In the football team's final full scrimmage, the senior-laden defense outshone Carl Franks' new Airborne offensive attack.
Saturday afternoon at Wallace Wade Stadium, the defense recorded eight sacks, one safety and forced two turnovers as all three Duke quarterbacks struggled to generate sustained drives.
"I saw a lot of mistakes on offense," Franks said. "We had trouble pass blocking. Our defense played very well, and that was good, because the last scrimmage we had the offense played better than the defense. But our offense had way too many mistakes."
Among those mistakes were fumbled snaps, muffed handoffs and a dropped pass that resulted in an interception. But Franks believes that one of the biggest differences between Saturday and Duke's first two scrimmages was the changing injury report that brought the return of several defensive regulars.
In the first-team offense's first possession, Spencer Romine hit Scottie Montgomery for a 22-yard strike that was negated by a holding penalty. The drive was stalled and the first team was forced to settle for a Sims Lenhardt field goal.
In six possessions against the first-team defense, Romine & Co. only mustered two field goals. During the first team's other scoring drive, Romine drove the team to the nine-yard line, setting up a first-and-goal situation. His
Bobby Campbell and the second-team offense mustered one touchdown drive in six possessions against the second-team defense. During that drive, Campbell, who was sacked for a safety on the previous possession threw key completions to Ben Erdeljac and Kyle Shanahan. The drive was capped with a one-yard touchdown run from freshman Chris Douglas.
The only other touchdown on the afternoon was a 17-yard pass from third-teamer Kevin Thompson to walk-on receiver Ryan Shannon.
All three quarterbacks once again connected with a variety of receivers. Kyle Moore and Richmond Flowers had five catches each and four others had three receptions. In all three Blue Devil scrimmages this preseason, Duke has shown receiver depth that was not used last season.
On the ground, tailback B.J. Hill finally returned to the field after missing the first two scrimmages with an injury. Although Hill practiced with the team all preseason, Franks had not wanted to risk playing him in a scrimmage until this weekend.
Hill looked rusty and at one point cost the second team a possession when a muffed handoff between Hill and Campbell was recovered by linebacker Randy Ament.
"B.J. Hill needs to get some reps," Franks said.
After the scrimmage, Franks said he is nearing the point where he will name a starting quarterback, but still wants to watch more film. Romine has been playing with the first-team offense all summer and is the likely choice.
Saturday's scrimmage was held at Wallace Wade and was attended by a small crowd. For that reason, Franks was reluctant to show off too much diversity in his offense, but says that most of his plays are now installed.
"We've got most of [the offense] in," Franks said. "Now it's just a matter of refining it more. We didn't show a lot of it today; we knew people would be here watching practice so we kind of held some of it back."
With classes beginning today, two-a-days have now ended and Franks is pleased with what he's seen so far. In the next two weeks before the season opener against East Carolina, the first-year head coach wants his players to recover from the mental and physical strains of two-a-days.
"It's time for the guys to start getting their legs back, to start getting refreshed," Franks said. "We've got some guys who are nicked up we need to get healthy. We've got two weeks before we play our first game. We've got some time to improve and there's certainly plenty of room for it."
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