
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 22, 1994                   TAG: 9408220007
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW DUKE COACH IS FIRED UP

Fred Goldsmith insists he doesn't know what his recruiting budget is for the Duke football program, nor does he care.

Not that the first-year coach has an open checkbook, but the reputation of fiscal tightness that has surrounded the Blue Devil program recently seems to have faded with the arrival of the former Rice coach.

"I felt there were a lot of things that needed to be done at Duke," Goldsmith said Sunday during a stop on the Atlantic Coast Conference media tour. "Obviously, Duke needed to start spending a lot more money on football."

Goldsmith said he got that promise from athletic director Tom Butters.

"I was told for recruiting you go by the rules," he said. "We go first-class in everything we do in recruiting. We are going to be on airplanes where we need to be, and we are going to be on the phone wherever we need to be. In fact, that's one of the reasons I was hired. Maybe they were convinced we would put in the time and spend the money and do a good job in recruiting."

Goldsmith, who has built a reputation as a tireless recruiter and one of the nation's best, said Duke fell behind in its system of scouting, pay for coaches, computers, and its general day-to-day operations, resulting in a 13-30-1 record over the past four seasons and the resignation of Barry Wilson.

"The head football coach is only as good as his assistant coaches, and most of those don't like to work for free," Goldsmith said. "If other people are using computers, you have to have the same type of computers, or maybe better. A lot of things like that we had gotten behind on."

Most roll their eyes and sigh when Goldsmith insists the time is right for Duke to become a winner in football - not just a sub-.500 club hoping for an occasional season like the 1989 ACC title year.

But he has brought intensity and order to what was a sinking ship.

"You worry about a place that can't succeed in anything," he said. "Then you worry about whether there's a commitment to excellence. The time has come, with what the NCAA rules are now, that you have a chance again to win at a Duke, a Rice, a Stanford."

by CNB