Bryant's 3rd straight start yields promising results

ATLANTA - The D. Bryant era took another step forward this weekend.

While Duke was anything but an offensive juggernaut Saturday, Bryant showed the skills and abilities that have been developing over the last two years.

"He certainly gives us a dimension back there that if things break down or go bad, then he can take off running with it," coach Carl Franks said.

And run with it he did. A less-than-stellar performance by the offensive line forced Bryant to scramble often. When he was able to avoid the fierce pass rush that would eventually sack him seven times, Bryant managed to break several big runs, including a 20-yard scramble on Duke's second offensive play of the game.

Bryant, making his third consecutive start under center, seemed to be gaining more confidence as the Blue Devils' leader. His 38 passing attempts, 20 completions and 184 passing yards were all career highs.

"D. is starting to get us into the right plays," wide receiver Nick Hartofilis said. "You can tell he's more confident. He looks better with every game."

Despite Bryant's best efforts, Duke's lowly numbers on offense were largely due to the subpar play of his surrounding cast. The Blue Devil offensive line was extremely porous, and Bryant's receivers were unable to squeeze the football.

"D. made a lot of good checks, and we either couldn't protect him very well or couldn't seem to come down with the ball," Franks admitted. "Same old problem. We need to find some guys who want to catch it. Sometimes it was sad watching us try to make a catch."

Though an illegal blocking penalty negated the touchdown, Duke lost a prime opportunity to reverse the game's momentum.

Bryant was quick to admit his error.

"That was a bad play on my part," he said. "Once I saw [Erdeljac] got knocked down, I should have just thrown it away. Then by fumbling the ball I just made the play worse, so I turned a bad play into a horrible play."

Franks is not alone in trying to mold Bryant into a consistent quarterback. Bobby Campbell, a man looking up to Bryant on the depth chart, has done everything he can to help the young passer.

"Bobby's been a big help," said Bryant. "He could probably be our head coach. He and Coach Franks are on the same page on every play."

Campbell's advice has been very simple, but nevertheless extremely effective.

"I tell him to have confidence in himself," he said. "D.'s got an incredible arm, and he's got to trust that. He's learned so much in the past couple weeks. He's doing a great job."

While Campbell's assistance has been mostly verbal, Saturday's game gave the senior the opportunity to provide visual instruction. Franks allowed Campbell to run the offense for two drives during the game, while Bryant observed from the bench.

"I thought it would be good for D. to watch from the sidelines," Franks explained. "It's good for a quarterback to watch what's going on in the game, see what coverages they're playing. Sometimes that helps him. Sometimes it looks a little different from the sidelines than it does out there on the field, and I think that did help him."

It most certainly did. After Tech opened the fourth quarter with a punt that was downed on Duke's one-yard line, Bryant went to work. He engineered an 18-play, 99-yard drive that ended with freshman Reggie Love's leaping catch in the endzone. After three quarters of sacks, scrambles, dropped passes and fumbles, Duke had hit paydirt.

"It's certainly a nice accomplishment," Franks said. "Not many times do you go 99 yards. It was good to see a drive like that sustained."

Dreams of a winning season are long gone, but hope still lives in Durham. Bryant's outlook for the remainder of the year recognized the team's flaws, but the quarterback remained optimistic.

"We are capable of making plays and moving the ball," he said. "If we can just keep things consistent-people making plays on a consistent basis-we can probably get a win."