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by Jeff Greenberg
North Carolina entered the next-to-last week of the regular season needing to shake off the disappointment of the Duke game in order to focus on the task at hand. That task involved playing an undefeated Citadel team that used this same scenario last season to walk out of their game at South Carolina with an upset victory. The Bulldogs had their sights on repeating that feat in Chapel Hill. The question was would the Tar Heels rebound with the focus and energy needed to squash any chance of an upset?
Indeed, head coach Larry Fedora and his Tar Heels responded well and showed no signs of taking this game lightly as they rolled to a 41-7 win in Kenan Stadium. The defense pitched a shutout and held the Bulldogs to around 250 yards before starting to substitute the reserves into the game. On offense, there were periods of domination, but there were also some periods of sloppy play and points left out on the field.
The big news was the defense getting its first interception of the season. UNC was the last team in the nation without an interception before this game. Dominquie Green not only intercepted the ball but returned it all the way for a touchdown. Coach Fedora, with his sense of humor intact, remarked, “I was told that we are the only team in the country that has returned all of their interceptions for touchdowns, so that’s a pretty big deal.” Fedora spoke further in the GoHeels.com weekly feature, “Five with Fedora.”
1. Coaches always seem to look at games like the one you had with The Citadel as scary propositions even with the overwhelming odds in your favor. Do you fall into that camp? – “Yes, I do. You always get concerned with how your guys are going to approach a game like this. Anybody can beat you on the right day. I don’t take winning for granted because it is just a hard thing to do. People don’t want to look at these games that way, but as a coach you have to. We were coming off of a disappointing loss. Now we had a great week of practice in response to that loss, but you just never know how your guys will respond when the game comes. Then you add in the fact that The Citadel was undefeated this season and the last time they had this opportunity they beat a South Carolina team in their stadium. Games like this give me some anxiety and I’m relieved when they’re over. But you know what else? I enjoy the win too because every win matters. I don’t care who you beat, every win matters to us.”
2. Fans can look at the schedule at this time of year and wonder how an FCS team gets on it. A lot of fans assume you guys can schedule whoever you want, whenever you want every season. Is that how it really is when you’re putting a schedule together? – “No, not at all. Scheduling can be one of the hardest, most frustrating things we do. There may be 128 FBS teams out there, but you don’t just get to go around picking whoever you want to play. For instance, I didn’t prefer to play two FCS teams this season. It’s just the way it worked out. You have to find teams with mutual openings and find teams that want to play you or come to your stadium as well. Then there are times you have to adjust to an unexpected cancellation to a series you already had booked. It’s hard to scramble around to find replacements for those games. A lot of that was at play this season. When this schedule was made we were still figuring out what adding Notre Dame to the ACC would entail and how that would look year to year. Then add in the added dimension of trying to predict if we were going to eight or nine conference games. As a result of that uncertainty, we ended up with a second FCS school this season. It’s a hard process and I don’t see it getting any easier as conferences do different things with the scheduling in the future.”
3. Your defense seemed to have one of those games where guys came out looking to make plays and take the fight to the opponent. They only gave up around 250 yards and zero points before you started to sub guys in. How did you feel about their focus and execution in this game? – “I was happy with the way they approached practice all week and how that manifested itself. There is a lot of pride on that side of the ball. They didn’t wait for things to happen. More guys went out there trying to make plays and get us the ball back. We thought we would need the defense to go out and steal us at least two more possessions. Well, they got us four instead, which was outstanding, including scoring a touchdown as well. I can’t tell you how many guys made great individual efforts on different plays. As the game went on we were getting multiple hats to the ball, which is important against this type of offense. This type of game and this type of effort on defense is exactly what we’ll need in our next game too.”
4. Have you ever scored 41 points in your career while only converting one third down? – “I can’t recall that I have in any game. I was really surprised to see that when I was looking over the game stats. I know 14 of our points came on defense and in the special teams. Then you had the big play to Switzer for a touchdown on the first play of a series. We also had success moving the ball on first and second downs on our scoring drives. But no, I couldn’t have predicted that we score that many points and only convert one third down. If you gave me that proposition before the game I would have thought it would be hard to win. Our offense was definitely sloppy at times and left some points out there in my opinion. We’ll look at that this week in practice because we can’t leave points on the field. You chalk this one up to being a team win in all three phases.”
5. This week’s game against NC State is Senior Day. This group was the first total class you recruited to UNC. What do these particular guys playing their last game in Kenan Stadium mean to you? – “I try not to think about this part of it until after the game because it can be emotional. A guy’s Senior Day is something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. For some, it will be the last football game they ever play. But these guys in particular? They will forever hold a special place in my heart. And it’s not just the players, but their families too. This group of kids and their families believed in us, believed in our vision and believed in UNC at a time when nobody else did. You have to remember when these guys committed to us, they were being told they would never have a chance to accomplish some of the exact things they have indeed accomplished in their time here in Chapel Hill. Their commitments were powerful statements. I can’t wait to run out with these guys one more time in the Tar Pit. I’ll try to hold the emotional part until after the game.”
by Jeff Greenberg
North Carolina entered the next-to-last week of the regular season needing to shake off the disappointment of the Duke game in order to focus on the task at hand. That task involved playing an undefeated Citadel team that used this same scenario last season to walk out of their game at South Carolina with an upset victory. The Bulldogs had their sights on repeating that feat in Chapel Hill. The question was would the Tar Heels rebound with the focus and energy needed to squash any chance of an upset?
