North Carolina downs Duke in final minutes, secures Victory Bell for first time since 2023

DURHAM — For the first time in three years, the Victory Bell is headed back to Chapel Hill. And, for the first time, North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick got to ring it.

The Tar Heels secured the win over rival Duke — and the bell that comes with it — in a 24-20 victory at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday. 

Jaylen McGill’s 24-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter proved the difference after UNC squandered a 17-0 lead. The Tar Heels thwarted Duke’s final drive with an interception to secure the win.

The ring of the bell could be heard from an elated Tar Heel locker room after the game, the fifth straight meeting between the two teams to be decided by seven or fewer points. Duke had won the last two, including a win over Belichick in his series debut.

“I did ring it. Absolutely,” Belichick said.

UNC (4-2 overall, 2-1 in the ACC) matched its overall and conference win totals from Belichick’s 4-8 first season and secured its second straight ACC road win. Duke (4-2, 1-2) dropped its second consecutive close game in the conference after a 4-0 start.

“There’s a good football team in our locker room that’s had two very, very difficult, heartbreaking results that have come down to the last drive of the game,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “We’ve prided ourselves on winning these types of close games and just let these two get away from us.”

North Carolina scored on its first three possessions to take a 17-0 lead in the second quarter, aided by a poor snap that led to a blocked punt and short touchdown drive. Wide receiver Jordan Shipp had a 5-yard touchdown catch after the blocked punt, and running back Demon June added a 4-yard rushing touchdown early in the second quarter.

But it wouldn’t be that easy for the Tar Heels, who led Duke 20-0 in their last meeting in Durham only to lose 21-20 under then-head coach Mack Brown.

UNC stuffed Duke on a fourth-and-2 at its own 4 — part of a stellar red-zone defensive game for the Tar Heels – but Shipp fumbled on the ensuing possession and Duke’s Andrew Pellicciotta scooped up the loose ball and returned it 9 yards for a touchdown.

Duke trimmed the deficit to 17-13 with two second-half field goals from freshman kicker Gavin Strange, who missed a game-tying 33-yard attempt in the final seconds in last week’s loss to Pittsburgh.

The Blue Devils took their first lead of the game on a 7-yard touchdown catch and run by running back Nate Sheppard. Sheppard, who’d been a game-time decision because of an ankle injury, entered the game as the nation’s leading rusher. He was limited to 77 rushing yards, about half his season average, on 20 carries. But he added 10 catches for 89 yards and the go-ahead touchdown.

“I can’t say enough about Nate — his courage, his toughness, his love for Duke and just the way he played today, it was heroic in my opinion,” Diaz said.

Trailing for the first time all game, the Tar Heels faced a fourth-and-4 early in the subsequent drive. With 3:48 remaining and two timeouts, Belichick opted to go for it — a decision driven, in part, by the team’s punting struggles. Punter Aeron Burrell was out with a back injury, and freshman Adam McCann-Gibbs had dropped a snap and been tackled on his only punt attempt just minutes earlier to set up the Sheppard touchdown drive.

“I wasn’t punting again,” Belichick said. “It hadn’t gone well for us. … I didn’t want to give the ball back and thought we’d go down with [taking] our best shot.”

That best shot was a pass from Billy Edwards Jr. to tight end Jelani Thurman, who found a wide gap in the Duke zone and secured a 12-yard catch for a pivotal first down to keep the drive alive.

“We try to be an offense of just the playmakers making plays,” said Edwards, who completed 15-of-25 passes for 191 yards. “I’m the distributor in that.”

McGill followed up the conversion with a 16-yard run, and Edwards – after checking to a different play at the line of scrimmage — found Trech Kekahuna for 16 yards to the Duke 24. McGill, who had a critical fumble deep in Duke territory earlier in the game, then busted the next play for the go-ahead touchdown.

“Way to step up when it was time to make a play,” Edwards said. “He was able to flush the bad mistake. He knows he wants that play back. He knows that wasn’t the standard. But his ability to bounce back, to have the right mental capacity — same with defense.”

Duke would have one last chance. The Blue Devils moved te ball to the UNC 30, aided by a pass interference penalty on freshman defensive back Kenton Dopson III. North Carolina was missing two injured starters in the secondary — Kaleb Cost and Tre Miller — forcing Dopson into extended duty.

Facing a third-and-14 from the UNC 34 with 19 seconds left, Duke quarterback Walker Eget, under pressure, was intercepted by Dopson to secure the win.

One Edwards kneel down later and the Tar Heels — led by Shipp – were in a sprint to reclaim the Victory Bell.

“Go to hell, Duke. That’s why,” said Shipp, quoting the Tar Heels’ fight song. “That’s what you do it for. Those games, stuff like that, you got to find a way to win games. That’s what we found a way to do – just find a way to win the game.”