CHAPEL HILL – Victory Bell week is here, and it is once again an impassioned focus by the players at Duke and North Carolina.

The two rivals meet Saturday night at Kenan Stadium for an 8 PM kickoff. If the Blue Devils win, they will race to the location of the Bell, ring it like mad, and take it back to Durham. If the Tar Heels win, they will ring it all night and keep it in Chapel Hill, where it’s been each year since Mack Brown beat the Devils in the first meeting of his second stint at UNC, which began with the 2019 season.

While the Bell is sometimes all the two teams have to play for when they meet, more is on this line this weekend. Both Carolina (7-2, 3-2 ACC) and Duke (6-3, 3-2) have been ranked most of the season and are jockeying for postseason slotting. And there’s that bragging rights deal, too.

“Since I’ve been here, we have never lost to Duke,” UNC senior linebacker Cedric Gray said earlier this week. “And I just want to continue that tradition here at Carolina, continuing the streak of holding the Bell on this side.”

That alone has the Tar Heels’ attention this week aided by getting back into the win column last weekend following consecutive disappointing and surprising losses to Virginia and Georgia Tech.

“I think anytime for a rival, we’ll be amped up and be ready,” UNC quarterback Drake Maye said Tuesday. “I’m not worried about the guys. Flying around in practice today, I think we know how big a game this is. Got a great opponent, and anytime you’re trying to fight for the Bell, I think we’re amped up and excited for it.”

One of the pleasures for UNC, a year after it defeats the Blue Devils, is that when Duke week comes around, out comes the Bell, and the Tar Heels ring it, and ring it, and ring it some more.

Everyone in the program rings it at least once, or so it seems. Some Tar Heels ring it all the time and at any time. It’s a source of pride but also one of humor at times.

“It’s a little bit obnoxious when everybody’s ringing it all the time,” Maye said, laughing.

Cheerleaders bring it out onto the Kenan Stadium turf for all home games, but it’s the symbolism of the Bell during Duke week that really stands out around the program.

The Bell came into existence in 1948 when head cheerleaders for both Duke and UNC agreed that the schools needed to play for something significant. Other rivalries, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin competing for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, Mississippi State and Ole Miss vying for the Golden Egg, and Indiana and Purdue battling annually for the Old Oaken Bucket, among many others, are historic and part of the game’s lore.

So, UNC and Duke adopted the Victory Bell as their reward. Carolina has won the last three meetings between the neighbors, and owns a 64-41-4 all-time record versus the Blue Devils. They have met every season since 1922. The Heels don’t intend on losing the bell this weekend.

This will be the 15th Victory Bell game for Brown as a head coach. His first was in 1988. UNC has not lost to Duke since Brown returned, and in fact, his teams from both Carolina stints have won 12 consecutive meetings. He lost the first two before reeling off eight straight wins before leaving for Texas, and is 4-0 sine returning to Chapel Hill.

Yet, the importance of winning this game and keeping the Bell has never been lost on the Hall of Famer.

“I don’t think so,” Brown replied, when asked if the importance of the game has changed since he first started at UNC 35 years ago. “I think the Victory Bell is really important for both teams. This game is why kids come to this school.

“You just say mention those two; those two names, UNC and Duke, you mention them nationally and people know that they’re eight miles apart and that it’s really an important game.”

It most certainly is, especially when both teams are good, like these last two seasons. And beating Duke would probably mean just as much if the teams didn’t play for any kind of trophy. Beating your rival is beating your rival.

Yet, as Maye said, getting both adds a tad bit to the special nature of this game.

“I tried to give it a good ring,” he said. “But it’s more fun when guys are carrying it off the field.”