Indeed, head coach Larry Fedora and his Tar Heels responded well and showed no signs of taking this game lightly as they rolled to a 41-7 win in Kenan Stadium. The defense pitched a shutout and held the Bulldogs to around 250 yards before starting to substitute the reserves into the game. On offense, there were periods of domination, but there were also some periods of sloppy play and points left out on the field.
The big news was the defense getting its first interception of the season. UNC was the last team in the nation without an interception before this game. Dominquie Green not only intercepted the ball but returned it all the way for a touchdown. Coach Fedora, with his sense of humor intact, remarked, “I was told that we are the only team in the country that has returned all of their interceptions for touchdowns, so that’s a pretty big deal.” Fedora spoke further in the GoHeels.com weekly feature, “Five with Fedora.”
1. Coaches always seem to look at games like the one you had with The Citadel as scary propositions even with the overwhelming odds in your favor. Do you fall into that camp? – “Yes, I do. You always get concerned with how your guys are going to approach a game like this. Anybody can beat you on the right day. I don’t take winning for granted because it is just a hard thing to do. People don’t want to look at these games that way, but as a coach you have to. We were coming off of a disappointing loss. Now we had a great week of practice in response to that loss, but you just never know how your guys will respond when the game comes. Then you add in the fact that The Citadel was undefeated this season and the last time they had this opportunity they beat a South Carolina team in their stadium. Games like this give me some anxiety and I’m relieved when they’re over. But you know what else? I enjoy the win too because every win matters. I don’t care who you beat, every win matters to us.”
2. Fans can look at the schedule at this time of year and wonder how an FCS team gets on it. A lot of fans assume you guys can schedule whoever you want, whenever you want every season. Is that how it really is when you’re putting a schedule together? – “No, not at all. Scheduling can be one of the hardest, most frustrating things we do. There may be 128 FBS teams out there, but you don’t just get to go around picking whoever you want to play. For instance, I didn’t prefer to play two FCS teams this season. It’s just the way it worked out. You have to find teams with mutual openings and find teams that want to play you or come to your stadium as well. Then there are times you have to adjust to an unexpected cancellation to a series you already had booked. It’s hard to scramble around to find replacements for those games. A lot of that was at play this season. When this schedule was made we were still figuring out what adding Notre Dame to the ACC would entail and how that would look year to year. Then add in the added dimension of trying to predict if we were going to eight or nine conference games. As a result of that uncertainty, we ended up with a second FCS school this season. It’s a hard process and I don’t see it getting any easier as conferences do different things with the scheduling in the future.”
3. Your defense seemed to have one of those games where guys came out looking to make plays and take the fight to the opponent. They only gave up around 250 yards and zero points before you started to sub guys in. How did you feel about their focus and execution in this game? – “I was happy with the way they approached practice all week and how that manifested itself. There is a lot of pride on that side of the ball. They didn’t wait for things to happen. More guys went out there trying to make plays and get us the ball back. We thought we would need the defense to go out and steal us at least two more possessions. Well, they got us four instead, which was outstanding, including scoring a touchdown as well. I can’t tell you how many guys made great individual efforts on different plays. As the game went on we were getting multiple hats to the ball, which is important against this type of offense. This type of game and this type of effort on defense is exactly what we’ll need in our next game too.”
4. Have you ever scored 41 points in your career while only converting one third down? – “I can’t recall that I have in any game. I was really surprised to see that when I was looking over the game stats. I know 14 of our points came on defense and in the special teams. Then you had the big play to Switzer for a touchdown on the first play of a series. We also had success moving the ball on first and second downs on our scoring drives. But no, I couldn’t have predicted that we score that many points and only convert one third down. If you gave me that proposition before the game I would have thought it would be hard to win. Our offense was definitely sloppy at times and left some points out there in my opinion. We’ll look at that this week in practice because we can’t leave points on the field. You chalk this one up to being a team win in all three phases.”
5. This week’s game against NC State is Senior Day. This group was the first total class you recruited to UNC. What do these particular guys playing their last game in Kenan Stadium mean to you? – “I try not to think about this part of it until after the game because it can be emotional. A guy’s Senior Day is something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. For some, it will be the last football game they ever play. But these guys in particular? They will forever hold a special place in my heart. And it’s not just the players, but their families too. This group of kids and their families believed in us, believed in our vision and believed in UNC at a time when nobody else did. You have to remember when these guys committed to us, they were being told they would never have a chance to accomplish some of the exact things they have indeed accomplished in their time here in Chapel Hill. Their commitments were powerful statements. I can’t wait to run out with these guys one more time in the Tar Pit. I’ll try to hold the emotional part until after the game.”
