After losing to Florida State 59-20 last year on the road, the Duke football teamwas happy that this season's game would not force them to return to Tallahassee. Wallace Wade State didn't seem like much of a good luck charm for the Blue Devils either, since the Seminoles had routed Duke 45-7 in Durham in the first game of the 1993 campaign.
Luckily for Duke, a scheduling option turned this year's Duke-FSU game into the annual Texaco Star Classic which is played in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. The Blue Devils hope that a change of scenery may be what it takes to become the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to defeat FSU since itjoined the ACC in 1992.
"I love playing away from home," senior nose guard Bernard Holsey said. "I love playing at home, but they're the No. 1 team in the nation and no one expects us to win this football game. We're playing basically on their home turf so, if we can win, it would do great things for us."
The question for Duke is if it can mentally step on the field with a team that has won by an average margin of 34.6 points in the last three meetings of the two teams. Head coach Fred Goldsmith said that he wouldn't mind getting into a shootout and being in the game near the end, but he realizes that theories like that often backfire when put into practice.
"Well if it is [a shootout], it would be better than last year," Goldsmith said. "Last year we were just getting shot out."
With Florida State as the first game of the season, Goldsmith has had the last few weeks of summer to convince his players that they can compete with the Seminoles. Goldsmith holds the Seminoles in the highest respect, recognizing their tremendous talent. Yet, he said he wouldn't bring his team out on the field if he didn't believe they could win.
"I think you are selling your football players short if you don't approach the game with the type of game plan that you do all the things you can do to win," Goldsmith said. "I told our coaching staff today, `Prepare to win the game, don't prepare to look good losing."'
Goldsmith might want to consider putting his motivational speeches up for sale because his players are certainly singing the same tune. Despite the fact that Duke returns 16 starters who received first-hand knowledge of the strength and speed of the Seminoles last year, most Blue Devils feel that they only have to make a few minor adjustments to keep up with FSU.
"I feel like we adjusted in the second half [of the game] last year, and hopefully that can carry over into this year," sophomore starting running back Laymarr Marshall said. "We watched film on them to see how fast we have to be. We might have to hit that hole a little quicker, make that block a little quicker, so it's going to have to be on-the-run adjustments during the game.
"As a competitor, I'm just confident. I have to be confident, just as our team does. It's a great challenge to go against the No. 1 defense, but that's why we play football--to play the best team, to go against the best defense, to challenge the best players. I'm just excited about it."
Regardless of the outcome of this game, Duke has to worry about the pros and cons of being confident throughout the season. After humbling teams like Maryland and Wake Forest last year, the Blue Devils need to make sure they don't put themselves in a position of a Florida State, where they are so highly favored that they might get caught looking too far ahead.
Duke players are also trying to remember that their season is not decided by one game. A loss, even a large loss to the Seminoles, puts Duke at 0-1 with 10 games remaining.
"I don't think [a loss] is going to wreck our confidence," Holsey said. "We just take one game at a time. That's the only thing you can do. You can't keep lingering on the past. If you do, you start saying, You're going to lose' and then when something goes bad,We're going to lose again."'
FSU may be the most lethal team in the nation, but the Blue Devils come in with more confidence than they had last year. The question is if confidence can overcome being a 25-point underdog.
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