Recently, the Los Angeles Times ran an interesting piece contrasting the packed atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium to the rows of empty bleachers in Wallace Wade. But there is one important aspect the author failed to capture in the story--how little it takes to get the fans excited about our football team.
Yes, the stands were rather empty this year. But you can't realistically expect fans to go to the games when the chances are quite high that their team will lose. Fans like to watch competitive teams, and this season, our football team was rarely competitive. Our team came into most games as two-touchdown underdogs and by the end of the game had shown the world why the Vegas odds makers gave them such low odds to begin with.
This is especially true at a place like Duke, where the students are not only used to men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski's winning ways but are also of the belief that the key to getting good grades is to utilize fully those Saturday afternoons--by studying.
And that is the reason why on any given Saturday this year, during any given quarter, the stands at Wallace Wade were at least half-empty.
My intention here is not to put anyone down or to ridicule the team--the players get enough of that as it is. On the contrary, I respect men who continue to put their bodies on the line when the game is out of reach and when bowl berths have become a conversation topic for the next season by late October. Our players aren't quitters or losers or lacking in talent--they just can't execute on a consistent enough basis to beat out most teams they play.
And believe it or not, as demanding and spoiled by the basketball team's success as we might be, most fans understand this fact very well. We can see that the football team is at least a few seasons away from contending for the ACC championship, and we've adjusted our expectations accordingly.
And therein lies the ray of hope few people appear to notice.
The reporter from the Los Angeles Times only saw rows of empty bleachers in the student section. This season, though, I saw something else altogether.
I saw the student body's reaction with 11:30 left to go in the fourth quarter of the Wake Forest game when the Blue Devils scored to tie the game. Although the game appeared to be lost earlier, the Blue Devils came back with four unanswered touchdowns. Those of us who were here for fall break ran over to the stadium as soon as we heard the news. The few of us who were there screamed, yelled and annoyed the opposing team's bench as much as we could.
At one point in time, when it looked like Duke might actually win the game, the police officers at the stadium became fidgety. The announcer reminded everyone that the field was off-limits after the game was concluded. The implication was clear--if Duke won, the students would attempt to rush the field and bring down the goalposts. All for a single win.
I also saw the students' reaction to the first quarter score in the Florida State game--we were ecstatic because for one quarter, it looked like Duke might pull off the biggest upset in its history. A number of my friends and I stood in the rain and hoped for a win when the scoreboard at halftime during the Georgia Tech game had us down by only a touchdown. Our team had shown flashes of brilliance, and we believed the Blue Devils just might squeak out a victory on Homecoming.
In retrospect, our time would have been better spent waiting for Godot; that elusive win that our team needed to snap its losing streak didn't come this season.
But that's not the point.
The point is that there were plenty of us who were prepared to attempt to bring down the goalposts if the football team climbed to a 1-5 record. The point is that we still made it to a few home games and believed that, even for a little while, we might actually pull off the upset.
I don't know whether our football team will ever capture the ACC championship or whether it'll even put together a winning season anytime soon. With Duke's academic reputation and the new facility that will soon be finished, I'd like to think that there is hope for the program somewhere down the line.
But one thing is for certain--the fans are there. We're lying in wait, ready to embrace a winning team--whenever it decides to show up.
Marko Djuranovic is a Trinity senior and former health & science editor of The Chronicle.
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