Best Practices Of The Season, 3rd Down Issues & More
CHAPEL HILL – UNC football coach Larry Fedora met with the media following Wednesday’s practice at Kenan Stadium to discuss his team’s preparation for Saturday’s game against No. 21 Notre Dame.
On Tuesday, offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Chris Kapilovic said the Tar Heels had their best practice and Fedora followed up Wednesday saying the team had another great practice.
“We had a great practice today,” Fedora said. “We had a lot of energy. The guys are giving everything they’ve got, they come out here with the right attitude to practice and get better. We still make mistakes, but we know we’re going to and we get them corrected. But they’re practicing hard.”
Having a program the stature of Notre Dame’s coming to town might be a reason, but there’s more to it. The Tar Heels are 1-4 and are coming off a 33-7 loss at Georgia Tech. They may be banged up with a rash of injuries depleted several position groups, but the players have pride, too.
“I think there’s a lot to them,” Fedora said. “Just because we’ve had the success we want to have doesn’t mean that we’ve got to change what we do or how we do things. They’re attitudes have been really good. They are going to practice the way we need to practice to be successful.”
*Fedora was also asked about the problems on third down on both sides of the ball.
“Offensively, it’s just a lack of execution,” Fedora said. “It’s just a breakdown here or a breakdown there. There’s no secret to it, on third down you have to execute…
“Defensively, there’s been some really good ones and then there’s been some that we’ve just given up. In the game last week, we got off the field on third down three series in a row and then we give up a long yardage one. So it’s focus and making sure everybody does their job.”
*Since the defense scaled back a bit and went back to the basics it’s been more physical, Fedora says.
“I think our guys have been physical. I think their pressure execution has been really good. Then plan that we have going into this week, it will be interesting to see how our guys react to it.”
