College football writers across the country are receiving blue and white plastic combs in the mail. They go along with flyers that read, "Combing the country for an All-America player??? Look no further than Duke's Chris Combs." These same flyers proclaim the 6-foot-6, 275-pound defensive tackle to be "one fine-toothed comb."
The advertising is an effort by Duke Athletics to promote junior Chris Combs as a potential All-American and Outland Trophy winner.
But bad puns like those are not the most painful part about Combs' 1998 campaign. Just ask any quarterback in the conference.
For the third straight year, Combs leads the Blue Devils in sacks (four) and tackles for a loss (12.5). To go along with those numbers, he leads the teams with 17 quarterback pressures, nearly double the number of his closest challenger.
He heads into this weekend's game with 40.5 career tackles for a loss, just a half tackle shy of James Kirkland's Duke career record of 41. Combs' 18 career quarterback sacks leave him four short of the Duke career record.
And all this just eight games into his junior year?
"Chris has an instinct and an ability to rush the passer on a one-on-one situation," defensive line coach Scott Brown said. "He's a very instinctive football player. He recognizes blocking schemes and reacts to blocking schemes based on repetition and instinct very well."
Last Saturday, Combs played only 22 plays before spraining his knee in the second quarter against Clemson. He is taking it day-to-day, but fully expects to be playing this weekend at Vanderbilt.
Combs was forced to deal with a much more serious injury this past spring. He injured foot ligaments in his right foot that required orthoscopic surgery. Although he still has two screws in his foot, as soon as he got off crutches he began an intense workout program in the summer. Despite the injury, he's playing 10 pounds heavier than he did last year.
"The one thing you can't measure on Chris is his heart," Brown said. "There's nothing he wants to do in this world any more than be a great football player. He puts everything he's got into it. Each time in his career he's suffered a setback in terms of an injury and faced some adversity, he's worked as hard as anyone I've ever been around."
The hard work has paid off nicely. When Combs first came to Duke in 1995, he was only 230 pounds and was not heavily recruited. Through hard work in the weight room and hard eating, Combs has bulked up nearly 50 pounds since that time.
He spent his first year on the scout team, but came back to start the last eight games in 1996. That year, he set a freshman school record for sacks and tackles for a loss. In the final three games of the year, he recorded a whopping 22 tackles and five sacks.
Combs' father, Glen, played basketball at Virginia Tech and spent six years playing in the ABA. Although Glen's basketball career ended before Chris was born, his athletic influence on Chris is apparent.
"My Dad had always been around sports, and he knew what it took to get to the highest level," the younger Combs said. "He knew it took a tremendous amount of dedication and work ethic to succeed, and that's what rubbed off on me."
Chris himself was the leading scorer on his high-school basketball team, but it was apparent early on that football was his greatest strength. And now some people are talking about Chris joining Glen as a professional athlete. Last year, Combs was named second-team All-ACC. Three of the four defensive lineman on the first team were first-round picks in the NFL draft. Can Combs be too far off?
"[Playing professionally] has crossed my mind," Combs admitted. "I'm not trying to think too far into the future. I've still got another year here after this and I'll graduate. Whatever the future holds, I'll deal with it."
Still, despite all of his accomplishments, if Combs is to be remembered for one moment, it is a moment he would like to forget. Last year, playing in front of his hometown crowd at Virginia, he made a penalty that ended Duke's chance of a rare win and a rarer upset.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the score tied at 10 and the Cavaliers driving, Combs and fellow lineman Eric Scanlon made a big third-down sack that would have forced a 48-yard field goal attempt by the Virginia kicker. Combs sprang up from the ground, turned to the sideline and gave a giant salute. It was ruled unsportsmanlike conduct and Virginia took advantage of the opportunity and drove up the field, setting up a game-winning 29-yard kick.
Coach Fred Goldsmith was infuriated, screaming at the referees from that point on until well after the final gun had sounded that Combs' play should not have received the penalty it did. But Goldsmith's pleading was all for naught and the Blue Devils lost yet another close game. In the aftermath of the controversy, Combs was devastated.
"When it first happened, I was mainly embarrassed and I felt terrible," Combs said. "I felt I had let my teammates down."
Combs has let the incident pass, and he can even laugh at it now. For awhile his teammates took to calling him Sarge, and he is still sometimes greeted by strangers with a big salute.
"You just have to try and move on," he said. "I've dealt with adversity before and I'm getting better at dealing with that type of thing. I still hear the jokes and that type of thing, but I'm past that now."
And now his opponents are saluting him.
Combs is anchoring a Duke defense that has allowed just 350.9 yards per game thus far in 1998, the lowest per-game total at Duke since 1985. No doubt Combs has been aided by the return of Brian McCormack and the continued improvement of Kendral Knight, but there is little question as to who the defensive leader on this team is.
In Duke's first ACC win in its last 22 tries, against Wake Forest on Oct. 10, Combs was dominant, causing two fumbles, recording four tackles for a loss and two sacks-including one in Wake's final drive.
His efforts all season have placed him on the list of candidates for the Outland Trophy, given annually to the nation's best interior lineman. But more importantly to Combs, his efforts are helping turn Duke football around.
"The difference is night and day between this team and previous teams," Combs said. "Everyone's playing with a lot more confidence. We have the experience that we've been lacking before, and you can see that with veteran guys stepping up big."
And none more so than Combs himself.
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