The play had been in the works for weeks, but the last few games, North Carolina hadn’t gotten the coverage it wanted, and so the Tar Heels checked out of it at the last second. Against Duke, however, the flea-flicker on the opening play looked like sheer genius.
“We knew once we handed the ball off, they were going to try to stop the run,” Larry Fedora said. “Both safeties came up, and both [North Carolina receivers] were running wide open.”
It was a brutal defensive performance by the Blue Devils, but who could blame them for being wary of UNC’s ground game?