If Duke football head coach Fred Goldsmith wants more tape of this weekend's opponent--No. 25 Maryland--he might just look at tape of the Blue Devils from a year ago.
Terrapin head coach Mark Duffner has turned his team around in much the same fashion that Goldsmith did last year. Maryland is 3-0 for the first time since 1986, and it has moved into the top 25 for the first time since then. The two teams will meet at 7 p.m. on Saturday night in College Park, Md.
"Any time you have success, it builds upon itself," Goldsmith said. "There's no doubt about it. It's what happened to us and what happens to everybody when they have success. This is what the game's all about--we've had it, they've had it.
"You'll have two teams that think they can win the football game on Saturday. Now, it's the guy that performs the best that's going to win."
But to get to this stage, Maryland has had to right a sinking ship. The Terps have lost seven or more games each of the last four seasons prior to this one. Duffner has not had a winning season since joining Maryland in December of 1991.
The Terps (3-0, 2-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) have come out of the gate extremely strong this year, however. They suffered what appeared to be a devastating loss over the summer when senior quarterback Scott Milanovich was suspended by the NCAA for the first four games of the year for gambling on college basketball games. But Milanovich's backup, sophomore Brian Cummings, has stepped right into the role and led Maryland to victory.
"What makes [Maryland's turnaround] even more remarkable is the change of the quarterback," Goldsmith said. "What looked like another bad blow for Maryland--just one of those nothing can go right for them things--turned out to be a very positive thing with the fire that Cummings has brought to the football team."
Cummings has brought a new dimension to the Terrapin offense with his ability to run the football. Maryland operates out of the one-back offense in a manner very similar to Duke. But early in the season, with Cummings and sophomore running back Buddy Rodgers racking up yardage, the Terps have been more apt to run than pass.
They have rushed for more yards per game than they have passed for, which is a big difference from last season. It is also something that the Blue Devils often did early last year when they started the season 7-0.
To stop Maryland on Saturday, Duke (2-1, 0-1 in the ACC) must not allow the Terps defense to be as opportunistic as it has been so far. Maryland has snared 15 turnovers, and while Goldsmith admits some of them have been opponents' mistakes, he is quick to point out the improvement Maryland has made on the defensive side of the football and the confidence with which they are playing.
"I think we got a misleading look at their defense last year in the opening game [when Duke won 49-16]," Goldsmith said. "They got better and better as the season went on a year ago.
"When you get 15 turnovers in three games, that doesn't hurt. That's being opportunistic, and they've done that--it comes from their defense playing with a little more confidence."
Confidence is something Duke knows all about. It gained a great deal of it last year, and has regained a good deal this year after winning the last two games--including last weekend's 23-21 last-second win at West Point.
Come Saturday, though, it may boil down to more than just confidence. Maryland is trying to establish itself as a good football program again, while Duke feels it has already done so. The Blue Devils have already won a close game this year and have no fears about being in another battle versus the Terrapins.
"We have a lot more fight in us this year," senior All-ACC safety Ray Farmer said. "Last year when games were up in the air, guys were saying, `Well, are the ghosts of Duke going to come back and get us?' This year there's that confidence that came from last year. We know if the game's close, we have an opportunity to win the ballgame."
Confidence--Duke got it last year, and Maryland is aiming to get it this year. But the Terrapins will first have to go through the Blue Devils on Saturday night.
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