“Red Means Go” became the fall of 1979 motto on the Duke University campus as new head coach Shirley “Red” Wilson took charge of a stagnant though not terrible Duke football program. One of Duke’s all-time great players, 1959 Outland Trophy recipient, and College Football Hall Of Fame member Mike McGee, had compiled a 37-47-4 record in his eight seasons as the Blue Devils head coach while maintaining the university’s high academic standards. With designs on entering the administrative field where he was successful as the Athletic Director at the Universities of Cincinnati, Southern California, and South Carolina, McGee departed and the Assistant AD at Duke took the reins of the program. Wilson was a high school and small college coaching legend in North Carolina, having successfully crafted winning seasons at Winston-Salem’s Richard J. Reynolds High School and Elon College. His 1967 through ’76, ten year stint at Elon included three appearances in the NAIA Championship Game. He was instrumental in high school recruiting for McGee in his role as Assistant AD and easily stepped into the head coaching chair for the ’79 season. As is frequently seen, Wilson entered his first season by altering the uniforms, and in a departure from the white or silver helmets that had been Duke’s long time standard, attired the Blue Devils in a new blue helmet. The blue shell was trimmed with a one-inch white center stripe, a white script “Duke” decal on each side, and a contrasting white facemask.
 

With a switch from Duke’s long-standing Power I formation to a Veer in the Spring, there were many bumps in the road and new offensive coordinator Steve Spurrier successfully pushed for a Power I with a strong, complimentary passing component. The switch wasn’t easy and Duke, for the first time in history, completed its 1979 season without a conference win while sitting in last place in both total offense and total defense with a 2-8-1 record. Quarterback Stanley Driskell was eventually replaced by Craig Browning but both struggled. With the two quarterbacks ranked among Duke’s top four rushers, the running attack was also quite limited.

 

Wilson maintained the same blue shell helmet design for 1980 with similar results to his first season. Spurrier was able to open up the offense further but the 2-9 result, with one conference victory, still included a last place ranking in passing and a last place performance for the pass defense despite the All Conference efforts of DB Dennis Tabron. In what many consider to be Spurrier’s first year of his “Fun And Gun” Offense, quarterback Ben Bennett became the Atlantic Coast  Conference Rookie Of The Year, setting the stage for a lengthy professional career that spanned  fourteen years and five different leagues. Cedric Jones, who had a productive nine year run with the New England Patriots as a receiver came into his own as Bennett’s go-to guy. Leading rusher Greg Boone amassed but 340 yards and the defense again was sub-par despite the terrific season of linebacker and leading tackler Jimmy Tyson and the All Conference performer Tabron who was drafted by the Bears.