University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Monday Musings
September 22, 2014 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
“The world didn't come to an end,” Larry Fedora said to open his Monday press conference, referring to Carolina's 70-41 loss at East Carolina on Saturday. “The sun came up yesterday, back up today.” And so it did. Carolina is back to work on the football field, eager to put Saturday behind them, and looking ahead to Clemson.
Saturday's result caused Fedora to evaluate everything in his program, the Tar Heel head coach said, yet he was careful to say that he didn't believe a single game, one way or the other, is cause to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. “You don't change your practice,” he said. “I don't think one game dictates how you practice.”
Though the Tar Heel coaching staff evaluated film early Sunday, it was left up to the individual position coaches as to whether the players themselves should do the same sort of study. In the linebackers' case, the decision was made to move forward without looking back. That particular position group was most impacted by the different defensive scheme the Tar Heels employed in Greenville, essentially choosing to use a single bandit and one linebacker in front of six defensive backs. Travis Hughes, the Tar Heels' weakside linebacker on the depth chart, acted as the bandit Saturday. As Carolina will get back to its base defense to take on the Tigers, position coach Ron West opted not to dwell on the East Carolina film.
“We didn't even watch it,” linebacker Jeff Schoettmer said. “We went right on to Clemson and are all focused on Clemson.”
Though a decisive loss in Greenville (and allowing a school-record 70 points) is embarrassing, the Tar Heels are still just three game in to the season and set to open conference play in Death Valley. Spending too much time looking back on East Carolina will open the Tar Heels up for further embarrassment at the hands of the Tigers. This last week of September can be a turning point for the entire season.
“The true test of a man is finding out who you are, and until you're really tested, you don't know,” Fedora said. “But when you are tested, the true man comes out. It comes out. It's who you are. You can't hide it at that point, and why would you want to hide it? Everybody has a choice to make: myself, our staff, everybody in the program, as far as which way we want to go from here. I think I know, you know? So we'll find out this week in practice the way we respond, the way our guys respond to it. I don't know, it's hard to say. We do have a lot of young guys and we'll have to do a great job of leading them.”
Wide receiver Ryan Switzer said bandit Norkeithus Otis has rallied the team, both individually and as a whole in the days since Saturday. Last year, the team started 1-5 before winning six of their final seven games. “We can go one of two ways,” Switzer said Otis imparted to the team. “You've got that awkward fork in the road: you can go left, or you can go right. He talked about making the right decisions, staying positive and going right versus left.”
There is precedent for Fedora's Tar Heels winning after a lopsided defeat. Two seasons ago, Georgia Tech hung 68 on Carolina in Kenan Stadium on a Saturday. The following Thursday, the Tar Heels whipped Virginia in Charlottesville by a 37-13 score. “We can do that,” Schoettmer said. “We got beaten by ECU very badly. Why not go on the road against a great Clemson team and beat them? We've done something good like that before, so we have past experiences to draw back on.”
