Rabid surfers of the Duke Basketball Report website will notice a curious quote from an even stranger source. The quote is taken from a football player discussing why he considered playing for Duke. "I figured I'd get good seats for the basketball games," he said.
The source: Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger couldn't have been that serious about considering playing for Duke-he did give a joke answer when asked why-but his comment makes you wonder.
What if Ben Roethlisberger had gone to Duke instead of Miami of Ohio?
Let's play the Traveling-To-An-Alternate-Universe-In-A-TIme-Machine Game and find out.
Fall 2000. An East Campus dorm room. An 18-year-old Roethlisberger sits in a desk chair studying economics with his roommate, running back Alex Wade.
The Blue Devils are 1-0, having just won their first game of the season, 42-35, against East Carolina. Roethlisberger threw for 228 yards and four touchdowns in his first collegiate game, having entered the game in the middle of the second quarter in relief of an ineffective D. Bryant, Duke's starting quarterback.
Roethlisberger continues to impress all season, and The Chronicle's columnists start saying that he's as good a quarterback as any Duke has ever seen-including NFL Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgenson.
In our alternate universe, Duke finishes the regular season 7-4-not 0-11 like in the real 2000-and cap the year off with a 63-14 win over Minnesota in the Micron PC Bowl. Roethlisberger earns MVP honors for the game with 356 yards and five scores.
After the season, Roethlisberger is named ACC Rookie of the Year and selected to the second-team all-conference squad. Head coach Carl Franks, whose Airborne Attack is the talk of the NCAA all off-season, is honored as ACC Coach of the Year and anointed heir apparent to Steve Spurrier as the next great offensive mind in college football.
The off-season is one of the busiest in Duke Football history. Offensive recruits from football hotbeds in Florida and Texas flock to the program, all looking to play for the next Spurrier. Sports Illustrated puts Franks (and his mustache) on the cover of its annual college football preview, with the headline "Duke Football's Back!" Duke finishes the season 11-2 with a win in the Gator Bowl; Roethlisberger is the obvious choice for ACC Player of the Year.
The next two years would bring even more success. Sports Illustrated picks Duke to win the National Championship in Roethlisberger's senior year and the Blue Devils live up to expectations, thrashing Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, Big Ben's final game.
Fast forward to today, Sept. 28, 2005 (in our alternate universe), Ben Roethlisberger, pride of the Blue Devils, is an NFL star. Carl Franks is still Duke's coach. North Carolina native Chris Leak is his redshirt-sophomore quarterback, coming to Duke for a chance to play in Franks' Airborne Attack. The Blue Devils are currently 4-0, poised to make a run at an ACC Championship.
The Loop sells a RoethlisBerger. The University Book Store has dozens of Roethlisberger's No. 7 Duke jerseys in stock. Wallace Wade stadium is the hottest ticket in the Triangle (and not just for the Rolling Stones concert). Wade Wacko shirts are as common a sight around campus as Cameron Crazy shirts. And, the tailgates have girls in cocktail dresses (instead of spandex... seriously, what's the deal with that?).
Sure it never really happened. But that shouldn't keep a guy from dreaming.
Especially because there's a lesson to be learned from the dream. Every football player that comes to Duke could be the guy that turns the program around-the football team's equivalent of Johnny Dawkins.
And every time head coach Ted Roof secures a commitment from a four- or five-star recruit, there's an even better chance that he could be The Guy.
The "When will Roof be fired?" rumblings have already begun, as the Blue Devils started 1-3 with a pair of blowout losses. But as long as Roof keeps inking top recruits, Duke would be crazy to let him go.
After all, any one of those prospects could be the next Big Ben. Anyone hungry for an Oghobaase-wich?
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