Guts and gumption.
On the verge of what would have been a devastating defeat at Duke, the Tar Heels came up with those traits after going nearly all of the second-half without scoring to beat the ready-to-celebrate Blue Devils. It was another one for the history books, bucking the historical trend of this series while adding to its recent dramatic results.
Carolina had lost a very similar game two years ago in Mack Brown’s last season. The Tar Heels raced out to a 17-0 lead and seemed in control before the Blue Devils adjusted well and clawed back for a 21-20 win in front of its fans. Saturday’s game seemed like a laugher in the first 22 minutes, with UNC jumping out to a 17-0. But after Duke scored on a turnover committed by sure-handed Jordan Shipp, both teams treated the end zone like the plague and the tension continued to rise. Each scored exactly one touchdown on offense before they traded scores in the last three minutes as Wallace Wade Stadium erupted.
ESPN took time during its broadcast to highlight how the programs had split the most recent 10 games in the series, with the point differential in the last four meetings being only 13. That clouds the fact that Brown had won eight straight against the Blue Devils during his first stint leading Carolina and his first five during his return, thanks in part to great performances from NFL-bound quarterbacks Sam Howell and Drake Maye. The collapse in 2024 helped seal Mack’s fate leading the Tar Heels — only for Carolina to give up a late lead during Bill Belichick’s first foray into the rivalry last season, when the team desperately needed a morale boost in a difficult season.
It looked like the exception for the longest time after Carolina converted a field goal with the opening kick and then scored on Duke’s first three-and outs when the snap sailed over the punter’s head and his kick was blocked. The Tar Heels made it 17-0 midway through the second quarter on a 63-yard drive. Duke stalled in the shadow of the UNC goal line but regained possession on a catch and fumble by Shipp, making it 17-7 with a scoop and score. Shipp was fighting his way to extra yardage when he bobbled the ball.
The junior tapped his chest with “my fault gesture” and promised his teammates it would never happen again. He finished with seven catches for nearly half of Carolina’s total yards passing from Billy Edwards Jr, who completed 15 of 25 for 191 yards and kept his team in the game when things grew bleak in the second-half. Duke had gone ahead with its only lead and Edwards faced a critical fourth down before hitting a diving Jelani Thurman for a first down that kept the drive alive.
Sophomore running back Jaylen McGill carried on three of the next four plays and completed the stunning rally with a 24-yard scamper to the corner of the end zone, breaking Duke’s containment. The Devils got one more chance — but quarterback Walker Eget was under heavy pressure from the Carolina defense and threw the ball to a Heels defender, finishing the win that UNC failed to get in Brown’s last trip to the Methodist Flats.
When the game ended, the Tar Heels had a flash dance to the Victory Bell and were joined by Bill Belichick and Chancellor Lee Roberts in clanging the bell that would soon be repainted in light blue by a boisterous team that has now won two straight on the road. The tradition began in 1948 by UNC head cheerleaders Norman Sper and Duke’s Loring Jones, Jr. The bell was intended to promote friendlier relations between the two campuses that sometimes led to vandalism. Sper obtained an old railroad bell and Jones designed the frame. UNC defeated Duke 20-0 in Chapel Hill to claim the inaugural trophy, and since then the Tar Heels have dominated the arch rivalry 68-42 (plus four ties).
BLEEEEEED ? pic.twitter.com/eSSPjR3MvW
— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) October 18, 2026
Carolina, 4-2, next goes after a third straight win against Syracuse and their third-string quarterback Saturday night in Kenan Stadium. A victory over the 2-4 Orange would mean just one more win over the last five games would ensure a bowl bid for Belichick and his program. In what was supposed to be a much harder schedule in 2026, the Tar Heels have benefited from facing a bevy of average or injured QBs — but Edwards’ arm and game management is allowing a sturdy defense to do it thing.
It certainly wasn’t a work of art and doesn’t compare to some of the true Power Four teams playing on opposite channels throughout the afternoon and evening. But Carolina is looking more like the college football that we used to know before money and little regard for academics rewrote the new story. Duke and Carolina have become more evenly matched over the last dozen years, and the big story is how much better can each program get in competing to join the upper echelon of the sport. And on a historic day where many of the programs in that upper echelon lost, it must feel like relief for Tar Heel fans to be in the win column.
For both schools, the rivalry is still centered around basketball and the brands they have built and trying to maintain. In that annual home and home series that begins on February 13 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it will take even more guts and gumption to pull off that upset.
But for a UNC football program looking to win more fans over, reclaiming the Victory Bell and avoiding another blown lead to the Blue Devils is more than enough to celebrate.
Featured image via UNC Athletics Communications/Carolina Football on X.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro during football and basketball seasons.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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