At least football coach Fred Goldsmith still has his sense of humor.
"We took a [close] football game and ran the score up on ourselves," Goldsmith dead- panned after his team's embarrassing 64-27 defeat last week at Navy.
Cracking jokes and deflecting criticism has become a daily task for Goldsmith, whose winless team feels more than a little heat. Faced with such a miserable situation, Goldsmith attempts to retain a positive outlook.
But Duke fans are not laughing. Support is lagging on campus, and the effects of the losing streak have touched players and students alike.
"Obviously, it's disappointing that they haven't won a game yet," said Trinity freshman Jim Nelson. "From what I've heard, [student response] has been pretty negative... they just don't like to talk about it."
Still, the Blue Devils (0-5, 0-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) are hoping for a strong turnout for Saturday's Homecoming match up with Clemson at noon.
"Just because it's Homecoming, I think most people will probably go," said Nelson. "I plan to go, because I think it's important to support [the team]."
The excuses for Duke's woes have all been laid out: youth, inexperience, injuries, poor execution-the list goes on. But little remedy has been found, and Saturday's contest has the potential to be another mismatch.
The Tigers (2-3, 1-2 in the ACC) will be unsympathetic to the plight of the struggling Blue Devils. Clemson is coming off a 34-3 loss at the hands of Florida State, and is hoping to turn the corner on a crucial ACC stretch run. In past years, Clemson has dominated Duke, winning 13 of the last 15 meetings. However, the Blue Devils have won each of the last two meetings in Durham, most recently a 19-13 decision in 1994.
In that meeting, Clemson ran up against an unbeaten and fired-up Blue Devil squad, which moved to 7-0 with the victory and finished the season with a Jan. 1 Hall of Fame Bowl appearance.
Things could not be any more different this year. Duke, bruised and battered at 0-5, needs a victory to regain its pride, not its postseason aspirations.
Tailback Raymond Priester leads the Tigers into Saturday's contest, with memories of last year's contest with Duke still strong. Priester carried the ball 32 times for a school-record 263 yards and one touchdown in Clemson's 34-17 win. That whopping total should frighten Goldsmith and the Blue Devils' defense, who at 242.4 rushing yards per game, rank a dismal 104th (out of 111) in Division I-A.
"This is the best Clemson offense we've played against," said Goldsmith, who also noted that Duke's own rushing game needs quite a bit of improvement.
The Blue Devils have managed just 77.4 yards per game on the ground, a total that places them an equally embarrassing 103rd in the nation.
Indeed, Saturday's game should be decided in the trenches. With neither team boasting a hefty air attack, expect the line of scrimmage to be the crucial point for both sides.
"Until we are able to run the ball, we're going to have problems," Goldsmith said. "As our line matures, we're going to run the ball better."
And things have been getting better for the Blue Devils, albeit slowly. Laymarr Marshall turned in Duke's first 100-yard rushing performance last week at Navy, carrying 19 times for 116 yards. Freshman Letavious Wilks added 45 yards, and the Blue Devils compiled a season-high 379 yards in total offense.
Meanwhile, Clemson hopes to continue a peculiar trend of success after losses to Florida State. Since the Seminoles joined the ACC in 1988, Clemson is 4-1 in games following a loss to FSU. In fact, in the week after facing a top-10 opponent, Clemson has lost only once in the last twenty years.
The Tigers enter Saturday's game with five remaining conference games. After visiting Duke, they will take only one more road trip this year-a favorable schedule for a team that is winless on the road, but unbeaten at home thus far.
Clemson quarterback Nealon Greene struggled last year against Duke; the Blue Devils held him to just 17 yards passing. As a result, the Tigers will probably continue to focus on running the football Saturday.
The Blue Devils are still looking for a consistent performance at quarterback. Neither junior David Green nor sophomore Matt Rader distinguished himself against Navy, and Goldsmith has declined to name a starter for the Clemson game.
Goldsmith said he will go with whoever is more consistent in practice this week. He also noted the importance of protecting the football in this week's contest. The Blue Devils-who turned the ball over seven times against Navy-realize they must stop the self-destruction that has marked the losing streak.
"In the last game, we scored just about as many points for the other team as for us," Goldsmith said.
Avoiding breakdowns, both mentally and physically, will once again be the focus for Duke as it hopes to break into the win column. With the right execution, perhaps Goldsmith will finally have a victory to smile about.
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