Northwestern, Duke face similar growing pains

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Posted 7:14AM on Friday, September 13, 2002

EVANSTON, ILLINOIS - Northwestern can't settle on a starting quarterback. Ditto for Duke. The Wildcats are having trouble moving the ball, both on the ground and in the air. The Blue Devils have similar problems. And opponents are running roughshod over Northwestern's defense. Once again, same story at Duke. At least when Duke (1-1) visits Northwestern (0-2) on Saturday, neither team will be surprised by what it sees. ``They're playing a bunch of young guys now, and I've been through that last year and still some this year,'' Duke coach Carl Franks said. ``They're a young team trying to learn how to play the game right now.'' ``It will be interesting to see how they get those young guys playing,'' Franks added. ``They might come along and have a pretty good year, or they might struggle. Hopefully, we can add to their struggles. I know they're hoping we can get them going.'' Duke's and Northwestern's woes stem from experience. Or, rather, a glaring lack of it. Duke has one senior on its roster, while Northwestern has nine - and one of those, linebacker Pat Durr, is injured. That inexperience is showing on the field. While Duke snapped its 23-game losing streak with a 23-16 victory over East Carolina in the opener, it struggled in last weekend's 40-3 loss to Louisville. The Blue Devils managed just three first downs and 58 total yards through three quarters, and finished with 175 yards of offense. Louisville quarterback Dave Ragone, meanwhile, threw for 258 yards. Northwestern turned the ball over seven times in a 48-24 loss to Texas Christian, a game that wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. TCU ran off 41 unanswered points before the Wildcat offense scored its first and only - touchdown of the season. By this time last year, Zak Kustok had already rushed for three scores and thrown for another three. ``You can see that they're not quite all together yet,'' Franks said. ``There are still some things they've got to get ironed out yet.'' Part of the problem could be Northwestern's offense. Its no-huddle, spread offense requires the quarterback to move and think quickly, and quarterbacks Brett Basanez and Tony Stauss, who are seeing significant game action for the first time, are struggling to keep up. After chewing up yardage like a hungry beast last year, the Wildcats are dead last in the Big Ten in scoring (13.5 points), total offense (248 yards), rushing (74 yards) and passing (175 yards). ``When you don't execute like you think you should, you draw conclusions that we're doing too much. So we'll have a reduced package,'' coach Randy Walker said. ``That doesn't mean we won't have all the tools we need. But maybe we've tried to do too much.'' Basanez will start again this weekend, but expect to see Stauss at some point, too. Duke will rotate its quarterbacks, Adam Smith and Chris Dapolito, too. ``One of these days, one of them will begin to emerge,'' Walker said. ``But up to this point, that hasn't happened.'' Northwestern's defense isn't faring much better. It is allowing 50 points and 482 yards a game so far, both among the worst in the country. The Wildcats have been worse against the run than the pass, which could be trouble against Duke. The Blue Devils might have managed just 22 yards rushing against Louisville, but running back Alex Wade is much quicker than he appears at 260 pounds. Against East Carolina, Wade gained 109 yards. ``You don't think he has that agility, but he does,'' Franks said. ``He's our best pass blocker, and we need to make sure we can get the ball in his hands.'' That will be up to the offensive line, which Franks challenged publicly earlier this week, saying it had lacked ``intensity'' against Louisville. ``(Northwestern is) probably sitting there thinking: `OK guys, we've got Duke. We've beaten these guys the last few years. We've got a chance to go win a football game,''' Franks said. ``They're thinking about it probably the same way I'm trying to get my guys to think about it.''