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The Bill Belichick era is off and running at North Carolina, and the eight-time Super Bowl champion’s arrival in college football brings a new stanza to the storied rivalry between UNC and Duke. While the series between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils is more synonymous with college basketball than football, the gridiron battle in 2025 should be one of the higher-profile installments in recent rivalry history as Belichick squares off against Manny Diaz for the first time.
Diaz embraced the coaching change that occurred earlier this offseason in Chapel Hill. With an all-time legend patrolling the sidelines on Tobacco Road, more eyeballs promise to be trained on the 112th meeting between Duke and UNC than in years past.
“Whatever gets more people watching, right?” Diaz said on ESPN’s College GameDay podcast. “Anything that’s good for ACC football is good for all of us in the ACC. That was a big win for us a year ago. We got a really, really neat feature to our football facility down there. That’s what makes college football amazing, is those type of rivalries.”
While UNC boasts the all-time advantage with a 64-41-4 mark, Diaz opened his Duke tenure with a victory in last season’s clash. The Blue Devils claimed the Victory Bell with a thrilling 21-20 triumph in which they scored three unanswered touchdowns in the second half to rally from a 20-0 deficit. Peyton Jones scored the decisive touchdown on a 20-yard run with 5:42 remaining as the Blue Devils snapped a four-game losing streak in the series.
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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/manny-diaz-welcomes-bill-belichick-to-duke-north-carolina-rivalry-touts-arrival-as-good-for-acc-football/
Author : Carter Bahns
Publish date : 2025-05-21 17:28:00
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