CHAPEL HILL - UNC football coach Larry Fedora met with the media Monday to discuss his team's open week and preparation for Wake Forest.
Here is what the coach had to say:
Fedora: Alright, we had a very productive open week. We got a lot accomplished We were able to tweak some things, offensively, defensively and special teams, things that we think will help us the rest of the way. We got some work with some young guys that we think will continue to prosper and continue to come along and help us as we go. Now we’re anxious to get into game week preparation for Wake Forest and excited to be playing them here at home.
Q: How did you handle the week as far as days off and practice?
Fedora: We came back and put the game to bed that Sunday, the guys had their Monday off and we practiced Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and we gave them Friday and Saturday off and then we came back and had a real practice yesterday. Tuesday and Wednesday were about us. Thursday we started introducing some of the base things against Wake Forest, and the majority of it was on us. And then Sunday we started implementing the game plan.
Q: The offense has been more efficient through five games than it was a year ago, why is that?
Fedora: We’re doing a nice job on third downs, I think we’re somewhere around 50 percent on third downs, so we’re moving the chains, and when you do that you give yourself a chance, you stay on the field. I know that our number of plays that were playing offensive is way down, but some of that is the nature of the beast of some of the games we’ve been in when we were running the clock fro, the third quarter on. So, you’re not going to have as many plays, and again, that’s never been something that we concerned ourselves with is the number of plays. As long as our tempo is good when we want it to be we’re in good shape there. I think one, we’ve got experience on offense, I think that’s helped. These guys understand what’s expected and they know what has to be done and they’ve done a good job of doing it.
Q: Do you think you fixed anything on special teams?
Fedora: I hope so. I hope we fixed on the special teams, I hope we fixed things offensively, and I hope we fixed things defensively. There were things in all three phases that needed to be adjusted. Time will tell, but we think we were able to address some of those issues and hopefully we were able to make some needed changes.
Q: Penalties are way down this year compared to last year, what do y attribute the improvement?
Fedora: I would say we’re playing smarter. Everybody else out there would say we’re a much more disciplined team. I think some of it is some of our guys are a little bit older, a little bit more mature and they understand what needs to be done and they’re making better decisions. We’re still doing thing the way we’ve done them since the first year, and having the officials there every day at practice like we do – we’ve been doing that for the last two years. I hope it’s a combination of all of it that’s making us play better, play smarter.
Q: Has anything changed about what you thought would be your team’s identity or is it what you thought it would be?
Fedora: Going into the season you were hopeful that we were going to have the identity that we have right now, I really was. And I attribute it to the leadership we have on this football team, to the chemistry we have on this football team and the way they handle the locker room. All the other things, the tweaking of the offense, defense, and special teams, those are things that can be corrected. It’s hard to correct those other things: the locker room, the chemistry and the leadership. I’m really proud of what those guys have accomplished in that matter. That’s really identified this football team, and that’s a good thing.
Q: How much more mentally tough is this team than a year ago?
Fedora: They have the ability to learn from last year’s problems, and they were mature enough to do something about those problems. A lot of that was the older guys putting it on their backs and carrying the load to make sure those kinds of problems didn’t come up again.
Q: How much did that mentality help in the comeback in Atlanta?
Fedora: I don’t know how to measure that, but it definitely had to play a factor in it. It wasn’t so much as what was happening on the field, you had to stay in the moment, you had to not panic and not worry about what was going on and just keep playing. That’s hard for a team to do, but this is what I attribute it to: the leadership, the locker room and the chemistry are the reasons we were able to do that.
Q: Last year the two best wins were over Georgia Tech and Duke and were followed up by the two worst performances, at Miami and home to NC State. Is that the next layer, learning how to handle success and avoiding those types of games?
Fedora: The ’15 team hasn’t done any of those things so I try not to associate the two together
Q: But you kind of were just a minute ago
Fedora: learning from those things
Q: Isn’t that the same thing, learning from that?
Fedora: Oh yeah, every problem and every issue you have in the past you’d like to learn from. Again, I think with the leadership, the locker room and the chemistry he team has matured enough to be able to do those kinds of things. I don’t foresee that as a problem.
Q: You guys haven’t been 2-0 in the ACC since you’ve been here, what would that mean to get to 2-0 for this team?
Fedora: Again, I go back to ’15. We’re 1-0 and we want to win one more. I’m trying to distance everything from the past and just take the mistakes and learn from them and make sure this team understands who they are. It doesn’t matter that that everybody made a big deal that we hadn’t won in Atlanta for (17) years, so what, this team hadn’t played in Atlanta until that Saturday. So, I really am trying to get away from all of those things and that’s why I keep answering those questions the same way, because I really want this team to be unique and different. To do that, that’s what we’ve been preaching.
Q: As you get ready for Wake Forest, what do you get out of scouting them and seeing them win 3-0?
Fedora: They are a very resilient football team. They’ve been in some tough ones. I think the last four games that they’ve lost they’ve lost by no more than 8 points. They’re going to fight you all the way to the end, there’s no doubt about it, they’re really good on defense. They’re 15th in the country in total defense right now. They’re going to battle you. Being in a close game doesn’t scare them. They don’t care if they win 3-0 or whatever it is, they’re going to fight you all the way to the end.
Q: What makes them so effective defensively?
Fedora: To this point, they blitz more than anyone we’ve played. They blitz quite a bit and they blitz on normal down and distance, which causes problems in the run game, which puts you behind the chains. So we’ll have to work extremely hard to make sure we stay ahead of the chains in everything that we do.
Q: Is there any clear leader at the punting position at this point?
