RIVALRY WEEK
Duke aiming to keep Victory Bell in Durham
Duke Blue Devils tight end Jeremiah Hasley (85) runs downfield after a catch Nov. 22, 2025, during the first half at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
Duke Blue Devils head coach Manny Diaz talks to a referee against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Oct. 10 in the second quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field in Atlanta.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Duke coach Manny Diaz has gotten used to having the Victory Bell around the Yoh Football Center the past two years.
The Blue Devils won it against North Carolina in Diaz's first season, erasing a 20-point halftime deficit for a 21-20 victory in 2024. That was Mack Brown's last season as UNC coach.
A year ago, it was Bill Belichick on the UNC sideline in Chapel Hill. The Blue Devils used a late fake field goal play, a little trickery, to set up the winning touchdown in a 32-25 victory at Kenan Stadium.
The Victory Bell has had a prominent spot between the Duke locker room and the weight room, Diaz said Monday. Until this week.
The Bell has been put away, Diaz said. After suffering their first loss of the season Saturday at Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils (4-1, 1-1 ACC) are looking for an immediate turnaround this week against the Tar Heels (3-2, 1-1) at Wallace Wade Stadium.
"Everyone understands it's a tremendous week in our program," Diaz said after the 28-25 loss to Tech. "It's a rivalry week. It's an easy week to re-set and understand what's at stake.
"We've done a good job, in the time we've been here, of learning from losses. The trick is you've got to stay out of the narrative business of what it means – were we really this and now we're really that? None of that matters.
"We have the right to continue to improve as a football team, and the only way you do that is you don't concern yourself with what it looks like right now, like that's a defining moment."
The Devils were caught up in an uphill battle Saturday at Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets took an early lead and never trailed until the Blue Devils edged ahead with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter.
In some ways, it was much like Duke's game at Illinois this season, when the Blue Devils were the stronger team in the second half and especially the fourth quarter in scoring a 31-27 victory.
But the Blue Devils could not hold off the Yellow Jackets, who went 61 yards in eight plays for the winning touchdown. Duke had a chance to force overtime in the final seconds but Gavin Strange's 33-yard field goal try was wide left and the Jackets survived.
Two things hurt the Devils on Tech's winning drive: a 39-yard kickoff return by Tech's Rahkeem Smith for favorable field position, then a late hit by Duke linebacker Bradley Gompers on quarterback Alberto Mendoza near midfield.
Duke had other penalties that were costly in the game, including a roughing-the-passer call in the first that had Diaz steamed.
"The identity we established in the first month of the season didn't show up on Saturday," Diaz said Monday at his weekly press conference. "I didn't think we controlled the line of scrimmage on offense like we have, and certainly allowing the explosive play on defense. That said we still had a chance to win at the end."
No one blamed Strange, a freshman, for the loss. It was his first college game after placekicker Cosme Salas was injured in practice last week and now has been lost for the season, Diaz said Monday. Strange had a 35-yard field goal in the game and handled kickoffs well enough.
"Watching Gavin play and compete on Saturday was very encouraging," Diaz said.
The Blue Devils also have lost linebacker Elliott Schaper, Diaz confirmed, to a lower-leg injury. Schaper suffered an injury against Clemson last fall that ended his 2025 season.
"It's a shame. His whole career here has been slow-starting, but he's going to be a helluva player for us," Diaz said.
Looking at UNC, Diaz said the Heels are "well-schemed on offense" under new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and using their personnel well.
"Like us, they're very comfortable winning either low-scoring or one-score type games," Diaz said.
Defensively, UNC is fourth in the ACC in scoring defense (19.0 points a game), 10th in total defense (356.2) and ninth in sacks. Linebacker Derek McDonald leads the ACC in tackles per game (9.8) and Xavier Lewis in sacks (1.30 per game) and has been a defensive disruptor.
Lewis had a career-high 11 tackles Saturday in UNC's 21-17 win at Pitt and was named the ACC's defensive lineman of the week, and cornerback Tre Miller was picked ACC defensive back of the week.
The Tar Heels will be focusing their defense on Duke running back Nate Sheppard, who led the Devils in both rushing and receiving in the Georgia Tech game. But quarterback Walker Eget is coming off perhaps his most efficient game of the season, the Duke coaches said — the Devils did not have a sack or turnover.
"He showed incredible poise in the game. Really didn't put the ball in jeopardy, got the ball to the right spots," offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer said Monday. "It was probably the first time this year where we could call the game and it's like, 'OK, we can call anything we want.'"
Diaz, who led the Devils to the 2025 ACC championship, likes to say college football is about two "imperfect teams" playing each other each week.
"You're trying to get your imperfect guys to play one point better than the imperfect guys on their side," he said. "That's where we're at. Everybody can play, everybody has talent. And everybody has got deficiencies as well."
