University of North Carolina Athletics
Springing Forward
March 5, 2014 | Football
The Tar Heel football team hits the field Wednesday for spring number three under Larry Fedora. The Heels will practice 15 times this spring, culminating in the annual spring scrimmage on Saturday April 12 at 3 p.m. at Kenan Stadium. The head coach can't wait to get started to try to continue the momentum from a team that finished 2013 by winning six of their final seven games.
“We have players that are going into their third spring,” Fedora said this week. “We've got a group of freshmen that will be going into their first spring, and quite a few of those guys played for us this past year, so we're still a very young football team, but we have some youth that got some experience this last year. Our expectation level is pretty high this spring as far as coming out of the spring with a good feel of who this football team is and what our identity's going to be in each unit, defense offense and special teams and we will work extremely hard in all three of those units to identify that identity this spring.”
Fedora welcomes three new coaches to his offensive staff in 2014: tight ends coach Seth Littrell, running backs coach Larry Porter and quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf. The head coach said he has been impressed with the way the new coaches have acclimated themselves to the program and is looking forward to being on the field with them this week.
Carolina football under Fedora has adopted 'Smart, Fast and Physical' as the ideal attributes that would define the way the team plays. Those traits should run through each aspect of the game, but coaches like Vic Koenning, Littrell and Porter will determine identities within individual units. The time to instill those desired qualities is now, in these 15 spring practices, so that they can carry through the summer and into fall camp. “Whatever they want those identities to be, they'll start selling that to those kids, and then those kids start buying into that, and then once they make it happen, you see it all develop,” Fedora said.
On the field, Fedora has said that there is competition at every position, and these spring practices will be key in determining the depth chart heading into the fall of 2014. “Competition breeds success. I don't think there's any doubt about that,” Fedora said. “Our guys know, it doesn't matter what position they play on this football team, punter, bandit, defensive tackle, running back, quarterback, left tackle, it doesn't matter. We're going to compete, and you've got to be willing to compete for a job every day. And that means that if you're not the starter, you're going ot have an opportunity to win that job each and every day.”
The Tar Heels were playing their best football in the latter half of the 2013 season, but this team wants to improve on a 7-6 record in 2013, and there are questions that Fedora would like to see answered (to the extent that they can) in these 15 spring practices. The head coach is curious to see how the offensive line will continue to develop, as left tackle James Hurst and center Russell Bodine are off to the NFL. There is an expectation of improved play in the running game, with maturation both up front and in the running back corps. Fedora thinks the quarterback position can be played better and would like more out of his wide receivers.
Defensively, the spring will be critical for rising sophomores like Desmond Lawrence, Brian Walker and Dominique Green, who shone in the latter half of 2013, and Sam Smiley, returning from missing the entire season. Travis Hughes and Darius Lipford are the only two linebackers with extensive experience in a young unit. At bandit, Fedora said, “I feel very good about where Norkeithus Otis is, and the leadership he's provided.”
Up front, tackles Shawn Underwood and Ethan Farmer will be expected to step up. Fedora is looking forward about seeing defensive end Nazair Jones, who redshirted in 2013, and eager to find out if Greg Webb can play to his potential. Junior Gnonkonde showed promise last season and will compete for more time. “There's a lot of unknowns for us, especially on that side of the ball that I'm excited about finding about what they're all about because one, we're going into our third year with this defense and our guys should totally understand what's going on, the young guys that played this past year should get even better and I expect us to be a better defense this year.”
Fedora said the young players began to see the system working in the second half of the 2013 season and began to see them begin to play to their potential. “Their eyes started opening up. You watched them grow up as the season progressed, and so that was a good thing. I thought we got better as a football team each and every week, and I think the way the season played out, it showed that,” he said. “So now, you take this thing to another level. You expect more from your players even though they may be young, you expect more from them because they have been out there.”
