It really wasn't so much that Duke won as it was how they won - pretty
convincingly - over a team which has been called the hottest in the ACC.
And as ecstatic as Duke fans are, Tech partisans are pretty irritated.
Hilariously so, in some cases. Take the writeups in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution:
Jackets
bedeviled
Tech: Pounding in Durham is Duke's first ACC win since
Clinton administration.
Rare
victory
Roof gives notice to Blue Devil unfaithful.
Just kind of snide, but funny in a way. The players have a different
(and more honorable) perspective, and they obviously think they're the better
team. Most of the year, they were. But clearly, not Saturday.
- "Yeah, we screwed it up. It's pretty obvious," said Tech tight
end J.P. Foschi. - "We just weren't prepared," said P.J. Daniels "Some younger
players . . .We knew it was Duke, so it was kind of like, 'Duke.' " - "I feel embarrassed," said free safety James Butler. "Like
we just got our butts handed to us by Duke."
You can empathise with Tech's players - they were the team that Duke finally
beat? - but that kind of takes away from what Duke did, which was pretty
remarkable: they kicked Tech's butt all day long, and no one, outside of the
Duke locker room, thought it was possible.
Obviously, though, there have been some big changes in the Duke locker room
recently, and you can attribute them to Coach Roof, because basically, that's
where the change is.
And as happy as everyone seems with how things have gone since Roof took
over, we would be remiss if we didn't mention that the groundwork was laid by
Carl Franks. No doubt he's watching this and happy for his friends and
former players, but it must make him a bit sad not to be part of it. Of
course he is, even though it's no longer on a day-to-day basis.
As for Roof, he's building a case for himself as an ideal coach at
Duke. If he won the last two games - Clemson and UNC, and it's not
impossible - it'd very difficult not to hire him.