After a few weeks of running through the same drills in practice, not being able to hit at full speed and having to answer the same questions about its prospects for the season, the football team can finally look ahead to a real, tangible reward.
A football game.
Duke opens its season Saturday night against Western Carolina at Wallace Wade Stadium, and finally all of the buildup from preseason will be over and the Blue Devils can start playing for keeps.
"It's good to get the season started again," coach Fred Goldsmith said at yesterday's first press conference of the season. "It's always nice after preseason and the hard work and the intensity and just trying to get through that last week knowing you don't have a game; the spark of enthusiasm comes with the starter for everyone.
"It's always a lot of fun. The thrill here in starting this week is it's always the start of something new. We have fresh hopes."
With just four days until its first game, Duke's thoughts turn to final preparations. In this case, a big part of that is making sure the players are fresh and have their legs working underneath them.
After two straight weeks of two-a-day practices, Goldsmith began easing up late last week, ran limited drills Saturday and gave his team all of Sunday off. The Blue Devils can now settle into their routine of one evening practice daily.
"Coach has been real good about trying to keep our legs fresh," linebacker Ryan Stallmeyer said. "Most of the two-a-days we've run the drills but not really hit anybody too hard. He's really been concerned about our legs and keeping people healthy."
One of Duke's biggest questions heading into the opener is the health of its top two tailbacks, Letavious Wilks and Duane Epperson. Goldsmith is hopeful both will be back in time for the opener, but that doesn't appear to be too likely.
Epperson has participated in limited drills the past few days but has not pushed his pulled hamstring too hard. Wilks is still bothered by a partially separated left shoulder.
"In this situation, it could be very late," Goldsmith said about the decision as to who will start at tailback. "With Duane, you have to see at what point you let him cut loose fully where you haven't caused a recurrence. Letavious, it depends how his shoulder's feeling. Can he take a lick on that shoulder? He got quite a bit of range of motion back last week."
Goldsmith has been pleased with the play of true freshman B.J. Hill in the top two tailbacks' absence. But until Hill plays in a game, Duke's coach is left just as curious with him as he is the rest of his team.
"Like I was my first year, I'm a little curious to see what's going to happen," Goldsmith said. "I kind of was apprehensive the last few years knowing we had some major difficulties. That's not to say that we still won't, but right now I just don't know about them."
The players, meanwhile, are more than a little curious to get out on the field.
"We're just ready to play," tight end Terrence Dupree said. "We're tired of playing [against] each other."
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