Thursday Night Throwdown: Seniors Hope to Seize the Moment

CHAPEL HILL– The finishing touches are being applied over at Navy Field practice facility for the Tar Heels’ encounter with No. 10 Miami on Zero Dark Thursday.

The “blacked out” crowd will be hoping for an inspired performance out of senior signal caller Bryn Renner as he returns to the starting position. Renner says he’s ready to go and fired up to find some holes in the physical Hurricane defense.

“We’re going to do whatever it takes to win. So I think we’ve added some different stuff in the game plan-trying to get a read on Miami’s defense. Any advantage can help,” Renner says.

Renner says he still remembers the wild Chapel Hill night atmosphere when the Tar Heels last hosted a Thursday night contest way back in his freshman year. And Renner says he is excited about another opportunity in his final season in UNC uniform.

“It’s huge. You dream of these games as a kid. We’ve luckily had two of them. The whole Town of Chapel Hill is going to be rocking. We’re ready to go. We’re looking forward to the opportunity,” Renner says.

Senior offensive lineman James Hurst says the team seems to primed and ready for the showdown. He says the pressure is off, and his teammates are looking forward to matching the intensity and energy of a top ten team.

“We’re excited about it. You get a team like Miami that has all this hype and these great players on defense, and they’re undefeated. They’re coming to our place in a night game. We’re excited about it. We know that they are going to bring it, and we’re going to bring it right back to them and hopefully establish ourselves,” Hurst says.

Coach Fedora says he has been keeping things simple lately, preaching the need to be 1-0 following the Miami contest.

“The only goal that we’re focused on right now is being 1-0. That’s it,” Coach Fedora says.

One of the scariest aspects of Miami’s attack is their ability to throw the ball deep. That, along with their improved offensive line will make life difficult on the Tar Heels, Coach Fedora says.

“They can throw the ball down the field. Their offensive line is tremendously improved. They’ve had success running the ball and being physical up front. But they’re going to throw the ball down the field, and they have a couple guys that can really go,” Coach Fedora says.