Saturday pits Duke against UNC, and this game has an unusual margin: Duke is 4-0 under new coach Manny Diaz, while UNC is 4-1 after an ugly loss to James Madison last week when the Tar Heels gave up 70 points to the Dukes.

It was bad enough that there was speculation that UNC coach Mack Brown was immediately placed in the hot seat.

That lessened a bit as the week went on, but the loss had to hurt. It’s not easy to score 50 points at home and still lose by 20 points – let alone against a low-profile opponent like Madison.

However, that means Duke will likely have a very angry bunch of heels come Saturday. Diaz, who previously worked for Mack Brown at Texas, has proven to be a very good defensive coach and it won’t be easy for UNC to score 50 points this week.

The real question is UNC’s defense: Can the Heels plug the leaks? This was truly a shocking loss. It would have been bad for anyone, but if the Heels had lost like that at home… it’s hard to understand.

You can reasonably bet that one of two things will happen at UNC Saturday: Either the loss (and the rivalry) will make them mad as hell, or the program will be in free fall.

We’re betting on the former, so expect a big battle in Wallace Wade on Saturday.

Speaking of Wally Wade, the field was a huge mess on Friday after the outside edges of Helene poured an enormous amount of water onto the triangle. It will be a huge challenge for the groundskeeper’s team to restore it and even if it looks pristine, it will still be under water. And there’s no way to know how this will affect the game.

Needless to say, things are going to be interesting.