It rips your guts out

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – After his team had fought for four quarters and come so close to pulling off a victory over its arch-rival Duke coach Ted Roof was straight to the point with his comments.

"An obviously very, very disappointing loss that rips your guts out," Roof said after Duke lost 24-21 to North Carolina Saturday afternoon. "I was proud of our kids the way they fought and we had some chances there to win and North Carolina made a play when they needed to. The last drive was so disappointing."

Duke had taken a 21-17 lead with five minutes left when Ronnie Drummer went 24 yards on a reverse for a touchdown. Then came "the last drive" for North Carolina. The Tar Heels went 68 yards on 11 plays in 3:24 for a score. UNC running back Ronnie McGill banged in from 3 yards out for the three point victory.

"That's what I'd probably call your typical Duke-North Carolina game," UNC coach John Bunting said. "…I'm going to give Duke a lot of credit. They played with a tremendous among of amount of emotion."

Duke (1-10, 0-8 ACC) inserted Mike Schneider at quarterback for the final drive of the game, but Schneider was intercepted to end the contest. Zack Asack had 155 yards passing on 10-of-26 with one interception. Schneider was 1-for-2 with one interception for 8 yards.

"Mike was our two minute guy," Roof said. "He's much more comfortable in our two minute offense than Zack, who has come along. But Mike is more comfortable on the practice field and has produced better in two minute, so he was our two minute quarterback."

Asack had a 2-yard touchdown run to tie the score 7-7 in the first quarer. The Blue Devils took the 14-7 lead on Justin Boyle's 1 yard plunge minutes later. UNC tied it 14-14 in the second quarter with a Matt Baker to Derrele Mitchell 38 yard pass. Connor Barth kicked a 24 yard field to give North Carolina a 17-14 halftime lead.

Then came the wild final minutes during which the Blue Devils put themselves in position to win before falling in the final game of the season.

"I told our team that I was proud of them and I'm sorry that we didn't send the seniors out with a win," Roof said. "And also that we have a lot of work to do during the off season, but we are not as far away as some people think we are."