By Doc Kennedy
If there’s one thing the annual game between North Carolina and Duke is known for, it’s that the game is often entertaining.
In the past four decades, we’ve seen scoreboard pictures, jump pass goal-line interceptions, and kickers attacking inflatable helmets. Meanwhile, seven of the last 10 games have been decided by one score or less. Saturday’s game in Kenan Stadium added another legend to the lore of the Victory Bell game, with Duke coming from behind to post a 32–25 win on the strength of a fake field goal that ultimately led to the game-winning touchdown.
The Tar Heels started off the game in uncharacteristic fashion, driving the ball 75 yards on 13 plays, capped off by a one-yard Gio Lopez run and a quick 7-0 lead. Then the Carolina offense that has been on the field most of the season showed back up as the Blue Devils went on a 24–3 run over the next quarter and a half to stake a 24–10 lead. That seemed like it would be nearly insurmountable given that UNC has only scored more than 24 points twice all season, and one of those was against Richmond.
But then a funny thing happened — Carolina finally looked competent on offense, as Lopez led the Heels on a 10-play, 74-yard drive and a two-point conversion to cut the lead to six.
After forcing Duke’s only punt of the game, UNC put together its longest drive of the season, a nine-play, 91-yard drive to give the Tar Heels a 25–24 lead early in the fourth quarter. And following a huge stop on downs following a questionable trick play call by Devils coach Manny Diaz, Carolina took over on their its 38 to put their white hot offense back on the field.
Then things got silly, which is to be expected in a Duke0Carolina game.
UNC gave up back-to-back sacks to go three-and-out. It appeared the Carolina defense would hold Duke to a 44-yard field-goal attempt but Blue Devil kicker Todd Pelino broke free on a fake field goal for 26 yards, setting up the winning touchdown run.
The Tar Heels once again stepped on a rake on their final offensive possession, and Duke went to victory formation with the game sealed.
For the third time this season, just like the games against California and Virginia, the Tar Heels found ways to lose the game. In a season of what might have been, this one will particularly sting in how it all fell apart.
With that in mind, here is the Duke edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:
Good
Gio Lopez
For all of his struggles this season, and even for much of the first half, Lopez looked like the same old Gio, making bad reads and missing receivers. Then for two second-half possessions, he was golden. He was 21 of 27 for 204 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 20 more yards and another score. His stats were actually superior to his transfer QB counterpart, Duke’s Darian Mensah. This loss doesn’t fall on Lopez’s shoulders.
Jordan Shipp
Shipp led the team with 8 catches for 83 yards and a fantastic touchdown grab, plus caught the two-point conversion pass.
Kicking game
Kicker Rece Verhoff hit a season-high 49-yard field goal to end the first half, and punter Tom Maginness averaged a career-high 50.3 yards per punt, including a 56-yarder.
Explosive plays
Last week’s GBU lamented the lack of explosive plays (at least 10 yards rushing or at least 20 yards passing) vs. Wake Forest. This week, the Tar Heels had nine, and another seven passes of over 10 yards.
Bad
Fourth-down conversions
Duke converted five of six chances on fourth down, including the fake field goal and another that resulted from a roughing-the-kicker penalty, turning a missed field-goal attempt into a Blue Devils touchdown in a one-score game. Carolina only forced Duke to punt once and just could not get off the field.
Tackling
You would hope that, in the 11th game, the Tar Heels would not be missing tackles at an alarming rate. And your hopes would be dashed. Multiple rushes in the game had more than one missed tackle. The tackling against the Devils looked like September’s team.
Ugly
The final eight minutes
After blowing up Duke’s inexplicable throwback pass trick play on 4th-and-3 from the UNC 38, the Tar Heels starred in a comedy of errors over the last half of the fourth quarter that simply had to be seen to be believed.
A blown blocking assignment led to UNC surrendering the first sack of the day, followed immediately by another sack, and Carolina was unable to take advantage or take time off the clock. Then, UNC was unable to come up with an interception that was in the defender’s hands as Duke converted a 4th-and-8.
Once again, it looked like the Heels would hold before completely blowing assignments on the fake field goal. Duke scored on the next play, and UNC would be whistled for penalties on three consecutive plays, including wiping out a first-down run by Lopez that effectively ended the game. It was some of the ugliest football of the season.
Penalties
While UNC had been one of the least-penalized teams in the ACC this season, their penalties were often few but crushing. Against the Blue Devils, they were plentiful and crushing. Carolina had a season-high 11 penalties for 103 yards, and many of those 11 were devastating. There was the roughing-the-kicker call that wiped out a Duke missed kick and later led to a touchdown. There was another key pass-interference call that kept a Duke scoring drive alive. And, of course, there were the three unsportsmanlike calls in the last two minutes of the game. Brutal.
With the loss, Carolina is guaranteed a losing season in Bill Belichick’s first season, a fact the internet haters were quick to point out after the game. Oddly, they are not yet out of bowl contention due to the team’s academic progress rate. If the Tar Heels beat N.C. State next week and there are not enough bowl-eligible teams by record, the Tar Heels could be selected.
A loss to the Wolfpack next week would also mark the first season Carolina lost to all three in-state ACC rivals since 1988 and 1989, Mack Brown’s 1–10 seasons. The good news is that weird things often happen in State games at a similar frequency to Duke games. The bad news is, they frequently go against the Tar Heels.
Either way, the 2025 season is likely to come to a close in Raleigh next week, with the question of whether or not the program is in a better place than it was 358 days ago very much up in the air.
Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.
Photos by Smith Hardy
tarheeltribune.com 