From Wednesday's ACC Teleconference...
COACH FEDORA: Excited about opening the college football season in Charlotte in Bank of
America Stadium on national TV against South Carolina. It should be an exciting game. We are
really looking forward to it.
Q. Opening the season against a team like South Carolina as opposed to playing an
FCS opponent, some of the other schedules that people have around the country, how
important is it to you to go into a game like this? Do you like this situation? Would you
prefer to not have a game like this at the beginning?
COACH FEDORA: Well, the way I look at it is this is what we got. So like it or not, this is
what we got. It's the next game. Therefore, it's the most important game we have. It's a game we've known about all year, so our fans, our players, they've all looked forward to this. Anticipation has been tremendous. There's been a lot of talk about it. It's been something that our kids have talked about through the off-season, summer, all of those things. In that aspect, being on national TV, being in an area that we recruit very heavily, I think it's a great situation.
Q. When you look at this team and its growth under what you've tried to do, what are
some of the biggest things that you've learned at North Carolina that you're taking into this
season when you look back on what you've done up to this point?
COACH FEDORA: Well, there's a lot of things. I mean, you go back and you evaluate
everything you do every season, every aspect of the program, from myself to what we do as a staff
to every aspect that we have with our players, from the training on up all the way to the schemes.
We've made changes every single year. You look at what's happened in the past and you say, Okay, how do we make this better? How do we improve it? Do we need to cut it out? Do we need to adapt? All those things. Hopefully we've put the right formula together for this football team.
Q. What kind of an impact has Gene Chizik meant so far in camp?
COACH FEDORA: Gene is changing the culture on that side of the ball with what we want to
do offensively. He's implementing his style, his philosophy on that side. I think it's had a big
impact on us because it's made us different. We're different than we were. Again, you have no way of knowing until we get out there and play a football game. But I'm excited about the opportunities that are coming.
Q. South Carolina has a very good receiver. What kind of challenge might that
passing game of South Carolina pose for your secondary?
COACH FEDORA: Well, there's no doubt they've got a few good receivers. But I'm guessing
that you're talking about Pharoh Cooper. He's a very explosive player. He makes competitive
catches. He can do things with the ball in his hands afterwards. They move him back, put him in
the wildcat position back there. I think they feel like he might be their best offensive threat. You have a big quarterback that can spread it around, get it to a lot of different places. It creates a problem. Just knowing where 11 is, all the things they can do with him, creates a problem for you.
Q. When you have a quarterback competition, splitting reps, are you able to get done what you need to get done around the quarterback offensively and build the cohesion you're looking for?
COACH FEDORA: Well, I think a lot of it depends on what the two guys are that are taking the reps, what they're all about. Are they two different style of animals or are they the same style? If they're the same style, the offense doesn't have to change from one to the other, I think it's a little bit easier. If they're two different animals, it makes it a little bit difficult on the other 10 guys. I've done it numerous ways. I'm aware through the media there's a lot of people out there that have the quarterback battles this year. One thing I can tell you, when you split reps evenly, it's tougher on the starter because he's not getting the amount of reps he would get if he was already the starter. Sometimes that's just the nature of the beast and you've got to go with it.
Q. Is there that perfect time, seven days, ten days, when you say you have to name somebody?
COACH FEDORA: The ideal time would be before camp started. I think everybody feeling
fortunate when they have two guys that are competing for the job because that means you feel
good with your depth. That's always really important because you're always one play away from that next guy going. Two different ways to look at it. You've prepared your depth, that's a good thing. If the guy
goes down, you feel confident in the guy you got going next. The other aspect of it is they've split reps
the whole time, therefore you've taken reps away from your starter.
Q. What has Marquise Williams meant to you and this program since he's been at UNC?
COACH FEDORA: We'll, he's a guy that fits our scheme tremendously when we walked in here and he was already here, so that was a big plus for us. Then watching him grow within the offense, there was never a doubt about his competitiveness, how fiery he was. Then he had to try to adapt to the things that we wanted him to do within the offense. He's done a really tremendous job of that. Then the challenge for him this past off-season was to be more consistent in everything you do, the way you lead, the way you play, the way you are off the field, everything. So I think Marquise has accepted that challenge. I think he's done a great job with it all the way up to this point.
Q. About the quarterback, last year you alternated a little bit early in the season. Is that because the two guys were so close or because you wanted to make sure you had a backup with experience ready to play in games? Will we see that again this fall?
COACH FEDORA: To answer the question, it was we had both of those things combined. We had two guys that were really close at the time. I also wanted to make sure that our two had some reps, had some real reps in games, not just mop-up duty. If something happened and he had to go, for an example like in the Virginia game, I wanted him to be prepared. Don't think we didn't compete this fall. We still competed. We competed. Those two guys competed each and every day and made each other better. So it was really good. Whether or not we'll see that this fall, I don't know. I don't know.
Q. I'm curious. South Carolina is going to start a quarterback from Raleigh. Was it a kid you recruited or somebody that just went a different route?
COACH FEDORA: We recruited Connor. He was a big, strong guy that can throw the football, has great velocity, can really spin it. Moves around really good. He's a kid that we recruited, yeah, there's no doubt.
