The Idaho Vandals come in to Kenan Stadium at 0-4 after an overtime loss to Wyoming last Saturday. The 2-2 UNC Tar Heels look to climb above .500 for the first time since winning the opener against Elon.
UNC coach Larry Fedora says Idaho is a dangerous team and probably the best winless team in the country right now. “There is talent out there,” he said. “That quarterback can throw the football, big guy. They’ve got skill guys that can make plays. They’re sound in their special teams and defensively. They have unfortunate things happen to them. Yeah, I think you’re always worried about a team like that.”
He said the Tar Heels are looking forward to being in front of a home crowd for two weeks in a row. “Our players are focused on going out and playing as well as we possibly can,” Fedora said. “Again, the focus this week will be on ourselves and how we can get better as a football team. So looking forward to getting back out there.”
Even with all the offense the Tar Heels have generated over the past couple of games, Fedora still isn’t satisfied with the pace of his no-huddle offense. “Tempo-wise I’d say we’re around 60 percent of where we’d like to be,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a measuring stick that if you know from week to week. But we’re constantly harping on it, emphasizing, trying to get better with our tempo. Each rep (Bryn Renner) feels a little more comfortable. It’s important that he gets as many reps as possible.
“We continue to improve as an entire team, I think Bryn’s probably starting to understand that he doesn’t have to make everything happen. He just has to distribute the ball.”
Fedora said he’d like to see a consistently high energy level throughout the game. “I’d like to see us play a complete game,” he said. “Improvement made from last week in each of the three phases of the game. I think we’re slowly getting better each week, and overcoming some of the problems that we’ve had I’d like to see improvement. If we can keep building and put one brick on top of another, we’ll eventually have that wall built.”
Saturday is military appreciation day at Kenan Stadium and the Tar Heels will be wearing a special patriotic helmet.