Right now, the Duke football team has a longer winning streak than Florida State does.
Granted, the Seminoles' losing streak consists of just one shocking upset at the hands of Virginia last Thursday. And that's probably not much consolation for a 3-6 Blue Devil team that just recently enjoyed its first conference win of the season against Wake Forest on Oct. 28.
After an open date this past weekend, the Blue Devils are preparing to finish out their season traveling to battle against Atlantic Coast Conference foes Clemson and North Carolina. The time off came at the right point for this struggling Duke team.
"I feel like we're good and refreshed, the way it should be after an open date," head coach Fred Goldsmith said at his weekly press conference on Monday. "We had a good week of practice last week, and got it all in just before the rains came."
Although it may seem like Duke needed that extra week of preparation as it readies for an upstart Clemson this weekend, the Blue Devils also allowed key players to take a week off to heal some injuries.
"[Last week], we were able to rest some of our guys that were not able to participate against Wake Forest, or were in there and went out or whatever," Goldsmith said. "According to our trainer's report... they're all ready to go [for Monday night's practice]. That's a plus for us. We'll start fairly healthy for practice, and have the basic game plan for Clemson University under our belt for that."
Senior free safety Ray Farmer, who is the Blue Devils' leading tackler, missed most of the game against Wake Forest, but is expected to be healthy to battle the Tigers. Senior nose guard Bernard Holsey has also seen sporadic time due to two sprained ankles.
"We were expecting Farmer and Holsey to be in good strength in the last game and neither one of them got past the first quarter," Goldsmith said. "And then [junior cornerback Brandon] Pollock wasn't able to play at all last week. So now with the three of them, that gives us a little bit more health defensively."
The Blue Devils are also recovering from some key injuries offensively as well.
"[Junior Erik] Dunlap, our backup left guard, is back and practiced last week," Goldsmith said. "That gave us a lot more depth where guys won't have to do more than just their job. Hopefully having [senior center Jeroen Egge] and Dunlap back will make it better for our guys in offensive practice, so the other guys won't have to fill in spaces here or spaces there."
The Blue Devils will need to be in prime condition to face Clemson Saturday. The Tigers have recently landed back into the national polls this season, after dropping from the polls on Sept. 5. No. 24 Clemson has achieved wins over its last three opponents--Maryland, Georgia Tech and North Carolina--to advance its record to 6-3 (3-2 in the conference).
"[Clemson] has got some momentum going now, that's got to be a plus for a team," Goldsmith said. "You always enjoy winning more than losing. Clemson is definitely on a roll, no question about that."
In order to prepare for Clemson's option quarterback Nealon Greene, the Blue Devil defense has practiced against the scout squad quarterback Eric Jones. Goldsmith says Jones has been able to copy Greene's game plan.
On the other side of the ball, Goldsmith is excited about the balance his offense was able to gain against Wake Forest, and notes it has improved gradually over the past four games.
Duke is searching for some consolation on what has turned out to be a disappointing year. After achieving an 8-4 record last season and playing in the Hall of Fame Bowl, the team had hoped to achieve the same kind of success this year.
Yet the Blue Devils have struggled this year, losing five in a row mid-season before finally picking up another win against the Demon Deacons.
Goldsmith still feels that the team can salvage some positives from this season, though.
"It would be good for our seniors to go out on a winning note," Goldsmith said. "Because we have so many young players playing, [two more wins would] help build their confidence. That would be a real positive. Some people in this game say they remember November. We don't have anything to lose, that's for sure. Nobody expects anything from us right now."
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