EVANSTON, Ill. - Sure, it was only the second game of the season. Sure, it was the first road win in three years. And sure, Northwestern seems a shadow of its former Big Ten-champion self.
But if you couldn't smell the change in the air Saturday at Ryan Field, you had to be holding your nose.
By halftime of Duke's 44-10 domination of Northwestern, 40,178 spectators understood what Fred Goldsmith has been explaining to anyone who'll listen lately: Duke football is, unmistakably, on the rise again.
"We knew this team was going to turn for the better," a happily exhausted Goldsmith said as he slumped against a wall under the stands. "We just didn't know it was going to be today."
Perhaps he was too overwhelmed to explain it properly, but Goldsmith and his staff had circled this game as the coming-out party for a squad which lost 20 games over the last two years.
"We really dedicated spring practice and the summer to Northwestern," Goldsmith said.
The result was a finely tuned offensive game plan which turned the Wildcats' defense into Swiss cheese. Duke controlled the ball for a school-record 100 plays from scrimmage and a time-of-possession edge of almost an entire quarter.
"Coach [Les] Koenning just put together a great package," quarterback Spencer Romine said. "He's been working on this since last summer. I'd go into his office and he'd be watching film, preparing our offense."
Goldsmith seemed more proud than anyone after his club posted its largest win in four years. Not surprising for a coach who's watched a painfully young group average just under two wins a season since an 8-4 debut in 1994.
"No team in America has been through as much adversity as this team, and they've stuck together and played hard," Goldsmith said.
It was easy to find bright spots on a day when everything seemed to go right for Duke. Richmond Flowers, who followed up a 106-yard opening performance against Western Carolina with a 126-yard effort Saturday, emerged as Romine's go-to guy.
All seven of Flowers' catches went for first downs.
"They just couldn't stop him," Romine said of his favorite target. "Richmond knew it. He'd come back to the huddle every play and tell me he could beat them deep."
Flowers was modest about his own performance but had trouble containing his excitement about the win.
"We went from having no respect, being the doormat of the ACC and the doormat of the country, and we've turned it around in one year," Flowers said. "Our goal is to gain respect."
The magnitude of this win-some would say the most pivotal game in Goldsmith's career at Duke-was on everyone's lips as the dust settled Saturday.
Goldsmith, who said the result was enough "to bring tears to my eyes," knew it was a turning point.
And Romine, who could never be mistaken for a trash-talker, nonetheless effused confidence in describing the improvement shown in just two games of the young season.
"I think it's huge," Romine said. "People now are going to start turning around and looking for us coming in. I don't think Northwestern had much respect for us. I don't think many people would.
"I hope this will make people around the country say 'Duke is not just a basketball team anymore. They're coming to play football, too.'"
There's bumpiness on the horizon, with an angry Florida State team awaiting the Blue Devils in Tallahassee. And Duke may have blown its cover by drowning the Wildcats so deep in Lake Michigan.
But a team that is still learning how to win football games can't help being starry-eyed after a performance that even Romine admitted was "pretty close" to perfection.
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