I understand all of that, but my experience in 2008 differs from what the other poster stated.
That may be, but crowd attendance and general buzz are directly affected by the results on the field. In 2008, it was year 2 under Butch Davis and the team was doing well. This had been the first taste of success at UNC for football since the Mack Brown days, so needless to say the energy was much higher than now, where it's year 6 under Fedora, and the team is looking as bad as it's been in over a decade.
Meanwhile, just 2 weeks ago, there was very noticeable patches of empty seats for the Duke game, easily the biggest game of the season for UNC football. There may be a bigger crowd for this game, but that will likely be because ND fans are out in droves from Tobacco Road.
I think most are just pointing out that it's very different circumstances this time around.