CHAPEL HILL – UNC football coach Larry Fedora met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference. He discussed Saturday’s 48-14 win over Illinois and this week’s game versus Delaware.
Here is what the coach had to say:
Fedora: After reviewing the film, we did play a complete game in all three phases, but we still left a lot on the field. There were a lot of opportunities that we still could have been much better. And again, in all three phases. So there’s a lot of room for improvement for our football team at this point and hopefully we’ll be better this week.
Q: What kinds of things do you think you left out there?
Fedora: Start off special teams-wise, there was kickoff coverage, there were some problems that we had, we lost contain on the one that they brought back to the field. Our interior guys weren’t getting off blocks like we want to, we’ve got on our punt team we’ve got to do a better job on our coverage units. We only punted three times, but we’ve still got to do a better job of getting to where we need to be… Punt return, we left two returns on the table he could have had. The one earlier that picked up about 20 yards, that one really should have gone the distance, but we had a couple of guys that didn’t believe it was going to happen, so they weren’t in position. But there was room all around on special teams to make more plays than we did. Offensively, it wasn’t as clean as we’d like it in a lot of places. I thought our guys played hard, we ran the ball effectively, when we threw the ball I thought we threw the ball effectively. We got 4 or 5 dropped passes in a game, one for a sure touchdown, you can’t have those things happen. Defensively, I thought our guys were in position. Their running back, give him credit because he’s a good player, he created some problems for us in the open field and we’ve got to do a better job of that.
Q: How would you grade your defensive line?
Fedora: I thought they were solid, just solid. That's three weeks in a row they've been solid. They still haven't met the expectations that (DL coach) Tray (Scott) has for them up front, but they've been solid.
Q: With Delaware coming, what’s the background on getting two FCS teams on the schedule?
Fedora: I don’t know. If I do know I don’t remember, I don’t know what to tell you.
Q: Are you okay with that schedule?
Fedora: I don’t really like having two FCS opponents, but it is what it is. We had two Power 5 nonconference games, so it is what it is.
Q: What is your idea breakdown for nonconference games?
Fedora: I’m okay with having one FCS team, a Power 5 conference team, then having a couple of out-of-conference games coming from the other five (FBS conferences).
Q: Do you prefer to have those four right at the beginning of the season or would you like to have one later on?
Fedora: Three early and one late is not bad, four early is not bad. A lot of it depends on who they are and when you’re going to stick them in later.
Q: What’s the intel about Delaware?
Fedora: I don’t know a whole lot about this team yet. It’s still early in looking at them. I’m familiar with coach (Dave) Brock, he coached here under John Bunting. He’ll have a very solid team. Some of the film we’ve been looking at and some of the stuff from last year, defensively they ran around and made a lot of plays. The school has a lot of tradition. I think they’ve won six national championships at the FCS level, so they know how to win and there’s a tremendous amount of pride and tradition there. I haven’t gotten far enough into the game planning part to tell you what they are right now.
Q: Donnie Miles said one of the things he loves about playing safety is he gets to see everything much better, how has he adapted to that and how much did playing Ram help him become more physical?
Fedora: First of all, when he was a Ram he played closer to the box so he had to be more physical. Now that he's backed up and playing the safety position the physicality part is pretty easy for him, but now you're in more open spaces. So that's what he's got to be more careful of and we've got to make sure we put him in good positions. Donnie has played really well. He's tackled well in three games, he's done a nice job of getting people where they're supposed to be, so I think his transition has been really good.
Q: The DBs have been more in position to make plays, how much do you see the improvement when watching the film?
Fedora: Quite a bit, a different approach. Aggressive approach, they will go up and press you and know that they have the ability to do it. So they’ve got a lot so confidence right now. MJ’s (Stewart) PBUs, he’s made some plays for us and so has Des (Lawrence), and B-Walk (Brian Walker) has been at the nickel, and Mike Hughes, who played 40-something snaps the other day, had a nice breakup down there in the end zone. Our guys as a whole are just playing a lot more aggressive.
Q: It’s not just the coverage, the way they’re playing the run is so much better than last year.
Fedora: It's a much more aggressive philosophy on that back end on what they're doing.
Q: How would you evaluate Andre Smith’s performance on Saturday?
Fedora: Really good. Andre, I don't know how many plays he had on Saturday, but he graded out really well. It's a good feeling to know that if 'Dre had to go and something happened to Schoett (Smith) could get out there and we didn't miss a beat a far as the communication with the rest of the defense, all of the calls that had to be made, he did a really nice job and played well.
Q: There were a couple of occasions when he was out there with Jeff.
Fedora: 'Dre went to the Mike and Jeff went to the Sam. With Schoett you can do a lot of things because he understands all of them (positions) so you can put him in different positions. We don't want to do that with 'Dre, so get him at the Mike and a lot of reps there and move Jeff around. You know, we had Shak (Shakeel Rashad) and 'Dre and Jeff all on the field when they were in base those were who we feel like are the three best linebackers we can put on the field at one time.
