UNC head football coach Larry Fedora says tasting success last weekend should motivate his 3-4 Tar Heels to want to experience more of it. And that’s a good thing for the Carolina skipper who knows there’s plenty to work on in all three phases of the game.
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Despite a four-game losing streak, UNC’s 48-43 win over Georgia Tech puts the Tar Heels right back into the ACC Coastal conversation.
The UNC defense has been playing with more intensity and aggression in recent weeks. But the scoreboard hasn’t got the memo. The Tar Heels have surrendered a combined 117 points in the past three contests.
And although Coach Fedora admits he’s by no means satisfied, he says it’s most important to see continual progress made each Saturday.
“O.K. is never okay. I still expect them to get better. I expect them to be better this week than they were last week. As long as we keep growing, than we’ll be alright,” Coach Fedora says.
The UNC special teams department has lacked the kind of fireworks put on display in 2013 and persistently advertised in the preseason.
Most notably, Carolina’s sophomore sparkplug Ryan Switzer has been bottled up by opposing coverage teams and contributed uncharacteristic mistakes of his own.
Coach Fedora says Switzer needs to stop trying to force the action and let the game come to him.
“I spent a lot of time talking to him [Switzer] this past week about not forcing anything in the punt return game. All we’ve done is try to force things, and we’ve gone backwards. We’ve been very poor in that aspect. I thought he did a good job the other day. […] There’s no reason to force it, just fair catch it and move on to the next one,” Coach Fedora says.
As frustrating as UNC’s No. 127 ranking in points allowed per game may be, Coach Fedora says the defensive intangibles like effort and attitude are unwavering.
“That is the hardest thing. It’s more about attitude and effort. I’m happy to say that we don’t face the triple option again this year. We don’t have to be concerned with it. I still think our attitudes, the way we’re practicing and the belief in what we’re doing is still good,” Coach Fedora says.
Marquise Williams is the centerpiece of the Tar Heel offense that ranks 17th in the nation in scoring. Williams was named an ACC Player of the Week for the second straight time Monday for good reason.
His record-breaking numbers over the weekend deserved that honor, but Coach Fedora says it’s the junior signal caller’s enhanced decision-making abilities that have proved most vital.
“I think he’s [Williams] gotten better and better every week. As you continue to make good decisions and when you don’t make a good decision and make something out of it, you gain confidence. Stay within the offense, take what they give you, and we’ll be okay. When you get outside of that, things happen,” Coach Fedora says.
Winning tends to breed more winning. Coach Fedora says the young Tar Heels’ confidence levels are growing as they figure out what it takes to emerge victorious on game days.
“For their confidence level and their ability to believe in each other and what they’re doing, we were getting to a point where we really needed it [a win]. It was all about finding a way to win the football game. When you find a way to win football games, you start realizing if you don’t screw it up, you got a pretty good chance,” Coach Fedora says.
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