Fedora: As of this point, no, not that I know of.
Here is what the coach had to say:
Fedora: Alright, we had a very productive open week. We got a lot accomplished We were able to tweak some things, offensively, defensively and special teams, things that we think will help us the rest of the way. We got some work with some young guys that we think will continue to prosper and continue to come along and help us as we go. Now we’re anxious to get into game week preparation for Wake Forest and excited to be playing them here at home.
Q: How did you handle the week as far as days off and practice?
Fedora: We came back and put the game to bed that Sunday, the guys had their Monday off and we practiced Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and we gave them Friday and Saturday off and then we came back and had a real practice yesterday. Tuesday and Wednesday were about us. Thursday we started introducing some of the base things against Wake Forest, and the majority of it was on us. And then Sunday we started implementing the game plan.
Q: The offense has been more efficient through five games than it was a year ago, why is that?
Fedora: We’re doing a nice job on third downs, I think we’re somewhere around 50 percent on third downs, so we’re moving the chains, and when you do that you give yourself a chance, you stay on the field. I know that our number of plays that were playing offensive is way down, but some of that is the nature of the beast of some of the games we’ve been in when we were running the clock fro, the third quarter on. So, you’re not going to have as many plays, and again, that’s never been something that we concerned ourselves with is the number of plays. As long as our tempo is good when we want it to be we’re in good shape there. I think one, we’ve got experience on offense, I think that’s helped. These guys understand what’s expected and they know what has to be done and they’ve done a good job of doing it.
Q: Do you think you fixed anything on special teams?
Fedora: I hope so. I hope we fixed on the special teams, I hope we fixed things offensively, and I hope we fixed things defensively. There were things in all three phases that needed to be adjusted. Time will tell, but we think we were able to address some of those issues and hopefully we were able to make some needed changes.
Q: Penalties are way down this year compared to last year, what do y attribute the improvement?
Fedora: I would say we’re playing smarter. Everybody else out there would say we’re a much more disciplined team. I think some of it is some of our guys are a little bit older, a little bit more mature and they understand what needs to be done and they’re making better decisions. We’re still doing thing the way we’ve done them since the first year, and having the officials there every day at practice like we do – we’ve been doing that for the last two years. I hope it’s a combination of all of it that’s making us play better, play smarter.
Q: Has anything changed about what you thought would be your team’s identity or is it what you thought it would be?
Fedora: Going into the season you were hopeful that we were going to have the identity that we have right now, I really was. And I attribute it to the leadership we have on this football team, to the chemistry we have on this football team and the way they handle the locker room. All the other things, the tweaking of the offense, defense, and special teams, those are things that can be corrected. It’s hard to correct those other things: the locker room, the chemistry and the leadership. I’m really proud of what those guys have accomplished in that matter. That’s really identified this football team, and that’s a good thing.
Q: How much more mentally tough is this team than a year ago?
Fedora: They have the ability to learn from last year’s problems, and they were mature enough to do something about those problems. A lot of that was the older guys putting it on their backs and carrying the load to make sure those kinds of problems didn’t come up again.
Q: How much did that mentality help in the comeback in Atlanta?
Fedora: I don’t know how to measure that, but it definitely had to play a factor in it. It wasn’t so much as what was happening on the field, you had to stay in the moment, you had to not panic and not worry about what was going on and just keep playing. That’s hard for a team to do, but this is what I attribute it to: the leadership, the locker room and the chemistry are the reasons we were able to do that.
Q: Last year the two best wins were over Georgia Tech and Duke and were followed up by the two worst performances, at Miami and home to NC State. Is that the next layer, learning how to handle success and avoiding those types of games?
Fedora: The ’15 team hasn’t done any of those things so I try not to associate the two together
Q: But you kind of were just a minute ago
Fedora: learning from those things
Q: Isn’t that the same thing, learning from that?
Fedora: Oh yeah, every problem and every issue you have in the past you’d like to learn from. Again, I think with the leadership, the locker room and the chemistry he team has matured enough to be able to do those kinds of things. I don’t foresee that as a problem.
Q: You guys haven’t been 2-0 in the ACC since you’ve been here, what would that mean to get to 2-0 for this team?
Fedora: Again, I go back to ’15. We’re 1-0 and we want to win one more. I’m trying to distance everything from the past and just take the mistakes and learn from them and make sure this team understands who they are. It doesn’t matter that that everybody made a big deal that we hadn’t won in Atlanta for (17) years, so what, this team hadn’t played in Atlanta until that Saturday. So, I really am trying to get away from all of those things and that’s why I keep answering those questions the same way, because I really want this team to be unique and different. To do that, that’s what we’ve been preaching.
Q: As you get ready for Wake Forest, what do you get out of scouting them and seeing them win 3-0?
Fedora: They are a very resilient football team. They’ve been in some tough ones. I think the last four games that they’ve lost they’ve lost by no more than 8 points. They’re going to fight you all the way to the end, there’s no doubt about it, they’re really good on defense. They’re 15th in the country in total defense right now. They’re going to battle you. Being in a close game doesn’t scare them. They don’t care if they win 3-0 or whatever it is, they’re going to fight you all the way to the end.
Q: What makes them so effective defensively?
Fedora: To this point, they blitz more than anyone we’ve played. They blitz quite a bit and they blitz on normal down and distance, which causes problems in the run game, which puts you behind the chains. So we’ll have to work extremely hard to make sure we stay ahead of the chains in everything that we do.
Q: Is there any clear leader at the punting position at this point?
Fedora: As of this point, no, not that I know of.