Q: Does the game Saturday allow for extra time to prepare for Georgia Tech?
Fedora: Nah. You can look across the landscape of college football and any team can beat you on any Saturday. There’s great examples of this past weekend of really good football teams that struggled against somebody. Week in and week out it’s about focusing on the opponent you have and going out and playing your best on that Saturday and not looking ahead or behind. If you do it will bite you.
Q: is there any temptation given the unique style Georgia Tech plays?
Fedora: Not for me. Gene and those guys have been doing that weekly on Sundays. We did it throughout camp and then on Sunday’s we’ve done every Sunday when there’s a period built in we’ve done that… That’s a plan that we’ve had from back before the summer talking about how we wanted to do that because you have three days to prepare in that short week and so we wanted to be able to do something weekly but do it when it’s not going to take away from the team we’re preparing for.
Q: On seeing Switzer take one back and how it helps the team.
Fedora: It’s big. We preach game-changing plays on our special teams week in and week out. We spend a lot of time on our special teams and we put a huge point of emphasis on it. We’ve got really good players on our special teams. We expect our guys that are starters on offense and defense to be starters on our special teams. For them to do that those other 10 guys that are out there to be busting their rear ends so that it happens, that’s big.
Q: Tyler Powell got a lot of time at defensive end, was that because Rogers was out?
Fedora: With Rogers going down we decided to move him over to that power end because he can handle it and he's got enough quickness and he's strong enough, all those things. We move him over there to get the reps and he really did a nice job throughout the game.
Q: With Nick two more, I guess it’s old hat for you now.
Fedora: I don’t say much to him, but I didn’t say much to him last year, either. That’s the approach I take with those guys. He's got a lot of confidence, he really does. He feels good. Nick doesn't talk a lot, he doesn't say much, if you've been around him he doesn't say a lot. But I think he feels really good about where he's at. His leg feels good, he's healthy, all those things, so he's hitting the ball well.
Q: Elijah Hood just had his second 100-yard game, how is the mentality of the running game different than last season?
Fedora: We’re better up front, and a lot of those guys are back, so they’ve got experience. We have taken the quarterback out of a lot of the run-game situation stuff and put it back on the running back. So, numbers-wise we're okay. What I mean by that is as far as the defensive numbers in the box the quarterback is the one they can't really account for numbers-wise, so they can't out-number you. So when you take him out of it you equal it back up, but we're playing better up front and the running backs are running really hard, so we're effective doing it
Here is what the coach had to say:
Fedora: After reviewing the film, we did play a complete game in all three phases, but we still left a lot on the field. There were a lot of opportunities that we still could have been much better. And again, in all three phases. So there’s a lot of room for improvement for our football team at this point and hopefully we’ll be better this week.
Q: What kinds of things do you think you left out there?
Fedora: Start off special teams-wise, there was kickoff coverage, there were some problems that we had, we lost contain on the one that they brought back to the field. Our interior guys weren’t getting off blocks like we want to, we’ve got on our punt team we’ve got to do a better job on our coverage units. We only punted three times, but we’ve still got to do a better job of getting to where we need to be… Punt return, we left two returns on the table he could have had. The one earlier that picked up about 20 yards, that one really should have gone the distance, but we had a couple of guys that didn’t believe it was going to happen, so they weren’t in position. But there was room all around on special teams to make more plays than we did. Offensively, it wasn’t as clean as we’d like it in a lot of places. I thought our guys played hard, we ran the ball effectively, when we threw the ball I thought we threw the ball effectively. We got 4 or 5 dropped passes in a game, one for a sure touchdown, you can’t have those things happen. Defensively, I thought our guys were in position. Their running back, give him credit because he’s a good player, he created some problems for us in the open field and we’ve got to do a better job of that.
Q: How would you grade your defensive line?
Fedora: I thought they were solid, just solid. That's three weeks in a row they've been solid. They still haven't met the expectations that (DL coach) Tray (Scott) has for them up front, but they've been solid.
Q: With Delaware coming, what’s the background on getting two FCS teams on the schedule?
Fedora: I don’t know. If I do know I don’t remember, I don’t know what to tell you.
Q: Are you okay with that schedule?
Fedora: I don’t really like having two FCS opponents, but it is what it is. We had two Power 5 nonconference games, so it is what it is.
Q: What is your idea breakdown for nonconference games?
Fedora: I’m okay with having one FCS team, a Power 5 conference team, then having a couple of out-of-conference games coming from the other five (FBS conferences).
Q: Do you prefer to have those four right at the beginning of the season or would you like to have one later on?
Fedora: Three early and one late is not bad, four early is not bad. A lot of it depends on who they are and when you’re going to stick them in later.
Q: What’s the intel about Delaware?
