University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Ready To Move Ahead To Clemson
September 25, 2014 | Football
CHAPEL HILL --- You can't allow one game to define an entire team, North Carolina football head coach Larry Fedora said at Wednesday's practice.
The Tar Heels do not want their 70-41 loss to East Carolina last weekend to define them or set the tone for the rest of the season, so they are putting it behind them and looking forward.
"If one game's going to determine who they really are, then that's not going to be a good situation," Fedora said, "Because you've got to play at least 12 of them."
Although it won't dwell on last week's loss, UNC knows that the game did expose some fundamental issues that it needed to work on this week in practice and improve on during Saturday's game against Clemson.
Associate head coach for defense Vic Koenning said that the defense did work on improving on things that went wrong against ECU, but Carolina knows this week isn't about last week's game.
Fedora made it clear that while working on the fundamentals that caused issues against East Carolina was important, the Tar Heels have a new opponent this Saturday and they have to prepare for an entirely new game plan this week as well.
"Clemson's offense is unique in its own way," Fedora said. "We're still working on the fundamentals, that hasn't changed, but you're implementing a game plan (for Clemson), so you can't spend all your time on fundamentals. "
Koenning said that part of the defense's game plan going up against Clemson was to focus on tackling and pressuring the ball carrier.
"Tackling and getting to the ball," Koenning said of his main focus this week with the defense. "We're trying to get eight guys to the ball carrier - eight guys within a three to four yard cylinder of the ball carrier. On spread teams that's really hard to do...but that's what we're trying to do."
It won't be easy to go up against any Clemson team at night in Death Valley, especially one that has a strong veteran presence - the Tigers have eight seniors starting on defense, while the Tar Heels have just ten seniors on their roster.
Despite that fact, though, Fedora believes that there are leaders on this team who have been setting good examples for the younger players in practices this week.
"I've seen good practices and that's something right there because that's coming from the leaders. The younger guys are going to do whatever anyone else does, they're going to follow suit," Fedora said. "So the guys that are the leaders on this team have done a good job of bouncing back, and again, the test will be on Saturday."
Junior bandit Shakeel Rashad is one of those leaders and he's playing a key role in helping the Tar Heels move on from last weekend and reset the tone of the season.
"It hurt, absolutely, to give up that many points and play the way we did," Rashad said of the defensive performance against ECU. "But at the same time, you can't let the same game beat you twice. You've got to turn the page, learn what you can from it and move on."
