There have been some classic Duke-Carolina games in Kenan Stadium over the last 50 years.
In 1968, the Tar Heels saved their season for the second straight year by beating the favored Blue Devils behind the play of lefty quarterback Gayle Bomar, who was honored Saturday with other members of Bill Dooley’s Junction Boys teams that transformed UNC football into an ACC power.
Only two years later, All-American Don McCauley ran for 279 yards and five touchdowns as Carolina clobbered Duke 59-34 and clinched the first of six bowl bids under Dooley. McCauley broke O.J. Simpson’s NCAA single-season rushing record that afternoon.
In 1976, All-ACC tailback Mike Voight scored on an option pitch from freshman quarterback Matt Kupec as the Tar Heels outlasted the Blue Devils 39-38 in a spectacular offensive show. Two years after that, Famous Amos Lawrence completed a two-touchdown comeback by scoring on a draw play to pull out a 16-15 win in Dick Crum’s first season as head coach.
Carolina clinched its only ACC championship under Crum in 1980 by drubbing Duke 44-21. In the first night game played under temporary lights, UNC rallied to defeat Duke in the 1983 thriller behind quarterback Scott Stankavage.
Mack Brown beat the Blue Devils for the eighth straight time in 1997. He made it nine in a row Saturday, but more on that in a minute.
Butch Davis went 4-0 against Duke (compared to 0-4 versus N.C. State), winning his first meeting in overtime when the Dukies barely missed a field goal at the end of regulation. And who can forget the Tar Heels scoring with a flea-flicker bomb on the first play in 2015 and winning 66-31 when Larry Fedora called off the dogs after three quarters.
But NOTHING quite matches what went on amidst the pines in the fading daylight of October 26, 2019.
In a stadium magically made over by UNC and Brown in one season, the navy-blue-clad Tar Heels with a light-blue footprint on their helmets very nearly blew a game they had won. This one will forever be remembered for a gallant goal line stand with 18 seconds remaining.
Linebacker Chazz Surratt, who once verbally committed to Duke, officially capped his conversion from quarterback with an athletic play for the ages; he leaped to deflect a pass and finished an acrobatic interception that kept UNC’s collective heart from being torn out for a second-straight week.
Two other defensive players helped Surratt stop Duke’s 92-yard drive in the waning seconds. Defensive back D.J. Ford hit Deon Jackson as he released the jump pass while inside linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel covered up intended receiver Noah Gray in the endzone. But if Surratt had not somehow successfully clutched the football, Duke would have had at least one more snap to win.
Surratt, who now has 41 tackles in the last three games, bolted for the sideline with his first career interception and pounded his No. 21 to the adoring crowd. He had grown women in light blue and little boys in royal blue crying for different reasons.
It ended a game that was alternately frustrating and fabulous. Sam Howell was under constant pressure, picked off twice and completed only 10 of 26 passes. But two of them were perfectly lofted dimes to Beau Corrales and Dazz Newsome for touchdowns. Carolina could not escape the shadow of its own goal line in the fourth quarter, then did with a darting 40-yard run by Javonte Williams, who finished the sideline sprint with a straight-arm to the helmet of Duke’s other Michael Carter.
And with the Tar Heels about to put the game away at the Duke goal line, Williams went airborne for the end zone and had the ball knocked away by the Blue Devils, who then began their penalty-aided race against the clock downfield. Williams’ fumble was eerily reminiscent of our Michael Carter’s against Virginia Tech here last year that led to an improbable win by the Hokies.
When Howell took a knee after Surratt’s theft, Carolina offensive players led the charge across the artificial turf to reclaim the Victory Bell they last had before Duke’s three-straight wins. In the melee of manhood, which somehow included a few UNC staffers, Duke head coach David Cutcliffe loudly objected and even pushed Carolina offensive lineman Jordan Tucker back toward his own sideline.
“I was just trying to get people back where they belonged,” the usually mild-mannered Cutcliffe said afterward, angrily. “Too many staff over there, not our staff.”
Just another Duke-Carolina game, which – with both programs still vying to win the ACC Coastal Division – resembled the once hate-filled hoops rivalry that has since simmered into chasing Final Fours.
Although dominated by defenses, the night had flashes of brilliance from both sides.
Carolina extended a 7-3 halftime lead with a four-play, 75-yard drive that was really 80 yards after Howell got sacked on the first snap of the second half. Two Carter bursts to the Duke 47, then Howell hit Newsome, who carried a Duke defender the last 10 yards across the goal line. The drive took all of 1:37, including the first-down sack.
Duke then scored twice within 20 seconds to take a 17-14 lead. A 74-yard TD drive was followed by Howell’s second interception on a tipped pass that wound up inside UNC’s 10-yard line. Quarterback Quentin Harris, who was harassed throughout and sacked five times, ran it in from the seven.
Noah Ruggles, benched after missing the winning kick in Blacksburg last week, booted two field goals to retake the lead. He came on after Jonathan Kim missed a field goal and looked shaky in the first half. Ruggles said after the game that, “I just kept my head down and kept practicing.”
And with the Tar Heels owning a 20-17 lead and the momentum, Brown had his offense go for a fourth-and-4 from the Duke 13, thinking another field goal could still be beaten by a Duke touchdown. After a timeout to pick the play, Howell hit Newsome at the Duke three with a low pass that only the receiver could catch.
Then the fumble that stunned UNC’s fourth capacity crowd of the season, Duke’s desperation drive and Surratt’s sensational athletic play. Then the Bell and the Well and the other Bell (Tower turning blue) and Another Crisp October Night on Franklin Street for Homecoming.
Brown, who passed Crum for the most wins at UNC (73), gave elongated time to both his Tar Heel Sports Network and media interviews, praising the students, the fans and his team’s new toughness, saying losing “stinks” but winning is fun.
Mack is Back and so is the Bell, barely, in another Carolina-Duke classic.
Beautiful Art!
As always Art, a clear call on this great W for Carolina! Thank you.