Duke football kicked off its 2000 season Saturday afternoon at a wet Wallace Wade Stadium with its annual spring scrimmage.
While the Blue team defeated the White team, 21-7, and rising sophomore D. Bryant edged out rising senior Bobby Campbell by the numbers, the real winner might have been the rain, which helped cause five fumbles in the first half.
"I wasn't happy with what happened with the turnovers early," coach Carl Franks said. "You might have to play in those conditions, so hopefully we can eliminate those. This is really the first day we've had that we've had some rain, so it was probably good to realize you've got to take care of the ball in those kind of conditions."
With last fall's starting quarterback, Spencer Romine, resting up after shoulder surgery during the offseason, Campbell and Bryant were calling the signals for Duke.
Campbell, who was good for 12-of-29 passing and 186 yards this weekend, spent 1999 as backup to Romine and saw action in six games, fewer than either his freshman or sophomore year.
"Bobby's had a really good spring for us," Franks said. "He's done a very good job. You come out on a day like this when you split the teams up, you're not able to go with a first-team offense, so it made it a little tough for him. I thought he did pretty good.
"He had some protection problems at time, but he did a good job for us. He's had a lot more productive practices and scrimmages than he had today."
Bryant, on the other hand, wasn't even here last fall, taking a semester off after a high-pressure year that included a redshirt football season and a walk-on position on the men's basketball team before being declared academically ineligible last fall.
He's back for the spring, however, and threw 15 for 24, good for 215 yards.
Campbell agreed that his weekend rival has come a long way.
"D. Bryant's a different ball player than he was 15 practices ago," Campbell said. "We all know he's a great athlete, he's got a great arm, but he's really picking up the offense tremendously."
Both quarterbacks are trying to take the most out of this spring's practice before Romine returns.
While Campbell's White squad was the first to score a touchdown Saturday on a 19-yard pass to tight end Mike Hart in the first quarter, Campbell wouldn't be able to complete anymore drives to the end zone.
Hart joins Benjamin Watson and redshirt freshman Nick Brzezinski in the tight end category, an area where the Blue Devils have the most depth. Yesterday Watson picked up 40 yards on four passes.
Bryant and the Blue squad came back in the second quarter, doing it the old fashioned way, with a six-yard Chris Douglas run and another two-yard Douglas run to put the Blue squad up 14-7.
Douglas joined Alexander Wade as the scrimmage's leading rushers, Douglas going 41 yards on 11 attempts and Wade 32 yards on four.
"Both of those guys have a potential to be great backs," Bryant said. "Chris, he's small, more of a scatback with a lot of speed. And with Alex, he's more of a power back and he has speed. Well, pretty good speed for being 240 pounds."
"Chris Douglas, that kid worries me if I'm on the other side of the ball and you're anywhere inside the five or 10-yard line," Campbell added. "I don't know that many guys that are going to be able to beat him to the pile-on, he's just so quick to the outside."
Despite the letup of the rain, neither team was able to hit the end zone in the third quarter and through most of the fourth, until a smooth D. to D.R. pass for the blue team. Bryant sailed a 35-yard throw to walk-on D.R. Cash; with the conversion, the play ended the afternoon's scoring at 21-7.
With Ben Erdeljac gone for the spring following knee surgery, Cash showed that the Blue Devils might have a little more talent at wide receiver than they thought.
"He's not the fastest guy in the world, but he knows how to run routes," coach Carl Franks said. "He caught the ball today as well as he's caught the ball all spring. If he continues what he started today, he may be a guy we're able to play with."
Kyle Moore, who led the White team with 100 yards on four receptions, caught the game's longest pass, a 48-yarder from Campbell.
"Kyle Moore has gotten so much better this season," Campbell said. "He's at a spot where Scottie Montgomery was, in knowledge of the offense. He's saved me a bunch of times this spring by just running the route in the right way."
Still, Campbell realized that at times when the ground is wet and the ball a little heavier, he can't allow such loose play.
"It happens in games," he said. "I've got to learn how to throw a wet ball better than I did."
Note: At a halftime awards program, Franks announced the team captains for next season. The four captains are seniors Troy Andrew and Spencer Romine on the offense and junior Todd DeLamielleure and senior Troy Austin on the defense.
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