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Duke will be very hard for UNC to beat Saturday.
The Blue Devils are coming off their fourth straight win of the season. The Tar Heels are coming off their worst loss, maybe of any season. And Mack Brown’s team may need to play one of its best games since he returned here as head coach in 2019.
Duke, with new coach Manny Diaz, has had a slightly harder schedule than Carolina with wins over FCS Elon (1-3), Northwestern (2-2) of the Big Ten with three games against Power 4 teams, and mid-majors UConn (2-2 with both losses to Power 4s), and Middle Tennessee State (1-3).
UNC has won at Minnesota (2-2), which played with a small-college quarterback and without its All-Big Ten running back, beaten Charlotte (1-3), which lost its starting quarterback for the second half, turned it on late to rout FCS N.C. Central and got blown out by surprising James Madison (3-0), which has 50 new players over the last two seasons, including a new coaching staff this fall.
Those are the stats, but the intangibles are not in Carolina’s favor.
Duke has lost five straight to the Heels and 13 in a row to Brown in his two tenures in Chapel Hill. The Devils have gotten over the loss of Coach Mike Elko to Texas A&M since Diaz has more charisma along with Elko’s defensive chops. Obviously, this is a BIG game for them.
“I was disappointed that we’re not 4-0 because it was going to be Duke 4-0 and us 4-0 and a great matchup,” Brown said Monday of the 4 p.m. kickoff at Wade Stadium. “Manny’s done a great job at Duke. They’re a really good football team.”
Needless to say, but I will say it anyway, the UNC alumni and fan base are back on the bandwagon that would ride Brown off to retirement after his players allowed 42 points in 18 minutes of the 70-50 loss.
Against a better-prepared JMU team, the Heels turned the ball over five times and were horrible on special teams (except for a meaningless blocked punt for a touchdown), worse on defensive execution and, while falling behind by 30 points in the first half, had to throw the ball 48 times with a thin and banged up offensive line to protect new quarterback Jacolby Criswell and All-American running back Omarion Hampton.
The blue blood rivals are about even statistically on offense, but Duke is 17th in the country on defense, No. 1 on tackles for losses and No. 4 on sacks. Carolina will have to start fast, regain its mojo, and play to the standard Brown supposedly set for them before the collapse against the other Dukes.
“This is a fun game when you’re playing for something special,” Brown said of the Victory Bell. “Three of these five games that we’ve played since I’ve been here have come down to the last play.”
After Saturday, the Heels would take their chances with that.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
