July 23, 1999

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - It took Carl Franks exactly five minutes to win over the Duke football team.

The Blue Devils had just come off their eighth losing season of the 1990s when the program's new coach held a short - but brutally to the point - meeting in early December after taking over for fired Fred Goldsmith.

"He told us, 'We are all tired of hearing excuses.' I never heard a truer statement in my life," said senior wide receiver Scottie Montgomery. "A lot of guys realized in that meeting that maybe we are a decent football team, but you can't be a good football team until you take responsibility. He let everybody in the room know that."

Franks is a disciple of Florida coach Steve Spurrier, the former head man at Duke who led the Blue Devils to an ACC co-championship in 1989. That means Duke fans can expect an airborne offense. But Franks admits this year's team - at least at the start - will be built on defense.

"That is the strength of our team," Franks said of a defense that returns nine starters that helped allow the fewest yards by a Duke team in 17 years. "Our defense should be ahead of our offense because the defense hasn't changed a whole lot since last year. Those guys all know where to line up. They are going to have to play well for us."

The defense is led by all-Atlantic Coast Conference tackle Chris Combs, who has 18 career QB sacks. All four starting linebackers also return as well as the entire secondary.

"Our defense is going to get us over the hump," said Montgomery, who caught 60 passes for 793 yards during Duke's 4-7 season of 1998. "I believe that with all my heart. There are going to be games this a year where those guys are going to play four quarters and be relentless."

Duke was in bowl contention for the first time since '94 before losing its final three games, leading to the ouster of Goldsmith, who was 17-39 in five seasons.

But Franks has 18 starters returning - the most in the ACC - plus all-star place-kicker Sims Lenhardt. While nine starters return on offense, plenty of work remains on that side of the ball, considering the Blue Devils were 70th in the nation in total offense and 79th in points scored.

Franks, a former Duke tight end, chuckled when asked how many of Spurrier's plays he brought with him from Florida.

"I've brought all I can remember," he said. "Hopefully, we'll find some that will work. That's the offense I know best. It would be crazy for me to come in and do something totally different."

Franks must first develop a quarterback to suit his offense. Spencer Romine and Bobby Campbell are his choices, but both have been extremely inconsistent in their careers thus far. For example, Campbell threw an ACC-record seven interceptions in a 42-25 loss to Maryland.

Romine heads into fall camp as the starter, Franks said.

"You can say 'they're tied' but somebody is going to go in that first huddle and run that first play," he said. "Those guys have probably changed offenses more than any other quarterback in the country. They just need more and more reps at just one thing."

As a team captain, Montgomery said he was more vocal with his signal-callers in spring camp.

"I think we can win with both of those guys, but they have to come back into the season in mental condition to play 11 games and not just three, not just four or five," Montgomery said. "If they do that either one of them can get the job done."

Despite a host of returning starters, Duke was picked to finish seventh in the ACC preseason poll.

"It's almost justified," Montgomery said of the poll. "We haven't won many games and if I looked at a program that hasn't won many games and is trying to get out of the hole why would anybody be worried about what we're going to do?

"You have other teams in our league like Florida State and Georgia Tech who have been very successful winning games. I don't have a problem with guys dismissing us, it will just be sweeter when we play good football this year.

Duke has a shot at getting off to a good start. The Blue Devils open Sept. 11 at East Carolina, but then host Northwestern and Vanderbilt - teams that went a combined 5-18 last year.

"Starting off with ECU is going to be a tough one," said Montgomery. "I've been preaching that to our guys. We are not going to be playing in a normal environment down there. I don't think a lot of our guys know about it but it's going to be one heck of a football game.

"I was so happy to see that the coaches scheduled it for a 3:15 game so those (fans) can't be drinking all day. Around the third and fourth quarter I'm going to make sure I have my helmet on all the time."