When football coach Fred Goldsmith started this season he was hesitant to label it as a rebuilding year. Seven winless games later, it is pretty fair to put that label on what the Blue Devils have done thus far.
Youth abounds on this Duke team, and with that youth has come plenty of inexperienced mistakes. Nowhere has that been more evident this year than on defense where 15 of the 22 players listed on the Blue Devils' two-deep chart are either sophomores or freshmen, and only two of Duke's starters are seniors.
But these young pups have grown up throughout the season. They've had nearly every type of offense they could face thrown at them: two types of wishbone attacks from Army and Navy, the power running game of Georgia Tech, the stretch-the-field passing attack of Florida State and Maryland and Clemson's plodding running attacks.
"Everybody on defense has been getting better each game, and I think we have a lot to look forward to next year," junior free safety Tawambi Settles said. "But we don't want to finish this year with no wins, so we're totally focused on playing hard the rest of this year."
Duke has steadily improved throughout the season as evidenced by the strides made against the run and the pass.
The secondary could barely line up right-let alone recognize what the other team's offense was doing at the beginning of the season. But led by Settles, this group of youngsters has matured quickly. They've had to, as they were thrown right into the fire from the get-go. But through it all, the defense has yet to give up more than 250 passing yards in a game this year.
Darius Clark is a perfect example of the defense and its maturing process. A redshirt freshman, he was a question mark at the beginning of the season. Now, he not only feels comfortable at his strong safety spot, but he is already emerging as one of Duke's hardest and most ferocious hitters.
"He has good instincts-it's just been a matter of him concentrating and making sure he gets lined up properly," Settles said. "He has a lot of ability and he likes to make plays. Sometimes he gets a little anxious and forgets some of his assignments, but whenever he does get his assignment, he's right there.
"Going into your first game you're nervous and you just don't know what to expect. Going into your eighth game, you're used to the pace of the game; you're used to making plays."
The Blue Devil defense has shown significant improvement during the past two games after giving up an average of more than 45 points per game in its first five games of the year. Two weeks ago against Clemson, Duke had its best defensive showing of the year, giving up only 13 points to the Tigers.
Then last weekend against Maryland, the Blue Devils fought valiantly, bending, but not breaking over and over again. They gave up 10 points following turnovers by the offense-an interception and a blocked punt-which left the Terrapins with the ball deep in Duke territory.
Seven games into the season, Duke is still winless, but the defense is actually gaining confidence. The first win of the year will likely not come this weekend, but the Blue Devils are confident it will come soon.
"Right now we are just so close, and if we just pull off that first win we can really turn things around," Clark said. "It's like a hunger. You have to have it. We need a win; we need a win."
The Blue Devils will get better, just give them time. They probably won't win this week, and they could conceivably go winless this season-a thought Duke itself can't bear to imagine. But give the youngsters time. These are the teenage years for the football team.
The Blue Devils are going through their maturing process just like any program trying to establish itself for the long haul must do. Everyone remembers discovering they weren't perfect as a teenager, the only problem is that Duke has had to do it in front of everyone.
Jonathan Ganz is a Trinity senior and Sports editor of The Chronicle.
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