DURHAM — That other coaching Carl is having a tough year too. Everyone’s talking about North
Carolina’s 1-6 start under Carl Torbush, but after stealing defeat from the jaws of
victory in Saturday’s 31-24 overtime loss to North Carolina State, Duke coach Carl
Franks’ troops have the same miserable record as Torbush’s Tar Heels.
Duke (1-3 Atlantic Coast
Conference) hoped to stay “bowl eligible” by beating the Wolfpack (5-3, 2-3).
Instead, the reeling Devils became “bowl negligible.”
N.C. State, however, kept most of
its goals for the season alive on the strength of an overtime TD run by Jamie Barnette and
a huge sack in the extra period by Clint Johnson that ended any chance Duke had of
retaliating.
Duke, coming off a shocking win
over Virginia and an impressive loss to Georgia Tech, looked to be the better team most of
the day.
The Devils displayed a brand new
running game, courtesy of B.J. Hill, back from injury.
Hill contributed the Blue
Devils’ longest run of the season (32 yards) and biggest rushing game (107 yards).
Meanwhile, Duke QBSpencer Romine
matched more celebrated Wolfpack counterpart Barnette, just as he had Tech’s Joe
Hamilton. And Duke pass rusher Chris Combs was constantly in Barnette’s hair.
Duke led 21-14 at the break, using
two scoring runs by Hill and a TD pass from Romine to Scottie Montgomery to offset big
plays by Wolfpack back Rahshon Spikes, who turned a short flip by Barnette into a 77-yard
scoring play and turned a dive into a 10-yard TDburst.
Duke, which built its first
halftime lead all season, should have grabbed the game by the throat in the third quarter.
But apparently Romine wasn’t built in a day.
Even with the Devil defense
forcing punts on three straight Wolfpack possessions, the Devil QB couldn’t finish
off the Pack.
The backbreaker was a 15-play,
75-yard march that died when Sims Lenhardt shanked a 35-yard field goal. Minutes later,
Tony Scott picked off a Romine pass on the N.C. State 3 to deny the Devils again.
That was the turning point, as
Barnette then led the Pack on a game-tying, 94-yard stroll through the Devils. He capped
the march with a 12-yard pass to freshman Koren Robinson, who finished with 129 receiving
yards.
Barnette turned in a spectacular
19-for-28 effort, good for 280 yards and three TDs.
He now stands second in the ACCin
TDpasses (56) and third in career yardage with 8,477.
“When we protect Jamie and
guys catch the football, he can do tremendous things,” said N.C. State coach Mike
O’Cain.
Barnette indicated it was high
time for the Wolfpack to do something tremendous.
“If we lose this game our
noses would have been under water,” he said. “Would we still have been
breathing? I don’t know.”
Both teams were gasping for air
down the stretch.
The Wolfpack took a 24-21 lead
with 1:34 left when Kent Passingham booted a 27-yard field goal that was set up by a
controversial Barnette-to-Robinson completion on the sideline.
Somehow, Duke tied the game at the
end of regulation. Hill performed a Mary Lou Retton-like cartwheel for a first down, then
Romine dived for another. With 4 seconds left, Romine found Hill again at the Wolfpack 32.
From there, Lenhardt made it
24-24, redeeming himself for his earlier miss by banging though a 50-yard field goal into
a crosswind as time expired. He did it despite two Wolfpack timeouts, intended to ice him.
The kick would have been good from 65.
But the Wolfpack dominated the
overtime to escape Durham and keep Franks on the ropes.
“This one hurts,” said
Lenhardt. “Because we know we’re every bit as good or better than they
are.” |
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