The college basketball season starts on Friday but before hearts and minds across the state turn to the hard court, Duke and North Carolina renewed their Tobacco Road rivalry on the gridiron Thursday night.
There were times early on where it looked like the Tar Heels were going to jump out to a big lead, but the Blue Devils responded with several impressive drives in the second quarter to knot things up at halftime 21-all.
Duke quarterback Daniel Jones was effective on short and intermediate throws to rack up 146 yards through the air while adding another 25 yards rushing. He spread the ball around quite a bit, hitting seven different receivers over the first two quarters and leading three scoring drives over 65 yards.
His counterpart Mitch Trubisky looked like the signal-caller many believe can be an NFL first-rounder, throwing for 210 yards and three touchdowns in the half. While he wasn’t normally a rushing threat on designed keepers (three carries, seven yards) as much as previous games, a lot of that had to do with feeding tailback Elijah Hood (6.2 yards a carry) against a defense that is much better than the stats would indicate.
It should make for a fun second half from Durham, as Duke is trying to keep their slim hopes at making a bowl game alive on Senior Day from Wallace Wade Stadium. UNC is in the thick of the ACC Coastal race and will need to capture a win if they want to remain neck-and-neck with Virginia Tech atop the standings with just a few games left on the schedule.