University of North Carolina Athletics
Five With Fedora: Illinois Game
September 12, 2016 | Football
By Jeff Greenberg
Carolina football players spent last week counting down the hours until they could step out on the game field again. They came out of the first game against Georgia with more questions than answers. All week long those questions were repeated over and over again. “Why didn't you run the ball more?” “Why didn't you throw the ball better?” “Has the defense really improved?” The only place to find those answers was on the field again, under the lights.
On Saturday evening, the Tar Heels played in front of a raucous Illini crowd in a packed Memorial Stadium. It was a second straight game against a Power 5 opponent on the road. After a back-and-forth first quarter, UNC started to find the answers to most of those questions. Run the ball? Check. Pass the ball better? Check. Play better on defense? Check. All of this added up to a 48-23 victory for Head Coach Larry Fedora and his Tar Heels. To see what he thought about his team's performance, here's the second edition of “Five With Fedora” for 2016.
FIVE WITH FEDORA – ILLINOIS
1.) How do coaches view winning a football game differently than a fan might? – “You're really touching on different perspectives. I think the score differential or how many points you score or the style in which you won matters more to fans than coaches. Don't get me wrong, coaches want to score a lot of points and coaches want their players to look good in their roles and assignments. But in the end, I just want to make sure we have one more point than the other guy when the clock hits zero. I want to get the win, enjoy it for a bit, and then move on to the next game. It's hard to win a college football game so I'll take the win any way we can get it.
There aren't any ugly wins, because each win is so important. However, there are wins that we can learn from and try to improve upon in the next game. As a coach, you're never completely satisfied with how the game went. There are always things you find that could have been executed better. After the game coaches are already figuring out how to get better and how to get ready for the next game.”
2.) You mentioned never being satisfied and always finding things to correct next time. When you watched the film from Saturday night, what did satisfy you? – “What I liked most was seeing how well our guys reacted and made adjustments once we had a handle on what they were doing. We talked before the game about being patient and withstanding the early momentum from their side. There were going to be things we hadn't prepared for and we hadn't seen on film yet because of Illinois' new staff. We did not want our guys to panic. What made me the most satisfied is the fact that they didn't panic. They listened, they adjusted and their effort level carried the day. What makes me happy most is when we see the group as a whole do good things together. When that takes place the outcome is usually positive.”
3.) One group that didn't panic was the defense. After Illinois' first drive, how did they adjust? What did your defense show you this week? – “The defense showed they had each other's back. They broke off that first run, but nobody panicked. They did some things we weren't prepared for early on with unbalanced sets and six offensive linemen on the field at one time. There were some things you can't scout for if you're playing a new staff and it's not on tape. Those personnel groupings alone created some issues for us early on. Once our guys started recognizing the formations, then they started making the adjustments and were ready to go at that point. We got more pressure on the quarterback and that affected his accuracy. We tackled better in the run game as the game went on and I thought our coverage in the secondary was strong. I think our guys tackled better in this game. We have some things to improve, but our overall play on defense was good to see.”
4.) A lot has been made about how much the offense runs and how much the offense passes. Based on the first two games, how would you describe how that has played out so far? – “I personally have never cared or looked at how many times we run or how many times we throw the ball. It really has nothing to do with how we operate. Due to the style and our philosophy the defense will dictate which way we go. And that doesn't mean they're controlling what we do. What it means is that we want to identify what we believe to be a weakness each time a defense lines up in front of us. When we identify the weakness, we want to exploit it. There will be games where we run the ball more and there will be games where we pass more. It's the nature of our offense and it's the coaches' jobs to get the team ready to do both well in any situation. We ran the ball better this week in certain areas and did better in our passing game.”
5.) After watching the film, which guys jumped out at you and the other coaches, for having a good night against the Illini? – “Both corners played very well in my opinion. Des and M.J. both did well all over the field. I didn't realize how productive Naz Jones was during the game, but after watching the film, he was a disruptive force against their offense. And then the freshman, Tomon Fox had a great game. He played 56 snaps, caused a fumble and just did some really good things for a true freshman. Offensively, I felt like Mitch played better than he did in the last game. We still have some room to grow there but he started to look like the quarterback we see in practice every day.”
