The Duke Blue Devils head to Chapel Hill on Saturday afternoon to take on their arch rivals the North Carolina Tar Heels in an ACC Coastal division battle. North Carolina (7-1 (4-0)) comes into this game ranked 21st in the nation while Duke (6-2 (3-1)) comes in unranked.
Duke is coming off a heartbreaking loss to Miami last week that was filled with controversy but they will have to bounce back quickly because this game is extremely meaningful. Duke is currently 3-1 in the conference just one game behind North Carolina so this game will put the winner in a good position to win the division.
After playing North Carolina, Duke will take on Pittsburgh so their fate this season basically lies in the next two weeks, while North Carolina takes on Miami after Duke. This is a huge week for the top of the ACC because over in the Atlantic division Clemson is taking on Florida State for first place as well.
Duke's only other loss this season was to Northwestern back in week three when they were rankd 19th in the nation. Besides that hiccup they have been pretty solid especially on defense where they hadn't allowed more than 20 points until the last two weeks and the game where Virginia Tech scored 43 was a four overtime affair.
The defense is led by All-American safety Jeremy Cash who is having himself another tremendous season as he already has 15.5 tackles for loss through eight games. Duke will also get a spark as senior defensive end Kyler Brown is expected to return this week after missing the last two games with a sprained MCL.
On offense the Blue Devils have gotten great play from Thomas Sirk in his first year as a full-time starter. He has passed for almost 1,800 yards with 12 touchdowns and only three interceptions and he also leads the team in rushing attempts (105) and yards (481.) Sirk has been doing everything for the Duke offense so far this season and will look to continue that this week.
After losing a sloppy game in their opener against South Carolina, UNC has yet to lose since and they have been pretty convincing in the majority of their games. Last week they defeated Pittsburgh to take sole possession of first place in the Coastal division and will have to do the same to Duke this week to maintain that spot.
North Carolina's quarterback Marquise Williams is similar to Sirk in that he does a little bit of everything. He has passed for more than 1,600 yards and run for more than 500 with 16 total touchdowns this season.
The biggest difference between these two offenses is that UNC has a stud running back to consistently hand the ball off to in Elijah Hood. Through eight games Hood has rushed for 744 yards on 6.2 yards per carry and has eight rushing touchdowns.
This is the first time this matchup between schools known for their basketball programs has had big time meaning in football in a while. The past couple of years it's been Duke dominating the Coastal division but North Carolina will look to put an end to that at home as the favorite.
The game kicks off at 12 P.M. Eastern time and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Duke radio broadcast go here and for the North Carolina radio broadcast go here.
