In the past 42 years Duke has had just 3 seasons of winning more than 6 games. Those came in 1988 and 1989 with Steve Spurrier at the helm and in 1994 during Fred Goldsmith's first season here. Since their Hall of Fame Bowl game in 1994, the team is just 21-102 including 9-79 in ACC play with 6 winless ACC seasons the last 10 years and only 3 ACC wins the last six years. In 2002 the team had 5 losses by a total of 17 points. They had 20 starters back in 2003, but after they underachieved, Ted Roof took over as the interim HC and went 2-3 in his firsts games breaking a 30 game losing streak in ACC play and beat N Carolina for the first time since 1989. They officially hired Roof after the team escaped the ACC basement for the first time in 3 years. The 2002 Duke team was only outgained by 17 ypg in ACC play and in 2003, just 47 ypg. 2004 looked like a rebuilding season with just 10 starters back and they played 13 true frosh, the 2nd most in the NCAA and went from 4-8 to 2-9. They did have a couple of close losses but were outgained by 196.8 ypg in league play. Last year they had just 13 starters back (3rd fewest ACC). This time their record dropped to 1-10 and were outgained in league play by 231 ypg. Low points were a loss in the opener to EC, gaining just 35 total yards vs VT, having their smallest crowd since 1966 (10,126) vs VMI, 5 FD's vs Miami and losing their final home game 44-6 to Wake. On the positive side, they were at the Navy 24 with :04 left but QB Schneider's pass was broken up in the EZ trailing by 7. They actually led GT10-7 and had 181 yards rushing (the most Tech allowed to any foe during the year), had 191 yard rushing vs Fla St, trailing just 24-14 mid 3Q and led NC 21-17 in the 4Q with NC getting a couple of 4th down conversions on their final drive. This year they once again have 13 starters back but were -8 in turnovers (pg 312) and -3 net close losses (pg 299). Injuries hurt Duke LY, as at one point they were missing their top 3 RB's and top 3 WR's. Despite having just 4 starters back on offense, Duke only averaged 16.1 ppg last year and could improve upon that number. The D yielded 37.1 ppg, which was their worst since '01. With 7 starters back and the addition of rFr VHT Vince Oghobaase to the D-line, I look for solid improvement from the stop unit. While Duke is stronger and should improve upon last year's 1 win, they have a lot of ground to make up on the rest of the conf and playing teams like Fla, St, BC, Alabama, VT and Miami doesn't make things easier.
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