Yesterday afternoon, Carl Franks celebrated his one-year anniversary at Duke by flying out of town on a recruiting visit.
A year after being hired as the new head football coach, Franks continues to build a new foundation for the program, now with the luxury of having a full season under his belt.
It was a year that began with ambitious bowl hopes but ended in an all-too-familiar losing season. The Blue Devils returned 21 starters from last year's team, but actually won one fewer game in 1999, finishing the year 3-8 (3-5 in the ACC).
By most accounts, the season was a failure, but Franks is thinking broader than single seasons and single bowl games. The coach still plans to lead Duke to a higher level of prominence and, despite Duke's dismal record, he believes he's off to a good start.
"I thought we could win five or six games, so from that standpoint it's a little disappointing," he said. "But we're in the process of building our program and it's going to take time. I think we've gotten a good start and we've got a foundation that we can build on."
And although creating that foundation was a rocky time full of tough losses, the new guy has certainly learned a thing or two in his first 12 months.
"As a first-time head coach every experience is new for you," Franks said. "I just tried to take each thing as it came. Certainly you hope you're a better coach each year that you do [coach], and you hope you are a better head coach the second year you do it.
"I've learned you better score touchdowns to win overtime games. Kicking field goals is not the way to win those things."
Although said in partial jest, Franks' statement speaks a world of truth about a season full of maddening what ifs. Duke played in three overtime games, losing two of them. In total, the Blue Devils lost three games determined by a touchdown or less.
Duke needed six wins to get to its bowl but essentially eliminated itself from postseason contention with an 0-4 start, with three losses coming against beatable non-conference opponents and the other against Florida State.
Starting quarterback Spencer Romine was out with a separated shoulder suffered in the season opener and Franks' new Airborne offense was stuck on the runway as it became the victim of a countless number of bad puns. The Blue Devils could not run or pass and did not score a single touchdown until the second quarter of their third game, which ended in a humiliating 31-14 drubbing to Vanderbilt.
Nothing was working and things looked pretty bleak for Duke.
"The offense didn't start playing well until the fourth or fifth game of the year," Franks said. "If we had played better earlier, that would have helped a lot.... I didn't think it would take that much time.... I don't think the offense is that complicated, but it did take a bit of time for everybody to operate as one unit offensively."
But then came The Miracle in Charlottesville, and for a brief while, hope was restored. Duke tied the Cavaliers with six seconds left when Scottie Montgomery picked up a fumbled pitch and threw the ball toward Romine, only to see Richmond Flowers "intercept" the pass and score a touchdown.
Duke won in double overtime and Franks' first victory marked a turning point for the Blue Devil offense, which scored 25 points or more in three straight games.
But just as the offense started clicking, the defense began to crumble.
"We seemed to go in opposite directions," Franks said. "Instead of both sides getting better and better, our offense didn't play very well early and our defense didn't play very well late. That's not a good combination."
The Virginia win was followed by two difficult seven-point home losses to then-No. 8 Georgia Tech and N.C. State. Duke held fourth-quarter leads against both teams, but each game ended in disappointment as the defense faltered.
One week later, the defense shut down Maryland running back Lamont Jordan in the second half of a 25-22 road victory as Romine threw for 404 yards to lead Duke to a come-from-behind win over the Terrapins.
But the Blue Devil defense again faltered in the final three games, giving up a whopping 131 points to end the year, as poor coverage and bad tackling got the best of them. After a 58-7 slaughter in Death Valley (Duke's worst loss since 1990), the defense nearly squandered a 34-0 first quarter lead against Wake Forest and then it ended the season on a particularly sour note-a 38-0 loss to North Carolina.
"We weren't able to convert our opportunities on offense," Franks said. "We found ways to hurt ourselves more than anything.... We had trouble tackling.... Sometimes we'd give up a short pass, then give up a long pass. You'd like to take one or the other away. And you'd like an offense that stayed on the field longer so the defense wouldn't have to play so long."
But Franks' wishes did not come true and he now faces an uphill challenge.
The defense loses eight starters and while his offense remains largely intact, it does lose wide receiver Scottie Montgomery, lineman Austin Smithwick and kicker Sims Lenhardt. Replacing these players won't be easy and Franks gives them a lot of credit for creating a strong foundation for the new direction of the program.
"I don't believe that our football team ever quit coming to play every Saturday," Franks said. "But we have to get beyond playing hard where we play hard and expect to win football games."
And as Franks celebrated his anniversary on an airplane, he knows that perhaps a bigger season is about to begin.
"The recruiting is the most important thing for us right now," Franks said. "That's where you can improve. What you try to do as a coach is try to get guys who are better than what you have."
In the end, Franks' success in this category will be the ultimate indicator as to the success of his first year in charge.
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