teacher in Fayetteville, N.C., could make it on the same list as two professional athletes.
It's simple. Like Munson and Jordan, Poss just knew how to win.
Tailback David Lowman rushed for 106 yards against Rutgers on Saturday. He had every right to be elated, but, as he watched his team squander a fourth-quarter, 16-point lead, his 100-yard day slowly faded from his mind, and in crept the doubts.
"It's like a sense of dread anytime we get up and you`re playing against a good team," Lowman said. "If they get any little bit of momentum, you're unsure because it's happened to you so many times before."
Everything about the failures of the last two years of Duke football stems from attitude. Someone has to step forward and start to believe.
I met Poss in a bus parking lot in the Spring of 1989. He had just been hired to take over the head coaching job for South View Senior High in Hope Mills, N.C.
The local paper tabbed S.V.S.H. as a "football graveyard". From 1972-1988, the Tigers had won only 26 of 170 games and they had suffered in the late '70's through a 32-game losing streak.
As I shook coach Poss' hand, I searched for something clever to say.
"You've got a tough job ahead of ya, coach," I said.
He calmly looked at me and, with utmost confidence, said, "We have bridges to build and mountains to climb."
That was how he talked. More importantly, though, that was how he coached. He taught football, like any other decent coach, but he also taught emotion. He taught lessons that this year's football team needs to learn.
"I don't think you can teach emotion," Wilson said. "I don't know if it's something taught in a meeting. We've got to grow up as a football team to be successful."
In 1988, South View was 2-8. In 1989, Poss' inaugural season, the Tigers were 9-3 and a quarterfinalist in the state playoffs. In 1991, South View brought home a 4-A state championship banner.
What made the difference between 26 wins in 17 years and 43 wins in four years? I honestly do not know. I wish I did.
But I do know what is going to make the difference between Duke going 0-11 and the Blue Devils winning some football games before Nov. 27 -- a change in attitude and the complete annihilation of that "sense of dread".
I am not intimating a coaching change (for further clarification on this point, see Duke's 1-3 start in 1989 and Mack Brown's 2-20 start at North Carolina). What I do propose is an all-out assault on the loser's mentality and an end to all the excuses.
When Duke goes down by 14, it starts to doubt its ability to win. When Duke goes up by 14, they start to doubt their ability to win. A situation has arisen whereby, Duke's only hope for a successful Saturday afternoon is a scoreless tie.
Who is to blame? Who really cares? The players indict the coaches for conservative play-calling down the stretch. The coaches accuse the players of immaturity. This writer indicts the whole program, not for losing, but for not believing it can win.
Wilson said in his press conference on Monday that he was sick of playing for only three and a half quarters. Well, after all these years, I'm getting nauseous watching all four. Maybe, I feel that "sense of dread," too. But I'm not in the game.
It would be nice if the fans believed Duke could win but that is not the immediate problem. The coaches and players have to believe first. It's the nature of the business.
"I think our kids will rebound," Wilson said after the latest frustrating loss, 39-38, at Giants Stadium. "But until we play and continue throughout this season, I honestly don't know. It's going to be up to them to show us that.
"For me to say we will [rebound] is not really important. It's up to our kids to step forward and prove that they want to grow up and that winning is important enough that we get the job done."
Last week, when I started to get that first indication that after two weeks of classes I had somehow managed to fall three weeks behind in school, I withdrew a Post-It from my desk. On the yellow paper, in huge letters, I wrote the word, "EXCUSES". I circled it and then drew a bold line diagonally from one side of the circle to the other, slashing across that self-defeating notion.
For Duke to have any chance of ending this eight-game losing streak and not turning Durham, N.C., into a "football graveyard," everyone in the system is going to have to mentally perform that same exercise.
Many people are saying that the Army game is Duke's only chance for a win this year. Well, that doesn't matter. The fact is that Army is Duke's only chance for a win this week.
It is time to eliminate the excuses.
If they want to rise from the dead, the Blue Devils have to stop burning bridges and start moving mountains.
Gene Gorman is a Trinity senior.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.