Chemistry A Huge Factor in UNC Football’s Recent Success

Chemistry definitely isn’t the easiest subject in school, but if there’s one thing most people know about it—it’s that when things go wrong, they typically blow up in your face.

It’s a good thing, then, for the UNC football team—which opened training camp Friday afternoon— that there seems to be a winning formula brewing.

There’s plenty of obvious reasons to believe this group of Tar Heels has what it takes to put together another 11-win season—such as returning at least seven starters on each side of the ball.

And then there’s the things that are less obvious–the off-field relationships and bonds that help build a deeper chemistry than a zone blitz or a fade route ever could.

Junior defensive tackle Nazair Jones says the absence of cliques—and honest love the team has for all of its members—is what truly makes this group special.

“I think this is one of the closest teams I’ve been on–since I’ve been here,” Jones said after practice. “It definitely has improved over the years.

“Everybody, we’re always together,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter what race, what position or anything like that.”

Following the 2014 season in which UNC went 6-7 and was blown out by Rutgers in its bowl game, a meeting was called for players to air their grievances.

Since then, it’s been nothing but success for the Tar Heels, as 2015 was one of the best seasons in school history.

Senior tailback TJ Logan possesses the explosive ability to be a star at many other schools, but has willingly taken a backseat to junior Elijah Hood the past two years. Part of that is because he remembers the sour feelings left over after 2014–and how important it was for the players to approach their relationships differently moving forward.

“I feel like [the success] started in the locker room,” Logan said. “Guys were like family [last season]. We just hung out with each other and went everywhere together—and I feel like this is the same type of team.

“Sometimes we go out to the movies with each other,” he added. “Or we might just go out and chill, play video games, do anything.”

Although training camp may seem like it’d be the perfect way to build relationships—with the entire team staying in a hotel throughout the process—that’s really not entirely true.

The way Jones puts it, this particular group spends so much time together throughout the year that the hotel setting feels like they’re just hanging out in a different dorm room.

It’s that team-wide familiarity which has helped make the transition for new starting quarterback Mitch Trubisky a whole lot easier.

“I don’t know what it is with this group, but we just gel easily,” Trubisky said, amidst a sea of reporters. “We have really good chemistry and we’re always together on and off the field.

“It helps because we trust each other.”

Despite the great success UNC was able to achieve in 2015, head coach Larry Fedora says his players were left with a bad taste in their mouths after closing out the season with back-to-back losses to Clemson and Baylor.

Not only have they bonded over movies and video games, but also those tough outcomes.

As their boss on the field, Fedora hopes the chemistry is at a point this season where the Tar Heels can have a crazy game blow up in their face—but still keep moving through it.

“They’ve put in a lot of work,” Fedora said. “So that chemistry and the bond they’ve built from January all the way to this point—and all the things we do in the program—will make us a better and more cohesive unit when adversity does strike.

“And it’s coming.”