COACH FEDORA: Excited about opening the college football season in Charlotte in Bank of
America Stadium on national TV against South Carolina. It should be an exciting game. We are
really looking forward to it.
Q. Opening the season against a team like South Carolina as opposed to playing an
FCS opponent, some of the other schedules that people have around the country, how
important is it to you to go into a game like this? Do you like this situation? Would you
prefer to not have a game like this at the beginning?
COACH FEDORA: Well, the way I look at it is this is what we got. So like it or not, this is
what we got. It's the next game. Therefore, it's the most important game we have. It's a game we've known about all year, so our fans, our players, they've all looked forward to this. Anticipation has been tremendous. There's been a lot of talk about it. It's been something that our kids have talked about through the off-season, summer, all of those things. In that aspect, being on national TV, being in an area that we recruit very heavily, I think it's a great situation.
Q. When you look at this team and its growth under what you've tried to do, what are
some of the biggest things that you've learned at North Carolina that you're taking into this
season when you look back on what you've done up to this point?
COACH FEDORA: Well, there's a lot of things. I mean, you go back and you evaluate
everything you do every season, every aspect of the program, from myself to what we do as a staff
to every aspect that we have with our players, from the training on up all the way to the schemes.
We've made changes every single year. You look at what's happened in the past and you say, Okay, how do we make this better? How do we improve it? Do we need to cut it out? Do we need to adapt? All those things. Hopefully we've put the right formula together for this football team.
Q. What kind of an impact has Gene Chizik meant so far in camp?
COACH FEDORA: Gene is changing the culture on that side of the ball with what we want to
do offensively. He's implementing his style, his philosophy on that side. I think it's had a big
impact on us because it's made us different. We're different than we were. Again, you have no way of knowing until we get out there and play a football game. But I'm excited about the opportunities that are coming.
Q. South Carolina has a very good receiver. What kind of challenge might that
passing game of South Carolina pose for your secondary?
COACH FEDORA: Well, there's no doubt they've got a few good receivers. But I'm guessing
that you're talking about Pharoh Cooper. He's a very explosive player. He makes competitive
catches. He can do things with the ball in his hands afterwards. They move him back, put him in
the wildcat position back there. I think they feel like he might be their best offensive threat. You have a big quarterback that can spread it around, get it to a lot of different places. It creates a problem. Just knowing where 11 is, all the things they can do with him, creates a problem for you.
Q. When you have a quarterback competition, splitting reps, are you able to get done what you need to get done around the quarterback offensively and build the cohesion you're looking for?
COACH FEDORA: Well, I think a lot of it depends on what the two guys are that are taking the reps, what they're all about. Are they two different style of animals or are they the same style? If they're the same style, the offense doesn't have to change from one to the other, I think it's a little bit easier. If they're two different animals, it makes it a little bit difficult on the other 10 guys. I've done it numerous ways. I'm aware through the media there's a lot of people out there that have the quarterback battles this year. One thing I can tell you, when you split reps evenly, it's tougher on the starter because he's not getting the amount of reps he would get if he was already the starter. Sometimes that's just the nature of the beast and you've got to go with it.
Q. Is there that perfect time, seven days, ten days, when you say you have to name somebody?
COACH FEDORA: The ideal time would be before camp started. I think everybody feeling
fortunate when they have two guys that are competing for the job because that means you feel
good with your depth. That's always really important because you're always one play away from that next guy going. Two different ways to look at it. You've prepared your depth, that's a good thing. If the guy
goes down, you feel confident in the guy you got going next. The other aspect of it is they've split reps
the whole time, therefore you've taken reps away from your starter.
Q. What has Marquise Williams meant to you and this program since he's been at UNC?
COACH FEDORA: We'll, he's a guy that fits our scheme tremendously when we walked in here and he was already here, so that was a big plus for us. Then watching him grow within the offense, there was never a doubt about his competitiveness, how fiery he was. Then he had to try to adapt to the things that we wanted him to do within the offense. He's done a really tremendous job of that. Then the challenge for him this past off-season was to be more consistent in everything you do, the way you lead, the way you play, the way you are off the field, everything. So I think Marquise has accepted that challenge. I think he's done a great job with it all the way up to this point.
Q. About the quarterback, last year you alternated a little bit early in the season. Is that because the two guys were so close or because you wanted to make sure you had a backup with experience ready to play in games? Will we see that again this fall?
COACH FEDORA: To answer the question, it was we had both of those things combined. We had two guys that were really close at the time. I also wanted to make sure that our two had some reps, had some real reps in games, not just mop-up duty. If something happened and he had to go, for an example like in the Virginia game, I wanted him to be prepared. Don't think we didn't compete this fall. We still competed. We competed. Those two guys competed each and every day and made each other better. So it was really good. Whether or not we'll see that this fall, I don't know. I don't know.
Q. I'm curious. South Carolina is going to start a quarterback from Raleigh. Was it a kid you recruited or somebody that just went a different route?
COACH FEDORA: We recruited Connor. He was a big, strong guy that can throw the football, has great velocity, can really spin it. Moves around really good. He's a kid that we recruited, yeah, there's no doubt.
