It’s easy to forget, but the Tar Heels play another football game tomorrow. No matter how much the debacle against James Madison felt like the end of the world last Saturday, there are still eight more opponents waiting. The first of those is Duke, which enters this weekend at 4-0 and hoping for an AP Top 25 appearance.

It would be hard for the Blue Devils not to smell the smell of blood in the water, and not just since the 70 points Carolina allowed on the court to JMU. Given the confusion surrounding Mack Brown’s post-game comments and the unprecedented lack of any Tar Heel player availability to the media this week, UNC appears to be a program experiencing a crisis of confidence.

Not even the ever-positive Brown could sugarcoat Carolina’s conundrum.

“I don’t like letting people down,” he said Monday. “I let our team down, I let our coaches down, I let our university down. And I hate that. I just hate that I’m the one who did that. And this week you’re trying to figure out why it happened and not let it happen again.”

UNC would be wise not to repeat its five-turnover performance against a Duke defense that ranks in the top 20 in the country and has recovered five fumbles in four games. First-year head coach Manny Diaz — a former Brown assistant at Texas — came to Durham from Penn State, where the Nittany Lions also had one of the best defenses in the country. Diaz has experience against the Tar Heels, but none of it is good: As head coach in Miami, his Hurricanes went 0-3 against Brown and Carolina.

The UNC defense will be tasked with recovering from last week’s disastrous performance by containing quarterback Maalik Murphy, a transfer from Texas who has thrown for multiple touchdowns in all four of Duke’s games this season. Murphy certainly sees an opportunity with his right arm against a Carolina unit that allowed JMU’s Alonza Barnett to score seven total touchdowns. UNC’s first-year defensive coordinator Geoff Collins is under scrutiny now, but said his players’ attitude this week makes him confident that better days lie ahead.

“These guys are great,” Collins said. “They say, ‘Coach, it’s not your fault. That’s all of us. We’ll get it repaired. This is a game. This will never happen again.’ They were texting me all night long, like, ‘Coach, we got this.’ Come back to work.’ All these things. “We believe in everything. ‘Let’s drive.’

“I don’t need any encouraging words. I appreciate it, it means a lot to me, but I don’t need it. My job is to help them play as well as possible. And they can be really, really good.”

Carolina is on a five-game winning streak against the Blue Devils, and Brown himself enjoys a personal 13-game winning streak in this rivalry. Three of the last five meetings have come down to the final seconds, including a double-overtime thriller in Drake Maye’s final game at Kenan Stadium last season.

The Blue Devils would love nothing more than to end the series while deepening the misery of their fiercest rivals. Brown certainly understands that and said the message was conveyed to the players as well.

“It’s Duke. They know that. These kids were here,” Brown said. “They understand the victory bell, they understand the importance of this game to our fan base. And they understand that they are good. With social media, kids hear everything. They’ll see and hear a lot about Duke that they wouldn’t normally see, and I’m sure (Duke) will be the pick in the game. So our guys will be ready to play.”

That Carolina is actually the betting underdog in a series that the Tar Heels have dominated in the past shows how poorly the program is perceived nationally in the wake of James Madison. That reputation is likely irreparable for now – but Brown, Collins and the rest of the team would be off to a great start with a win on Saturday to get fans excited.

What if the Tar Heels lose again? Well, basketball season is just around the corner.

Featured image via Associated Press/Daniel Lin

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