Two weeks ago, Fred Goldsmith would have laughed if someone told him Spencer Romine would quarterback Duke to its first victory in two years. In fact, he probably would've cringed if he had known the redshirt freshman would be his first-string quarterback heading into week three.
Not anymore.
When Romine started his first game calling the signals for Duke against an obviously undersized Army team, the odds against him were stacked high. Romine staggered out of the gate in the first half, completing nearly the same number of passes to Army, two, as he completed to his teammates, three.
Romine's play after his woeful start, however, was efficient and methodical. The way he ran the option and directed a quick-hit passing attack made some wonder whether Tommy Frazier had gone into the Duke locker room and donned Romine's uniform during halftime.
"He had some trouble with the passing game obviously in the first half, had some real problems with it," Duke head coach Fred Goldsmith said. "I was right on the verge there [of pulling Romine]. But we've seen him do it. He had an excellent week of practice, I know what he can do. Spencer just got better and better as we went along, and it all ended awful well."
On Duke's first possession, Romine attempted three passing plays. He was sacked once, pressured out of the pocket twice, threw into double coverage and triple-coverage and was nearly intercepted. Unfortunately for Romine, that would be his best drive until late in the second quarter.
Duke's next two possessions consumed a grand total of 1:27 off the clock, both ending abruptly with Romine getting picked off. In both instances, Romine had enough time to throw, but made poor decisions with the ball-not the kind of beginning Romine envisioned for his first collegiate start.
"They are those balls right when you let go, you want to pull back," Romine said. "I knew right when I let it go it was a stupid pass. I saw the guy there, I just picked him up a little too late. When I went over to the sideline, people just keep getting on me, 'Keep your head up, we believe in you, we know you can do it.'"
All the encouragement however, couldn't help Romine's erratic arm when he overthrew a wide-open Corey Thomas that would have been a sure six points. However, Romine was never known for his arm. His forte has always been his running ability, but even that deserted him. Romine ran for negative yardage in the first half, along with his 3-of-9 passing effort. His teammates, however, never lost confidence in his ability to rebound in the second half.
"Spencer is a great quarterback," wide receiver Scottie Montgomery said. "He's one of the most educated players I've ever seen on the field. First-game jitters are always hard to come over. In the first half, he really didn't make too many bad plays, It was just the plays he made were [really] bad plays."
Romine sure did not disappoint when he came out for the second half, engineering a 14-play, 77-yard drive that culminated with a Dawud Rasheed plunge into the end zone from one yard out. Romine was 3-of-4 passing on the drive, including two crucial completions in third-and-long situations to Thomas and tight end Jeff Hodrick.
A part of the credit for Romine's turnaround has to go to offensive coordinator Larry Beckish. After throwing medium-to-deep patterns in the first half, the passing game seemingly shifted focus to swing passes to running back and quick strikes over the middle to Hodrick.
"I'm sure [Beckish] saw something," Romine said. "He didn't care who was playing quarterback. He called the plays he sees, and that's what he saw; it worked. We just came out relaxed and just played ball."
Two drives later, Romine led Duke on a quick four-play drive that gave the Blue Devils a 17-9 lead with 8:41 left in the fourth quarter. Letavious Wilks caught a Romine pass in the flat and turned upfield for a 21-yard gain to began the drive. Romine then looked on as Montgomery leapt to catch his screen pass and proceeded to slice through the middle, high-stepping his way for the touchdown.
"I thought that touchdown would just bring us out and actually, it really brought us out of the dark," Montgomery said. "In the second half, [Romine] came out with so much composure, and that's what football is all about. It's not how many big plays you make, it's how you come back after a bad play."
An Army touchdown and a two-point conversion later, Duke again needed Romine to lead the team down the field from the Duke 33 in a tie game with 3:43 left. Romine was money in the final drive, completing both of his passes for first downs.
Even more important was the one pass he did not attempt. On the drive's first play, Romine was pressured from the pocket and instead of throwing a risky pass, Romine had the presence to tuck the ball under his arm and run out of bounds for a gain of six.
For the second half, Romine ran five times for 31 yards and completed 9-of-11 passes for 126 yards, reversing his own and his team's fortunes. If Romine had continued his poor play in the second half, Duke would still have the dubious distinction of the longest losing streak in Division I college football.
"It's just awesome, it's awesome to be a part of it, and to be here with a great group of guys," Romine said. "There was a two-pound block on the top of the team's head. [This win] just sort of let everybody just take a deep breath and relax a little bit and put the fun back into it."
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