As the football team prepares for its season opener, the Blue Devils are enthusiastic. This Saturday represents the start of the Carl Franks era, and hopefully, the start of a winning season and a winning tradition.
Duke players seem happy. They talk proudly and say that anything short of a bowl game will be a disappointment. We've heard this before, but for the first time, it really seems like the players believe it.
But they're the only ones.
That unmistakable enthusiasm seems to die somewhere right outside of Wallace Wade Stadium. Once you step off the practice field, Duke football has few believers.
Carl Franks said alumni and fans have given him a warm reception, but from what I've seen, Franks must do a lot more to have his message heard.
The media certainly isn't buying it. They don't think much of Duke's chances at all this year. In all the various preseason reports, I've seen the Blue Devils picked anywhere from seventh to ninth in the ACC.
I'll say this right now: If Duke finishes seventh, I will tattoo the names of the six teams that finish higher than us on my a--. If you do not believe I will do this, you should see the Mets logo I have on my back thanks to Bill Buckner.
Anyway, somehow the media thinks Clemson, who was awful last year and lost several key players-including the entire starting offensive line-will be better than Duke this year. I wonder if past reputation and tradition has anything to do with those picks.
Reputation has a lot to do with expectations and enthusiasm around campus.
Scottie Montgomery has said he doesn't blame fans for preferring men's basketball over football because football has not been a consistent winner over the years. But I think even Scottie would be surprised that if you ask 15 random Duke students to name someone on the football team, only one will say Scottie Montgomery.
Yesterday afternoon, I randomly polled 15 people walking through the Bryan Center (eight women, seven men). These people were picked completely at random with just one condition: they couldn't be within earshot of a member of the football team. Although not the most scientific way to conduct a poll, the results were fairly frightening.
In the fine tradition of sports columnists, I will list what I discovered via short, easy-to-read bullet points to avoid writing actual sentences and transitions. And one last thing: To all the people polled, thanks for reading The Chronicle's sports pages on such a consistent basis. People like you really make my work seem worthwhile.
Of the 15 people, only five knew that the head coach's name was Carl Franks. A few people said his surname was "Frank" and I counted those votes out of the goodness of my heart. One guy was quite confident it was Fred Goldsmith while another claimed the coach was "some guy named Smith or something." The other eight people had no idea.
Only one person surveyed could name at least three players on the team. Our lone genius was apparently a sports prodigy, because he rattled off five names with ease. Another guy named two players and two people successfully identified "that big guy who was in my class." Two people admitted that at some point they lived in the same dorm as some players, but neither could remember any names. All in all, 12 respondents could not name a single player, though one guy was really close, saying, "Ummm... one of those guys was in a class with me.... Oh f--- me... that big guy, Terrence or something?"
In an effort to figure out whether these people were just completely ignorant about sports or just specifically biased against football, I asked everyone to name as many of the men's basketball walk-ons from last year's team that they could. Four could name at least three, two could name two and four more could name at least one.
D. Bryant was named once as a football player and two-and-a-half times as a basketball walk-on. The half point was awarded when one of the 15 said "that short black guy who never got his name on his jersey."
The lone freshman surveyed knew nothing about the football team and I was ready to forgive his ignorance until he quickly rattled off the names of four men's basketball walk-ons.
Oh, and on average, the 14 non-freshmen attended an average of 1.4 football games last season, and seven saw at least two games. My guess is that they were too distracted by the $1 million scoreboard to notice that a game was going on.
What does this survey prove? Not much other than those who visit the Bryan Center do not follow football. But I suspect that the results of my informal poll are probably a good measure of what the students here know about football: nothing.
Those surveyed also don't expect much from the Blue Devils. Perhaps the years of frustration have made them jaded, but on average, our 15 say Duke will win four games. Several felt the need to add some form of "maybe, if they're lucky, hopefully" when giving their projection.
It's just three days until opening kickoff and the campus is hopping.
That's because opening kickoff means just 35 days and eight-and-a-half hours until Midnight Madness.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW is a weekly column written by a Chronicle sports columnist. It appears every Wednesday.
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