George Washington once told Congress, "Men are very apt to run into extremes," in an attempt to alleviate America's desire to ally itself with its revolutionary side-kick France in its war against much-hated England.
While it seems both stupid and pseudo-intellectual to use Washington's advice about 18th century national security to the present condition of the Duke football team, the quote is perfect advice for the Duke community's attitude about the Blue Devils.
After Saturday's humiliating 27-0 loss to Virginia, the small amount of optimism for the 2003 season vanished. It is easy to see why; Duke currently has the longest ACC losing streak in the conference's history, head coach Carl Franks has a 4-41 record at Duke, and the team looked even worse than last year's 2-10 squad. The fans and community have not had to run to extremes the last few years, as no analysis is necessary to see that the Blue Devils have been nearly as bad as it gets.
But despite this pejorative history, it is too early in the season to once again start belly-aching about how bad the Duke football team is. Even with 22 returning starters from a team that was competitive in nearly every game, the Blue Devils had little chance at defeating the No. 15 Virginia on its home field. Duke should become more competitive this season, but not that competitive.
The true test lies in the next three weeks of the season. Duke needs to win each of the three games--against Western Carolina, Rice and Northwestern--to prove it is not the same lowly team we've seen in the Carl Franks era, and I am confident the Blue Devils will do it.
Many of the players talked about how there was a different, more confident feeling in the air all preseason, and this led them to believe that this year would be different. While Duke looked worse than last year's squad, the different aura the players described came back at both Monday's press conference and at Tuesday's practice.
Last year after every loss, the comments were generally to the effect of, "we did badly, and we'll try to do better." Sometimes there would be an undertone of embarrassment and humiliation, but there was rarely anger and a desire for revenge heard.
This was not longer the case Monday and Tuesday.
"Today was a much more upbeat day in our outlook," quarterback Adam Smith said Tuesday. "We were quicker, faster. We had a sour taste in our mouths from Saturday." Franks agreed.
"The coaches were more intense, the players were more intense," he said. [The players] responded exactly the way we hoped." Franks also said the team was more driven and more vengeful than after any other loss in his tenure at Duke.
"We were mad," Ryan Fowler said. "I'd almost rather have lost like we did Saturday than moderately. This has pissed us off enough to do something about it."
Chris Douglas, one of the few bright spots Saturday, felt that his team would bounce back from its wretched defeat.
"I know we're so much better than we played," he said. "I don't want people to jump to conclusions based on how we played. We'll do a lot better than that this year."
So for all of you who have written off all the possible bowl game hype after the Blue Devils performance Saturday, I advise you not to give up yet. Although its past may not deserve it, give Duke a second chance this Saturday. For the first time in a long time, it will be worth your while.
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