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Why this could be the biggest Carolina-Duke game ever.
The Tar Heels and Blue Devils are both going to at least medium bowl games and are two of six ACC teams with two losses, which makes them long shots to finish first or second and reach the conference championship game.
So why is Saturday night’s 108th meeting of the Bluebloods so big?
Start with the rivalry between the sky and royal blues in any sport but dwarfed by basketball. When the annual gridiron game takes on special meaning, both alumni and fan bases pin their ears back and get after it.
The coaches are both headliners, Mack Brown the Hall of Famer and Mike Elko the up-and-comer. Brown has won enough games in his final coaching job that he can probably stay at UNC as long as he wants. Elko has been on the coaching “watch list” since his second Duke team started 5-1 with only a last-second loss to Notre Dame.
Brown has beaten the Blue Devils 12 straight times, dating back to his first stint in Chapel Hill. The law of averages may be against him, but still most Carolina fans expect him to win because he has built and promoted successful programs. Losing two of the last three games (at Clemson and at N.C. State ahead) will bring back memories of four straight “Ls” to end last season and throw wood on the fire for those who think it’s time for Mack, 72, to retire.
Elko, 45, is on a different trajectory. Upsetting the Heels without his injured star quarterback Riley Leonard will be hailed by Dukies as one of the greatest football wins in school history and force the administration to give Elko a big enough raise that he won’t go anywhere for a while.
The Heels are first in the ACC in yards per game (519) while Duke leads the league in fewest points allowed (15.7). Irresistible force versus immovable object? Well, you get the point. A physically brutal game awaits us.
Duke can win by pressuring Drake Maye into sacks or bad throws and stop the run enough. The Devils won’t try to hurt Maye, but their goal is to hit him often to affect how he plays, like State and Clemson did a year ago.
Carolina, on the other hand, has the most balanced offense since Brown was here the first time, running for 200 yards a game and passing for 320.
“I say to our coaches, ‘run the ball’ every day,” Brown said Monday. “And because running the ball is the quarterback’s best friend, then I say ‘protect, protect, protect.’ Football is a simple game, played and coached by complicated people.”
Clearly, the pressure literally and figuratively is on his 24th-ranked Tar Heels to move their record to 8-2, with two tougher road games to follow.
Featured image via Associated Press/Ben McKeown
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