EVANSTON, Ill. - For all of his awards and TV commercials, Northwestern's Gary Barnett was not the better coach Saturday at Ryan Field. Fred Goldsmith's Duke Blue Devils, 17-point underdogs heading into the game, were better prepared than the two-time defending Big Ten champions.
Duke's innovative game plan, courtesy of Goldsmith and offensive coordinator Larry Beckish, kept the Wildcats off-balance with a mix of option runs, draw plays, quick passing routes and long bombs.
After starting quarterback Bobby Campbell went down early with a knee injury, the Blue Devil coaches adjusted their plans to fit backup David Green's ability. The Duke defense held Northwestern to three first-half points, and on a long second-quarter drive, the Green-led offense, employing the option and a ball-control passing attack, hit paydirt to take a 10-point halftime lead.
At the half, Barnett-renowned as a master motivator-needed few words to fire up his troops.
"I told them, 'I'm not going to yell at you. If you want it, go out and get it,'" Barnett said. "They wanted it."
The Wildcats responded with a 14-point third-quarter outburst, jumping ahead, 17-13. With the lead and Green-who aggravated a nagging knee injury-both gone, the Blue Devils had every reason to fold up their tents and head back to Durham a beaten team.
Instead, Goldsmith's club responded. The defense, which took much abuse last week after allowing 531 yards in a 45-14 loss to N.C. State, stood firm while the offense struggled under third-string quarterback Spencer Romine. Goldsmith kept his players focused, and finally, with 10:33 remaining in the game, the hard work paid off. Safety Eric Jones returned an interception 26 yards to the Northwestern 22-yard line, and seven plays later, halfback Letavious Wilks put the Blue Devils ahead by three with a four-yard touchdown run.
Goldsmith had outcoached America's most-coveted coach for more than three-and-a-half quarters, but his one major mistake on Northwestern's next drive would send his squad to defeat.
The Wildcats moved quickly to the Duke 38-yard line but gained just five yards on their next three plays. Facing fourth-and-five at the Duke 33, they lined up for one last gasp. Everyone at Ryan Field, including Goldsmith, knew that they would throw to senior Brian Musso, who had already caught nine passes for 151 yards. In fact, Northwestern had gone to Musso on the previous play, when Tim Hughes underthrew the senior.
"They were going to get the ball in a hurry to Musso," Goldsmith said. "So if we had been in a zone, he would've caught it and had a first down, so we felt like we needed pressure and tried to play him in tight coverage."
Rather than play zone, or-better yet-double-cover Musso, Goldsmith isolated senior cornerback Tawambi Settles on Musso and blitzed inside.
But if Goldsmith expected Northwestern to "get the ball in a hurry to Musso," why did he blitz? Hughes released his pass well before Duke had applied any serious pressure, and Settles, alone in coverage, let Musso catch the ball for a first down and tried to stop him from picking up a long gain.
Thus, even if Settles had made the tackle-he wrapped up well on tackles for most of the afternoon-the Wildcats still would have reached the first-down marker. Couldn't the Blue Devils have pulled aside another defensive back to give Settles backup support, allowing Settles to challenge Musso's reception?
Musso caught the first-down pass, then juked by Settles and galloped to the Duke 1-yard line. On the following play, running back Adrian Autry scored the go-ahead points for the Wildcats.
Goldsmith had good reason to believe that Northwestern would look for Musso. Not only had the 'Cats thrown to Musso on third down, but on first and second downs, the Blue Devil defense had held Autry to a combined total of five yards. The Wildcats were not likely to run on fourth-and-five; they were, however, likely to look for Musso.
Ultimately, the factor that caused Duke's 15th consecutive loss was-believe it or not-the Blue Devils' 14-game losing streak. Goldsmith wanted his team to earn a win, to seize the win rather than waiting for one to fall into its lap, so he blitzed.
"We told our players before the game, we told them at halftime, we weren't going to come in here and try to avoid losing and play soft," Goldsmith said. "[Settles] wasn't playing safe, he wasn't trying to avoid losing, he was trying to win the game, and I'll never fault a guy like Tawambi who's up there trying to win the game."
Goldsmith spoke from experience. He undoubtedly remembers last year's 17-16 loss to Wake Forest, when the timid Blue Devil defense let a 16-3 fourth-quarter lead slip through its fingers. But he seems to have forgotten the comments he made about Musso last Monday at his weekly press conference.
"He's a guy who's very hard to cover one-on-one," Goldsmith said. "Tennessee, Southern Cal, some of the quality clubs, all of them have had trouble with him when you try to cover him one-on-one."
Settles is one of Duke's best defenders, but if Tennessee and Southern California couldn't cover Musso one-on-one in the 1997 Florida Citrus Bowl and 1996 Rose Bowl, could an isolated Settles realistically expect to stop him on fourth-and-five?
Goldsmith should have taken Musso out of the equation, letting Settles meet him near the line of scrimmage and keeping another defensive back nearby to help Settles. Wouldn't the Blue Devils rather have made one of Northwestern's other receivers-who combined for just six catches all day-beat them, instead of watching the Wildcats' best player do them in?
But after turning in 55 minutes of brilliant coaching, in which he outsmarted Northwestern's clever staff and kept his decimated squad on its feet, Goldsmith went with his heart, not with his head. The results were a 32-yard gain for Northwestern, and for Duke, the extension of a painful, year-and-a-half-long losing streak.
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