The Chronicle

Issue date: 7/25/07 Section: Sports
Last update: 7/25/07 at 2:04 PM EST

Media Credit: Heidi Chen Zack Asack

Media Credit: Lauren Prats Greg Paulus

Media Credit: Micheal Chang Mike Grella

Media Credit: Sara Guerrero Caroline Cryer

Max Quinzani

Media Credit: Holly Cornell Chante Black

Zack Asack's fall schedules were always as packed as a playbook. With school, practice and games occupying his days, Asack never had a chance to rest.

But last year, after a fall of his own, the multitalented quarterback found his schedule empty. No practices, no games and no classes-simply a blank slate.

"It was awful," the sophomore quarterback said. "Taking the year off, it felt there was something missing in me. It was real hard just watching the guys when I wanted to be out there real bad."

Now, Asack is aiming for a different kind of blank slate. He wants to forget that 2006 happened, that he was suspended for two semesters for plagiarizing in his Cultural Anthropology class during the first summer session and that he spent his fall Saturdays back home in Massachusetts instead of in Wallace Wade Stadium.

And Asack wants the people around him to look beyond the suspension, the consequence of an immature mistake that he won't let define his career at Duke.

"Zack was a good person," head coach Ted Roof said. "Good people make bad decisions sometimes. He was a good person before he did that, but certainly [now he] understands the impact of decisions and how they can alter your life."

Asack took a shortcut, and now he's traveled the long road back to Durham. The sophomore hopes his coaching staff remembers the promise he showed as a freshman in 2005 when he made six starts and led Duke to its lone victory over the last two seasons, a 41-14 romp of VMI.

In Asack's absence last year, freshman Thaddeus Lewis had a breakout season, throwing for over 2,000 yards in 11 starts for the Blue Devils. Asack, however, sees the competition with Lewis for the starting job as just another hurdle to leap on the path to his redemption.

"He's a great quarterback, and he's going to be pushing me, and I'm going to be on the other side pushing him," Asack said of Lewis. "I'm really looking forward to competing with him and making each other better."

While Lewis earned his stripes in ACC competition, Asack was as an assistant for his high school football team and a ball boy for the New England Patriots. Asack took full advantage of his proximity to two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady on a regular basis.

"I really enjoyed being around Brady and seeing his incredible work ethic and the stuff he does on and off the field-the stuff he says toward being a leader," Asack said. "I really enjoyed coming back to Duke and trying to bring a lot of those things Brady brought to the team."

The leadership skills Asack hopes to carry with him from New England are rooted in better decision making-on and off the field. And he admits that is something he's learned much about in his time away from the University and the team.

"[The suspension] was tough, but it was a great learning experience for me seeing what life is like being out of school and without football," Asack said. "Coming back to school it made me work harder and appreciate everything that Duke has to offer for me."

Asack is ecstatic to be back in a Blue Devil uniform, to have a second chance to lead Duke on the field, and maybe even to win a few games.

After all, doesn't a program deserve a blank slate every once in awhile?

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