I'm not above giving credit where it is due, so I'll say this: The University certainly deserves its fair share of congratulation for responsibly solving the Tailgate dilemma. Both students and administrators appear to be happy with the current model's remarkably stable balance between ridiculousness and safety.
Yet this is only a superficial diagnosis. The administration's guiding philosophy has always been to wean us away from our beloved "Tailgate" in favor of conventional "tailgating," preferring the calm support of football over the chaotic parking-lot throw down. It is this aim that has been frustrated for some time.
In fact, the hope for tailgating died last Saturday with our embarrassing 28-7 loss at Notre Dame. Chomping at the bit for its first two-win season since 2004, Ted Roof's team managed to squander this precious opportunity to beat a fellow 1-9 team hurting from its four-week string of horrible and historic defeats.
We've always been encouraged to support the football team and take pride in its continuing struggle to capture elusive victory. Tailgate has been tolerated, in large measure, out of recognition for its game-day connections and its propensity to put a few more excited fans in the stands.
But now I'm done with hope. Roof has consistently been given the benefit of the doubt and consistently failed to deliver. He has racked up only six wins in 50 games in his tenure at Duke, allowing him to claim ownership of one of the longest college football losing streaks of all time.
Looking back at my stay here, I can't help but be disappointed. A college football nut, I would be at Wallace Wade every home game to root for the team if Duke were at least marginally competitive and effectively coached. I was present for the Citadel game ('04), the upset of Clemson ('04) and the VMI win ('05), and I went crazy when we beat Northwestern earlier this season.
Unfortunately, four wins in my four years at Duke just hasn't been enough for me to maintain my enthusiasm. It shouldn't be enough for you, either: Duke excels at nearly everything it does, so why should football be any different?
Sadly, though, failure is now the dominant football narrative. Seeing Notre Dame, one of the worst teams in college football, actually look pretty good at our expense was the last straw. At Duke, Saturdays are now defined by the intermittent Tailgate and watching other teams.
Someone ought to own up to these defeats-and something needs to change. The promise of always being "close" to victory is an insufficient defense of poor performance.
If the University is truly committed to improving football game attendance, it needs to take real action to give the students a reason to care. We only have so much patience, and for this Blue Devil it's wearing rather thin.
Coming into this year the University had an incredible opportunity to make real change. Instead, it chose to keep both Roof and controversial Director of Athletics Joe Alleva around, signaling its intention to do nothing more than pray for a few more victories.
The deciding moment will soon be upon us, as the season winds down and Alleva embarks upon his promised evaluation of Roof's record. But the key will be to remember that at Duke we live-and die-by higher standards, so occasional victories shouldn't obscure the obvious trends of the past four years.
What I do hope is that we won't be fooled in the unlikely event that we beat UNC next weekend. Future success demands honest action now, which means that the University must seriously analyze the status quo and hopefully make some changes and resist being overwhelmed by the euphoria of the cowbell.
Until then, Tailgate is here to stay. Tailgating will rest in peace, buried by the irony that the University's own reluctance to turn up the heat on Duke's football program undercut its aspirations to triumph over Tailgate as if a goal post had fallen on its head.
Jon Detzel is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
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