Manny Diaz Knows UNC-Duke Will Come Down to Final Play, if History Says Anything

Duke is coming off its most disappointing game of the season, falling 28-25 to a Georgia Tech team that simply shouldn't have been on the same field as the Blue Devils. It was an interesting game from top to bottom, but ultimately, Duke didn't do enough defensively to win. It felt like that throughout the game, as it held a 25-21 lead with about one minute left. 

Georgia Tech took the lead with 54 seconds left, and Duke couldn't finish it off by the end. Regardless, this game is behind the Blue Devils now, and they don't need to worry about it too much. 

Duke has one of its toughest games of the season coming up, and some other tough contests over the next couple of weeks. For now, however, Duke will play its biggest rival, North Carolina, on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., a game that should be one of the best of the college football season.

If history says anything, this will be an action-packed contest from top to bottom. Duke and North Carolina typically play some very interesting games, and head coach Manny Diaz understands that. 

He wants his guys ready to compete at a high level, but he also knows this game could come down to the final play.

“It’s hard to imagine that it’s not going to come down to the last play based off the evidence and so prepare yourself to ride through all the ups and downs to get you to that,” Diaz said. 

“Because if it’s going to come down to the end, then there’s going to be some parts that are really good and some parts that are not so good and a lot of times a team that can manage to overcome their mistakes is the one that has the best chance of executing at the end of the game… “There’s nothing like it,” Diaz said, per WRAL.

After a thrilling game last year, it'll be interesting to see what Duke and North Carolina look like this time around, considering that the Blue Devils are a worse team than they were a year ago, and there's a strong argument to be made that North Carolina is better than it was last season. 

A couple of weeks ago, I would have said this should be an easy win for Duke, but that doesn't really feel like the case anymore. 

North Carolina actually looks to be a respectable program, and there's something to be said about that.