Northwestern Cruises By Devils 38-5

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The trip to Chicago didn't go well for the football team
as they were pasted by Northwestern,38-5. Obviously not the result any Duke
fan wanted.  What to do? What to think?

Well, again, though it sounds like the same old thing, there are some key
differences. First, we have a gifted young coach who wants to coach Duke. 
Not Florida, not a Big 12 school, but Duke. Second, he is getting quality
athletes to sign up.  Third, the football team is getting more support than
ever from the athletic department. Fourth, the facilities are about to be
sharply upgraded. 

This team is playing with 43 freshmen. To put that in perspective, that's
like a basketball team which won 25% of its games last season starting this season with 7 or 8 freshmen. 
There's a lot to learn. We prefer basketball, of course, but football is much
more complicated in the sense that you have to get two groups of 11 guys
functioning well as units and then supporting each other.

The pattern at Duke has been this: a coach comes in, gets a decent core of
players, and by the time they are ready to coalesce, either fan displeasure or
institutional unhappiness  has forced the coach out. The new coach either
has one good year or has trouble getting his system across, and then has to
start the cycle over again.  Our suggestion to Duke fans, and especially
students, is this: we've got a good, talented man in charge. Give him as much
support as you can, even if they struggle for a while.  He's smart, he's
dedicated, and he's a Dukie. 

For a bit of perspective, when Coach K showed up, and struggled for two
years, fans and local media were ready to ride him out of town on a rail. 
It wasn't easy being a fan then.  There were constant pleas for him to play
zone, to do things and cut corners to build faster. To his credit, Krzyzewski
never gave in to this pressure, and continued to build correctly.  

We
believe Carl Franks is doing the same thing. He's in a tougher spot because most
people don't think it can happen at Duke, and there is a recent history of difficulty at
Duke,  but we can tell you this: it will never happen  if we don't all believe it is possible. We do.  And we urge you to
continue supporting Coach and Team.  After all, it's easy to pull for
somoene who is on top, but the ride to the top is way more fun.