Whenever the Tar Heels come to Durham, the game becomes about more than sports.
No one knows that better than Duke head coach John Kerr, and that is what he is trying to impress on his players before North Carolina visits Koskinen Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday.
"I get just as fired up coaching as I did when I played. Everyone wants to say it's just another game and it is in many ways, but it's not in the main way," Kerr told The Chronicle Wednesday.
"I still get fired up for it and amped up, and I have to control my emotions as well," Kerr said. "Not just the players. Everybody has to go into it with the right frame of mind, but use the emotion to your advantage."
North Carolina is currently 3-2, losing back-to-back games against Florida International and then Pittsburgh, the latter of which represents the Tar Heels' lone ACC match so far. On Tuesday, they redeemed themselves with a 1-0 victory against East Tennessee State, but so far North Carolina has not had the same instant success as Duke—unbeaten through four games—largely due to the departure of many of its key players from 2021, including its top two scorers and most reliable defender.
Meanwhile, like the Tar Heels, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils have one conference game under their belt. They beat Louisville on the road Saturday 2-1, allowing their only goal so far this season. The Blue Devils seem poised for another successful season, but as anyone in the Triangle area knows, anything is possible in the Tobacco Road rivalry.
"The season’s so young. Both teams have only played four or five games each," Kerr said. "So I think they're still finding themselves. And we’re building our strengths and our personality."
One of Duke’s greatest strengths this season has been its rock-solid defense.
After receiving a second-half red card Sept. 1 against Michigan, freshman Axel Gudbjornsson returns from his one-game suspension to anchor the backline once more. Sophomore Ruben Mesalles will likely reprise his role at left back after playing slightly more advanced and the defensive shape, which played in an unusual trio last weekend against Louisville, should revert to its normal quad.
Normally, junior Lewis McGarvey is a nailed-on starter for Kerr, but an offseason knee surgery has caused him to just recently return to training. Taking his place will likely be freshman Kamran Acito, with junior captain Antino Lopez slotting in on the right side of the defense.
"We have to be solid in the back," said Kerr. "And I think [Antino] Lopez has done a really good job leading the back line and he's the guy that we're going to need to be on his game."
Lopez has started every game for the Blue Devils this season and has failed to just once across his three years in Durham. For a team that has seen considerable overhaul in the last few years, including the departure of longtime defensive stalwart Ian Murphy to the MLS this spring, Lopez’s reliability has been a needed and immensely valuable weapon in Kerr’s arsenal.
The Louisville game saw Duke concede for the first time this season, and with a healthy defense back in rotation, there is no reason its interrupted shutout streak can't resume. This is especially true if graduate goalie Eliot Hamill, who possesses the seventh-lowest goals-against average nationally, stays locked in in net.
On their offensive side, the Blue Devils also possess one of the conference’s brightest jewels in sophomore Shakur Mohammed, last year’s ACC Freshman of the Year. The forward from Ghana scored the winning goal against Louisville and has already logged three goals and two assists in just four games this season. With the offseason departure of ACC Offensive Player of the Year Thorleifur Ulfarsson, Mohammed has been tasked with anchoring the Duke offense and will be presented another opportunity to show his stuff against the Tar Heels.
Still, despite Duke’s strong performances every game this year, Kerr emphasizes that it has to be adaptable and ready for anything.
"It'll be interesting to see how they line up and what formation, if they're going to make any adjustments to us," he said. "Are they going to come out and press us or are they gonna sit back? So those are all the things that we've got to figure out quickly once the game starts."
Kerr tabbed fifth-year senior midfielder Milo Garvanian and junior forward Akeim Clarke as two Tar Heels to watch. Garvanian, who Kerr called "the most experienced and probably the most talented player" North Carolina has, was the Tar Heels’ third-leading scorer last season and played the second-most minutes. Meanwhile, while Clarke has yet to register a goal, he has taken 11 shots backed up by a 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame, so it may just be a matter of time.
Plus, while there is always home-field advantage, there is something to be said for the hunger a team brings to its archrival’s turf. The Duke women’s team’s defeat last week by the same foe rallied a packed house, and it’s safe to say that the men’s clash will bring the same tension.
"The [North Carolina] women came to play; they were up for it," Kerr said. "They had a lot of energy and I’m reminding our guys that's exactly what the men will do."
When all is said and done, that energy—not record, not ceiling, not talent—will decide the outcome of Friday’s game. It will produce fireworks; Tobacco Road games always do. But come the end of the 90 minutes, we will all see which color blue burns brighter.
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Sasha Richie is a Trinity senior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.
Andrew Long is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.