UNC head football coach Larry Fedora says the Tar Heels were definitely feeling down following their frustrating 70-41 defeat at East Carolina Saturday, but Coach Fedora says it’s through adversity that the true character of a team is revealed.

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“The world didn’t come to an end. The sun came up yesterday. It’s back up today. We’ve evaluated film, looked at the film, broke it down, got the corrections made, and have moved on,” Coach Fedora says.

The Tar Heels allowed a school-record 789 yards of total offense in the runaway defeat at the hands of the Pirates.

Just like the rest of the team, Coach Fedora says he was forced to do some soul-searching of his own. But after taking a hard look at his failed game plan, Coach Fedora says he still maintains his team is preparing the correct way on the practice field.

“I had to go back and see the plan I put together for the team the last two weeks and what I could do to change that to help us be in a better position. Whether or not I think that’s the fact or not, those are some things that I can do. I could change a lot of things as far as the way we practice, but I don’t think that’s the answer. I think the way we practice is the right way. I think it’s a proven way, and I think we’ll continue to do that,” Coach Fedora says.

Back-to-back losses in ugly fashion to their rivals from Greenville have shaken a UNC football program that began the 2014 season inside the preseason Top 25 polls and harbored aspirations of a trip to the ACC Championship game.

A Coastal division crown can still be achieved, but a result like Saturday can shake a team’s belief. After a thorough evaluation of the ins and outs of the program, Coach Fedora says he’s still a believer.

“Anytime you have that kind of result, you have to look at everything. It doesn’t mean everything you’re doing is wrong, but you have to look at everything. You got to evaluate every little detail to find out if you still believe what you’re doing is the right thing, and I still do believe that,” Coach Fedora says.

UNC @ ECU (UNC Athletics)

UNC @ ECU (UNC Athletics)

One of the more concerning aspects of the lopsided loss was missed tackling. According to Coach Fedora, UNC’s bye week was largely spent going back to the fundamentals, but the Tar Heel defenders still struggled mightily to bring down ECU’s playmakers.

Coach Fedora says the sloppy tackling has to stop for Carolina to be successful.

“When you miss tackles in space, it’s a tough thing. Sometimes you can say that was personnel, sometimes you can say the guy that made him miss was better than they were, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s a breakdown in fundamentals. We got to continue to work hard and do a better job,” Coach Fedora says.

Coach Fedora thinks he’ll soon find out more about his team. He says you find out what people are really made of when they face adversity.

“The true test of a man is finding out who you are. Until you’re really tested, you don’t know. When you are tested, the true man comes out. It’s who you are. You can’t hide it at that point. And why would you want to hide it?” Coach Fedora says.

Junior wide receiver T.J. Thorpe, for one, is skeptical of the mental toughness of his teammates. He says he saw some of the Tar Heels quit playing hard on Saturday.

Coach Fedora, however, says he didn’t observe any players throwing in the towel. But he says every member of the Carolina football program needs to decide which direction they want to head from this moment onward.

“Everybody has a choice to make – myself, our staff, everybody in the program – as far as which way we want to go from here,” Coach Fedora says.

The road certainly doesn’t get any easier for the Tar Heels with another daunting road game, this time under the lights at Clemson’s Death Valley Saturday night.