As the Duke football team approaches its upcoming season, one fact is quite evident: This team does not act like the worst team in Division I-A football.
The only squad in the country to go winless throughout its regular season, the Blue Devils could have sulked about their dreadful situation, but instead went out and worked in the offseason to improve.
And because of this work ethic, players learned their assignments and came to training camp ready to play. At least, that's what their always straightforward coach put forward in his news conferences.
"For the most part, we've stayed pretty healthy," Franks said. "Our team, for the most part, came in with excellent conditioning. I think they were only three or four guys who didn't pass the running test."
Based on their solid conditioning and productive offseason workouts, confidence is in the air at Duke fooball practice. Players will not even consider the likelihood of another winless season and Franks has expressed his certitude that his players have improved and will fare better.
In fact, quarterback D. Bryant, who will start for the second-straight year after replacing the oft-injured Spencer Romine during the middle of last season, says that his team's optimistic outlook started at the end of last season, despite the fact that Duke lost several demoralizing contests against in-state rivals like Wake Forest, N.C. State, and North Carolina.
"It seems like everything started building up [at the end of last season]," Bryant said. People got more confident in me, I got more confident in my teammates and it seemed like, even though we didn't have a winning season and even though we didn't win any games, everybody was looking forward to [this] year, knowing the things we could get done that we couldn't get done the year before. [We also knew] that we had a lot of weapons coming back, we knew that we had a lot of the team coming back this year. Knowing what we were capable of doing, that built us all up."
Besides the
Alex Wade, a 251-pound bruising fullback, could also play a prominent role in third-down situations for the Blue Devils after playing sparingly last season.
For its passing arsenal, Duke returns the majority of its receivers from last season, including All-ACC tight end Mike Hart, senior wide receivers Kyle Moore and Ben Erdeljac, and a plethora of athletic second-year wideouts including Reggie Love, Jeremy Battier, Khary Sharpe, and Senterrio Landrum. Not only have these receivers admitted that they are more confident than they were a year ago, but the man who will pass them the ball, Bryant, believes that his targets will be much more reliable than they were in the past.
"[Last year], it was very frustrating, putting balls where they needed to be--balls hitting receivers in the chest and then dropping it," Bryant said. "This year, we've got a lot of young guys, but we've also got a lot of guys back who are that much more confident also. During the preseason right now, we're catching the ball well and everything's going real well. I hope it'll carry over into the season."
Franks expressed similar sentiments.
"It was astronomical compared to what you'd expect. It was embarrassing at times, the number of passes that we dropped," Franks said of Duke's receiving woes in 2000. "Many times we got guys open, we got the ball there, and we just lacked the concentration. Maybe we lacked the experience in making those catches. I'll tell you, though, the receivers have been doing very well in preseason.
"I'm very encouraged with the work that they've done. They seem to have a better grasp of some of the passing schemes we're doing, they're running well after they catch it, so there's a lot
Besides having trouble catching the ball, another disturbing trend for the Blue Devils last season was their poor tackling on the defensive side of the pigskin. Time after time, members of the opponents' offense would break open a play that would have been dead at the line of scrimmage had the Duke defender done his job.
Therefore, the Blue Devil defensive unit worked non-stop in the offseason to improve its tackling, a point of emphasis they hope will carry over into its future games.
The linebackers, in particular, have focused on bettering their tackling, as standout sophomore Ryan Fowler, returning inside linebacker Jamyon Small, and 24-year-old freshman Jim Scharrer have gone back to the basics.
"Tackling is absolutely the most important thing," Fowler said. "We messed up so many times last year tackling that we needed to just go back to the fundamentals. Once we better our fundamentals, everything will fall into place from there."
Despite the optimism, Franks has admitted throughout the preseason that there are still many aspects of the game that his team has not yet mastered. For instance, he would like to see his team limit the number of turnovers it is prone to commit, as well as for his defense to have the ability to create turnovers by the opposing offense. Furthermore, Franks still believes that both his offensive and defensive players are missing too many assignments, which could be dangerous when Duke takes the field this weekend against perennial power Florida State, among other formidable opponents.
But all in all, the Blue Devils feel good about their progress and are excited to get the season underway.
"I'm extremely optimistic, partially because, in my mind, I know we're going to be a better team and also because everyone else is so optimistic," Fowler said. "It's a really contagious thing around here right now. It's just really rubbing off on everybody."
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