Tar Heels Hoping To Tame Tigers In Death Valley

The 2-1 North Carolina football team will open its ACC schedule with a trip down to Death Valley to face the 1-2 Clemson Tigers Saturday night for a nationally-televised 7 p.m. kickoff.

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“They’re really good. They’re really good on defense. They’ve settled on their quarterback for the offense with freshman Deshaun Watson, who’s a very talented young man. He can run or throw. It will definitely be a task,” UNC head coach Larry Fedora says.

UNC will need to reverse its recent trend in head-to-head battles with Clemson as the Tar Heels have dropped four of their last five meetings against the Tigers, including the most recent encounter, a 59-38 loss in 2011.

But Coach Fedora has never taken on Clemson. In his maiden campaign against the Tigers, he’ll be saddled with more inexperience than he’d like.

Coach Fedora says he’s had to work on his patience with the extreme youth on UNC’s roster.

“When you’re playing with young guys, you know there will be mistakes made. I don’t have a whole lot of patience. I have more patience than I used to have, because I have three daughters now. It’s still tough for me. Every day is tough. You want to be as good as you can possibly be every single day,” Coach Fedora says.

For junior wide receiver T.J. Thorpe, an athlete who has persevered through numerous ankle injuries, the key for the Tar Heels is to just keep it simple and compete hard 100 percent of the time.

“We just need to play hard. Above all, that’s the thing that I feel like we lack. We need to play hard and sustain playing hard – just compete. We have good players the same way they do. We have talented guys who can make plays. That’s it – focus, attention to detail and play as hard as we can,” Thorpe says.

With an experienced defensive unit at Clemson that includes National Player of the Week Stephone Anthony, the young UNC offensive line figures to have its hands full.

Sophomore offensive tackle John Ferranto says he’s prepared for a rugged battle Saturday night.

“They’re an experienced group. The interior linemen are big, strong and quick. Their defensive ends are quick and really good pass rushers. They have a really good group on defense,” Ferranto says.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney recognizes the challenge of facing a UNC offense that he says is the most up-tempo unit the Tigers have faced.

Coach Swinney says the best defense against the Tar Heels will be a good offense.

“We are a tempo team ourselves, but they’re a little faster than us. We’re trying to do some things ‘good on good’ to try to prepare our guys, use our scouts and get them ready for the tempo that they’ll see. But the biggest thing that we have to do is take care of the football on our side. We’ve got to do a good job offensively and keep them off the field,” Coach Swinney says.

The Tigers have returned 8 starters on their defense. To put that in perspective, the Tar Heels returned a total of 10 starters on their entire team.

Coach Fedora is concerned from the havoc the Tiger defense can create, especially from veteran defensive end Vic Beasley.

“The Vic Beasley kid that everybody talks about is as good as everybody says. He’s relentless and has speed like a defensive back or receiver. He’s quick as a cat. They’ve got guys that can run at every position. They have a lot of confidence right now,” Coach Fedora says.

Coach Fedora identifies two keys to the game – big plays on special teams and stopping the run.

“Starting with special teams, we’ve got to have a game-changing play, we really do. We have to make some plays. It’s going to be vital for our success this week. Jumping over to defense, we have to stop the run,” Coach Fedora says.