The struggling football teams of Duke (0-9, 0-6 in the ACC) and North Carolina (5-5, 4-3) meet at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Duke is trying to avoid its second consecutive winless season, while North Carolina has lost its last two games by a combined eight points after winning five straight games.
North Carolina's season has been one of streaks. Tar Heel coach John Bunting thinks his team needs to look at each game individually rather than dwell on the bunches.
"We started off the season 0-3, and nobody thought we'd win a ballgame again until maybe we played Wake Forest," Bunting said. "And when we won five in a row, there were a lot of people out there that said we were going to the Orange Bowl. That's just not the nature of football.... The nature of football is that it's an absolute fight each week."
The Blue Devils had a bye week, and they used it to work on the basics.
"We went back to working on the fundamentals," coach Carl Franks said. "Sometimes when you get into the middle of a football season, you spend a lot of time working on schemes that the other team does and probably don't spend quite as much time on the fundamentals of playing football."
Duke also used the week off to nurse injuries, as Franks said quarterback D. Bryant and running back Chris Douglas look rejuvenated.
The Blue Devils look to improve on their record-setting offensive day in their 55-31 loss to N.C. State. Quarterback D. Bryant threw for a career-high 400 yards, and tight end Mike Hart caught a personal best 10 passes for 165 yards en route to his second consecutive ACC player of the week honor.
"I was successful [against N.C. State], and hopefully that will carry over to North Carolina," Mike Hart said.
Bunting agrees that, with Hart and others, Duke has an offensive potency, and thinks the Blue Devils' biggest problem has been turnovers.
"They have talent on offense," Bunting said. "They can move the ball. They've hurt themselves at times with turnovers, and we all know what turnovers do to you. But they've got talent there. The quarterback can throw, they've got receivers, the runners can run. The defense is extremely aggressive--a lot of preparation time there for our offense."
Bunting fears Duke used the week off to improve on its already tricky special teams.
"Their special teams are an absolute nuisance," Bunting said. "They will keep us up all night with all the different things they do. They've had the bye week--who knows how many more things they'll have for us."
The game should be intense, as Duke is playing for pride against its archrivals, and North Carolina needs only one win to qualify for a bowl game.
"We need to play like we don't have anything to lose because we don't have anything to lose," Franks said.
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