Fedora: I don’t know a whole lot about this team yet. It’s still early in looking at them. I’m familiar with coach (Dave) Brock, he coached here under John Bunting. He’ll have a very solid team. Some of the film we’ve been looking at and some of the stuff from last year, defensively they ran around and made a lot of plays. The school has a lot of tradition. I think they’ve won six national championships at the FCS level, so they know how to win and there’s a tremendous amount of pride and tradition there. I haven’t gotten far enough into the game planning part to tell you what they are right now.
Q: Donnie Miles said one of the things he loves about playing safety is he gets to see everything much better, how has he adapted to that and how much did playing Ram help him become more physical?
Fedora: First of all, when he was a Ram he played closer to the box so he had to be more physical. Now that he's backed up and playing the safety position the physicality part is pretty easy for him, but now you're in more open spaces. So that's what he's got to be more careful of and we've got to make sure we put him in good positions. Donnie has played really well. He's tackled well in three games, he's done a nice job of getting people where they're supposed to be, so I think his transition has been really good.
Q: The DBs have been more in position to make plays, how much do you see the improvement when watching the film?
Fedora: Quite a bit, a different approach. Aggressive approach, they will go up and press you and know that they have the ability to do it. So they’ve got a lot so confidence right now. MJ’s (Stewart) PBUs, he’s made some plays for us and so has Des (Lawrence), and B-Walk (Brian Walker) has been at the nickel, and Mike Hughes, who played 40-something snaps the other day, had a nice breakup down there in the end zone. Our guys as a whole are just playing a lot more aggressive.
Q: It’s not just the coverage, the way they’re playing the run is so much better than last year.
Fedora: It's a much more aggressive philosophy on that back end on what they're doing.
Q: How would you evaluate Andre Smith’s performance on Saturday?
Fedora: Really good. Andre, I don't know how many plays he had on Saturday, but he graded out really well. It's a good feeling to know that if 'Dre had to go and something happened to Schoett (Smith) could get out there and we didn't miss a beat a far as the communication with the rest of the defense, all of the calls that had to be made, he did a really nice job and played well.
Q: There were a couple of occasions when he was out there with Jeff.
Fedora: 'Dre went to the Mike and Jeff went to the Sam. With Schoett you can do a lot of things because he understands all of them (positions) so you can put him in different positions. We don't want to do that with 'Dre, so get him at the Mike and a lot of reps there and move Jeff around. You know, we had Shak (Shakeel Rashad) and 'Dre and Jeff all on the field when they were in base those were who we feel like are the three best linebackers we can put on the field at one time.
Q: Does the game Saturday allow for extra time to prepare for Georgia Tech?
Fedora: Nah. You can look across the landscape of college football and any team can beat you on any Saturday. There’s great examples of this past weekend of really good football teams that struggled against somebody. Week in and week out it’s about focusing on the opponent you have and going out and playing your best on that Saturday and not looking ahead or behind. If you do it will bite you.
Q: is there any temptation given the unique style Georgia Tech plays?
Fedora: Not for me. Gene and those guys have been doing that weekly on Sundays. We did it throughout camp and then on Sunday’s we’ve done every Sunday when there’s a period built in we’ve done that… That’s a plan that we’ve had from back before the summer talking about how we wanted to do that because you have three days to prepare in that short week and so we wanted to be able to do something weekly but do it when it’s not going to take away from the team we’re preparing for.
Q: On seeing Switzer take one back and how it helps the team.
Fedora: It’s big. We preach game-changing plays on our special teams week in and week out. We spend a lot of time on our special teams and we put a huge point of emphasis on it. We’ve got really good players on our special teams. We expect our guys that are starters on offense and defense to be starters on our special teams. For them to do that those other 10 guys that are out there to be busting their rear ends so that it happens, that’s big.
Q: Tyler Powell got a lot of time at defensive end, was that because Rogers was out?
Fedora: With Rogers going down we decided to move him over to that power end because he can handle it and he's got enough quickness and he's strong enough, all those things. We move him over there to get the reps and he really did a nice job throughout the game.
Q: With Nick two more, I guess it’s old hat for you now.
Fedora: I don’t say much to him, but I didn’t say much to him last year, either. That’s the approach I take with those guys. He's got a lot of confidence, he really does. He feels good. Nick doesn't talk a lot, he doesn't say much, if you've been around him he doesn't say a lot. But I think he feels really good about where he's at. His leg feels good, he's healthy, all those things, so he's hitting the ball well.
Q: Elijah Hood just had his second 100-yard game, how is the mentality of the running game different than last season?
Fedora: We’re better up front, and a lot of those guys are back, so they’ve got experience. We have taken the quarterback out of a lot of the run-game situation stuff and put it back on the running back. So, numbers-wise we're okay. What I mean by that is as far as the defensive numbers in the box the quarterback is the one they can't really account for numbers-wise, so they can't out-number you. So when you take him out of it you equal it back up, but we're playing better up front and the running backs are running really hard, so we're effective doing it
