While most Duke students will still be digesting their Thanksgiving dinners Saturday, the Blue Devils football team will be looking to capture their first victory of the season and their first Victory Bell in three years.
When North Carolina travels to Wallace Wade Stadium this weekend, it will mark the 93rd meeting between the two schools. In fact, the series opener in 1888 was the first major college football game below the Mason-Dixon line.
"You can't be around Duke and not notice the Duke-Carolina rivalry," linebacker Jeramy Edwards said. "It's huge. If [the younger players] don't know, we always give them a history of it. It's always a reminder of how big the game is and how much intensity and emotion is behind it."
Duke has only defeated UNC once in the last 16 years, and a win Saturday would make this year's seniors the first graduating class to leave with two wins of the Tar Heels since 1988. The Blue Devils hope to end their season on the high note of a win, which would only be accentuated by the rivalry involved.
"It's the last go-round, it's the last hoorah," Edwards said. "It's a big game to go out with and it will be a good experience for not only the seniors but the younger class to have that Victory Bell and bring it back to the school."
There is a spot on the first floor of the Yoh Football Center reserved for the Victory Bell, which Edwards said he enjoyed passing everyday after the big win. Since relinquishing the travelling trophy back to Chapel Hill, the space has been empty for two seasons with only a picture of the team with the bell as a reminder of what could be there.
"It's bragging rights for your own town," Edwards said. "It's the team right across the street from you. You don't want them to be the talk of the town."
Although a win over the Tar Heels would lift Duke's spirits, the team is still disappointed with its performance this year because many players were optimistic coming into season.
"It hasn't been the season that I imagined," cornerback and All-America candidate John Talley said. "Going through the summer, I felt good about the team. We worked hard together.... It hasn't been the type of season we planned to have."
Head coach Ted Roof said the culture of Duke's program had to improve before its record could, and, while the scores might not show it, his team has improved this year. Even with a win over UNC, though, the seniors will graduate with an 8-38 career record.
"I feel bad for our seniors," he said. "I've really been proud of their leadership, their commitment, their buying-in and their consistency. They've been unswerving in what we've asked them to do and have kept the team on track."
"The shame of it is they're not going to be here when the results on the scoreboards change," he added."
The team has repeatedly cited the same mental errors and failures to execute properly as reasons for its winless slate, and has had trouble performing consistently.
The offensive line has showed vast improvement, averaging 132 rush yards in the last seven games compared to 37.5 in the first four. But the run defense has deteriorated as the season has progressed, allowing an average of 183 yards more per game over the last four contests than the beginning of the season.
Saturday will be Duke's last chance to rectify its problems and secure the program's first win since Sept. 2005, and its first ACC victory in two years.
"We've talked each Monday about opportunities and [that] there's more football left," Roof said. "Well, this time when they hold the ball up at the end of the game, there won't be anymore football left for 2006. When we come back to the locker room, we want to make sure we don't bring any regrets with us."
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