With the hiring of defensive coordinator Ted Roof, the Duke football defense made a new commitment to excellence. One of the worst defensive teams in the nation in 2001, they had to turn it around from the very bottom. Naturally, the team has started with a Z.
Junior defensive lineman Matt Zielinski has emerged as one of the best linemen in the ACC, ranking fifth thus far in tackles for loss among league teams. However, things have not always been this easy for the 290-pound economics major.
The section six, Class A defensive player of the year for Clarence High School in East Amherst, N.Y., Zielinski came to Duke with high expectations. Only 250 pounds at the time, he found himself as something of a tweener.
Zielinski was too heavy to play middle linebacker, and too small to play on the line. He oscillated from position to position, never finding his niche.
"When I got to Duke the coaches really didn't know where they were going to play me," Zielinski said. "During my first two years here, I don't think I was at a position for more than two months before being switched. Now that I've been at tackle for a year and a half I'm more comfortable."
Zielinski hit the weight room hard in order to play lineman, beefing himself up to the point where he is now able to squat 640 pounds, bench 470 pounds, and lift 380 pounds on the power clean. The combined numbers add up to the highest on the team.
"I think anybody enjoys something that they succeed in," Zielinski said. "Each time I lift I want to see how high I can get my numbers up and be the top guy. I just like to see how far I can push the body. Even now I don't think I'm as strong as I could be and I can't wait until this coming offseason to work even harder in the weight room."
After redshirting his freshman season, Zielinski contributed off the bench in the first five games of the season in 2000 before earning his first start against Florida State. Zielinski was unable to appreciate his accomplishment for long, with disaster striking against the Seminoles.
Zielinski tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the game, leaving him injured for the rest of the season. Once again, Zielinski showed that he was a fighter when dealing with adversity. He rigorously rehabilitated his knee, and now the joint is stronger than before the injury.
"The surgery is a thing of the past," Zielinski said. "One of the toughest things that people go through with knee surgery is realizing that you can't do anything about it. All you can do is get back and that is what I did."
Coming back with a vengeance, Zielinski started the final nine games of the 2001 season and was rewarded with the Co-Outstanding Defensive Lineman Award.
Despite the individual accolades, Zielinski was not happy, citing disappointment with the team's failing to win a single game in back-to-back seasons.
"Last year I had some post-season honors, but you'd give that up for wins," he said. "Those are just stats. I'm the kind of guy who would rather have wins than stats."
Zielinski is proud of his team's two wins this year, but still expects more.
"We got two under our belt, but it would be great to finish with five," he said about the final three games of this season. "That's going to be huge going into winter conditioning."
Zielinski will be trying his best as always to stymie Clemson next week, with head coach Carl Franks saying that Zielinski biggest contribution to the team is his ability to tackle.
"The biggest difference is that we're in position to tackle better than we've ever been," Franks said. "We're in position to make those tackles, and we're wrapping up and making them because we have more speed on the field, and we have better athletes."
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