**Durham, N.C.** — The last 27 times Kansas has played a football game outside of Lawrence, it has lost. Upsetting Duke today could do more than make for a pleasant flight home for the players.
“I think coming back here it would change a lot for us,” right tackle Damon Martin said.
For one thing, the concrete proof that would come with a victory on the road against a team coming off a big season would convince every Jayhawk that he is playing for a better team.
It also would convince a fan base starving for a positive sign that this is a team worth watching for four quarters.
To pull off the upset, the KU O-Line in general and Martin specifically must deliver a better four-quarter performance than in the 34-28 victory against Southeast Missouri State last Saturday.
Offensive coordinator/line coach John Reagan gave his line a better grade in the first half than the second.
“I think that’s fair,” said Martin, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound junior from Arlington, Texas. “We stopped executing in the second half.”
Martin, who in the spring made the move from guard to right tackle, had a particularly rough game.
“I still feel like I think like a guard sometimes, which could be a bad thing, but might not be that bad,” Martin said.
And then there was the play that was just plain bad. Near the end of the first half, Martin stood over a loose ball for a brief eternity and belatedly fell on it.
What happened?
“I don’t know,” Martin said. “Just a brain (freeze, but smellier), I guess. At least I got on it.”
Seeing him standing over the loose ball was one of the stranger things you’ll ever see in a football game.
“It was a weird play for me, too,” Martin said. “People were yelling from the sideline, and I realized people were running at me, so I made sure I got on it really quick. I don’t know what was going through my mind. It was weird. It won’t ever happen again.”
Martin said the ribbing he received for the play during a film session, “wasn’t too bad, but everyone made sure I knew to get on the ball: ‘If you see the ball, get on it.’ So from now on, that’s what will happen.”
Larry Mazyck, a 6-8, 360-pound junior-college transfer from Washington, D.C., played some at right tackle and could ultimately take the position from Martin if the former guard doesn’t upgrade his performance from last week.
