Tomon Fox on Duke: "They’ll Come Out Hot Because of the Rivalry"

Linebacker says Tar Heels will need to handle early emotion from Duke

The UNC defense gave up more than 40 points to Virginia and will look to tighten things up against Duke this week

“Our guys are very disappointed with the way we played on Saturday,” Tomon Fox said. We take one thing, one day at a time after a gae, whether we win or lose, justl forget about it the next day and focus on the next opponent. The Defense as a whole needs to be more consistent on a week-to-week basis. We have a good plan. We have good enough players. We have to go out there and execute in order to be a great defense. We have to get better each week. We can’t have it be up and down like a roller coaster. We’ve got to get better each week. The guys have been focused each week.”

“We’re extremely disappointed in ourselves,” he added. “That’s not us as a defense. That’s not us as individual players. We’ve shown we’re better than that.”

This week, the Tar Heels will face Duke in a rivalry game for both sides.

“They’re good players,” Fox said of the Blue Devils. “They’ll come out hot because of the rivalry, just like NC State did. We’ve just got to stay to ourselves, stay true to what we do, and we’ll be okay.”

Duke has used a no-huddle offense to move the ball, which will make it a challenge for the defense to communicate.

“These tempo teams bring out multiple leaders on defense,” he said. “You have one guy talking to the defensive line, one guy talking to the linebackers, one guy talking to defensive backs. It brings out multiple leaders throughout the whole defense instead of one guy talking to everybody. You wish you could talk to everybody throughout the whole defense, but sometimes you don’t have the opportunity. You have to expect other people to step up to a leadership role.”