Twice a year, fans and students of Duke and North Carolina make the eight-mile trip down Tobacco Road between the schools, braving hours upon hours of waiting in line to watch their teams square off on the basketball court.

Little did they believe they’d be making a third trip this year to watch a matchup of equal importance on the football field.

‘I think it’s great for the area that there’s interest on both sides for this ballgame,’ Duke head coach David Cutcliffe said last week in the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ teleconference. ‘It certainly has a chance to be a great football game.’

The Blue Devils and Tar Heels battled Saturday for their annual rights to the Victory Bell, which UNC won, 19-6. The two schools renewed their rivalry earlier than usual and with more at stake, leading to an increased interest in the rivalry a whole three months before Duke-North Carolina basketball fever usually grips the area.

Saturday’s game marked only the fifth time in the last 96 years in which both teams have had winning records going into the contest, as each was at 5-3.

For North Carolina, it has been the hiring of head coach Butch Davis that brought it within one win of a second straight bowl appearance, which would be the school’s first consecutive bowl appearances since a six-year stretch from 1992 to 1998. Davis is now in his third year with the program.

Davis, who previously coached Miami (Fla.) before a stint with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, has transformed the Tar Heels’ defense into arguably the best in the conference. They rank first in the ACC in total defense (249.4 yards-per-game) and points allowed per game (16.5). On top of those numbers, they rank fifth nationally against the pass, letting up only 157.78 yards per game.

‘They’re big and they’re fast,’ Cutcliffe said of the Tar Heels’ defense. ‘Sometimes you can’t run it and you can’t throw it, but you still have to score points. That’s about what it is when you play that kind of defensive team.’

The Tar Heels were so pleased with their success that they were eager to move on without their cross-town rivals. This year’s matchup was the earliest the two schools have played since 1938, and only the 11th time in the past 56 seasons they haven’t ended the season against each other.

It happened so early, in part, because the Tar Heels pushed the ACC to reschedule the game in order to have what they thought could be a more meaningful rivalry game to end the season against North Carolina State.

‘I think it’s interesting that this is the first time (in a while) that this hasn’t been the final game,’ Cutcliffe said. ‘It adds a little fuel to the fire, with so much on the line for both teams.’

Duke senior running back Re’quan Boyette shared similar sentiments, describing how he felt especially slighted and motivated when UNC announced the move of the Duke game to homecoming.

‘They knew what they were doing,’ Boyette said. ‘I look at it as a slap in the face.’

Duke had done nothing significant over the past 20 years to provide the Tar Heels with a tough matchup to end the season. Since 1989, when then-Duke head coach Steve Spurrier led the Blue Devils to a 41-0 romp over the Tar Heels on their home turf, UNC had won 18 of the last 19 games between the schools.

But the Blue Devils’ status in the ACC and college football landscape has changed dramatically this season, as Cutcliffe has led a resurgence of a program that had never won more than four games in a season since 1994 and had a total of eight wins the previous five seasons.

Even after the loss, Duke has thrust itself into the middle of the ACC picture. With a win against Georgia Tech next week, the Blue Devils could still be in play for their first ACC championship game berth.

The Tar Heels didn’t overlook Duke on their schedule, holding the ACC conference’s sixth-ranked offense to just 125 total yards. The Blue Devils average 369.8 yards per game.

And while UNC doesn’t expect to be overlooking the Blue Devils anytime soon, both teams’ fans aren’t ignoring this game on their schedules, either. After a rock bottom 24,478 fans attended the 2006 game, a sellout crowd of 59,750 packed Kenan Stadium this year.

Both teams hope their budding successes lead to the start of a new chapter in their rivalry, gripping the Carolina area with Duke-North Carolina fever an extra time each year.

Said Boyette: ‘Hopefully, it’s becoming a rivalry again.’

Duck-ing for Cover

Talk about a tale of two games.

Oregon came into this week high off arguably the biggest win in program history against USC and on track to earn its first Rose Bowl bid since 1995.

They were one of the hottest teams in the nation and had beaten their upcoming opponent, Stanford, in seven straight seasons. And the Cardinal was missing one of its top defenders, linebacker Clinton Snyder.

All of that seemed to be the perfect formula for an easy Ducks win.

But Oregon didn’t look anything like the team that beat USC a week ago. It was overmatched from the start, as Stanford running back Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns in a 51-42 win. Oregon didn’t lead the entire game.

The game leaves questions about which Ducks squad will show up the rest of the way: the ones that dominated USC from the start, or the ones that were dominated by Boise State at the onset of the season, and now Stanford.

‘One game doesn’t define a football team,’ Ducks defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti said after the game. ‘Last week doesn’t define us. This week doesn’t define us.’

Game to Watch: No. 16 Utah at No. 4 TCU

In an especially interesting matchup, Utah will try to foil a rival’s – and it’s conference’s – national title hopes. TCU moved up to No. 4 in the latest BCS standings, and could conceivably earn a trip to the BCS Championship Game if it wins its remaining games and two of the three teams ahead of it lose. Fresh off six straight wins, the Utes will undoubtedly put team aspirations ahead of conference ones, looking for its fourth win in as many seasons over the Horned Frogs.

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm