North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora spoke to the media Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Opening Statement<\/strong> On why Duke rushing was so successful<\/strong> On the countdown to NC State on Saturday<\/strong> On what he has been told about the rivalry<\/strong> On the weight of the NC State game<\/strong> On the expectations on team leaders to help prepare the team after a loss<\/strong> On being 1-3 in games with a five-point or less differential<\/strong> On Shakeel Rashad running into Conner Vernon prior to a play set-up<\/strong> On Tim Jackson going down with an injury<\/strong> On being told about the five game losing streak against NC State<\/strong> On the potentially redshirting currently injured players<\/strong> On Devon Ramsay<\/strong> On NC State\u2019s scheme<\/strong> On the necessity of needing to win against NC State<\/strong> On the rivalry<\/strong> On Sunday\u2019s practice after the loss to Duke<\/strong> On the undefeated record at home<\/strong> North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora spoke to the media Tuesday. Opening Statement \u201cAfter looking at the film, evaluating everything, we obviously didn\u2019t play well…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4535,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions\/4535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cAfter looking at the film, evaluating everything, we obviously didn\u2019t play well enough to win the football game the other night. You\u2019ve got to give Duke credit for making the plays when they had to make them to win the football game. [Jamison Crowder] made a really nice catch on their last play and despite getting hit by two different guys he hung on and they won the football game. That was the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere were just too many times when we didn\u2019t guys in the gaps or we didn\u2019t squeeze off the gaps the way they needed to be squeezed off. It wasn\u2019t one play, it was a couple of different plays that they were actually running and because of our movement up front, when they hit it we just didn\u2019t get it closed off. They did a nice job throughout the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a big rivalry game. That\u2019s been pointed out to me since the first handshake when I took the job. Again, it\u2019s like I\u2019ve said before, it\u2019s what makes college football so great. The fans, the pageantry, the regional rivalries, so this is a big game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cPeople from the very first time said this is \u2018the game.\u2019 You\u2019ve got to focus on that game. You\u2019ve got to win. We all know that every game is important and you don\u2019t base your season on one game. But you also have to understand the importance of the game because of the rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe try to go into this season because of [being bowl ineligible] with every game being like a bowl game for us. We only get 12 opportunities and we\u2019re running out of opportunities. This is the next one and it\u2019s a big one. It\u2019s our rivalry game. I can\u2019t tell you that we\u2019re going out and changing the way that we practice, but it\u2019s something that is talked about amongst the team, the coaches, everybody. Everybody understands the importance of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat\u2019s something that we start preparing for in winter conditioning, spring ball and in the summer. It\u2019s easy to lead when things are going good, anybody can do that and everybody wants to be the leader then. It\u2019s times like this when things aren\u2019t going the way you want them to, when times are tough, when people have given up on you, when people are down on you — it\u2019s who steps up then and who lifts the team then, who shows the team the way it\u2019s got to be done and how we\u2019re going to do it. That\u2019s defines your leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOffensively we\u2019ve kicked too many field goals in those games. Defensively in two of those games we\u2019ve given up a drive late the length of the field. Somebody has got to step up and make those plays and make a stop. For the football team it\u2019s about finishing. It\u2019s still getting over that hump, learning how to finish a football game no matter what the situation is because you\u2019ve got to prepare for both whether it\u2019s the offense on the field or the defense on the field or it\u2019s a game-changing play with special teams. Somebody has got to step up and make a play to get that done. You watched in the game the other night, [Duke] made the plays when they had to. When they had to make a play, they made it. That\u2019s a credit to David [Cutcliffe] and his staff and the kids that have grown up within their system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI was standing not very far from where it happened on the field. And I have looked at it very closely. It happened basically the way I thought it happened on the field. First of all, you\u2019ve got to know Rashad — he\u2019s one of the nicest kids that we have on the football team and I can assure you there was no intention of harming another player and no intention on his part to purposely run into another player. He\u2019s scrambling to get out onto the field, [Duke] was in a hurry-up mode, and he should have already been out there. He\u2019s scrambling to get out on the field and the receiver made a couple of steps backward and walked into each other before they thought. Rashad turned his shoulder and ran into the guy. There was no intention whatsoever on his part, I assure you, to actually run into the guy. If [Rashad] had been more athletic he could have missed him. I don\u2019t know exactly what he was looking at when he was running out there. I know he was in panic mode because he was supposed to be on the field and he wasn\u2019t out there when they were fixing to snap the ball. There was none of the \u2018Hey let me run into this guy to stop the play before it even starts,\u2019 or any malice at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate because it was away from the play. I\u2019m sure the guy had no intention to harm him either. The play was ending, he ended up cutting in on [Tim] and it\u2019s put him out two or three weeks. I\u2019m sure [the ACC] will review it. They review everything. Anything that we think was a questionable call or something we want them to take a second look at, we just have to send it in. We sent in quite a few plays actually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cProbably on that first handshake. I don\u2019t really remember. It\u2019s been a one-sided situation for the last five years. That\u2019s something that obviously our guys are aware of and our fans are very much aware of. Everybody in the program is aware of what has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cUntil we have a guy who has a possibility of getting back and getting ready to go do we make a decision like that. From my understanding we\u2019re not in that situation with anybody based on who has or hasn\u2019t been cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHe actually practiced a little bit last week. He actually was on the scout team and got some reps. We\u2019re trying to slowly bring him back as he has not been completely released. We put him on the scout team last week just so he could start getting knocked around. This week he\u2019ll probably be involved a little bit more in the practice situation. Whether or not they\u2019ll release him I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s tough on anybody. Just the injury alone — to have an injury like that late in the year and to know it\u2019s going to keep you out the majority of the season the next year, that\u2019s tough on anybody. These guys aren\u2019t professionals, they\u2019re kids. And handling adversity like that is a difficult thing to do but it has to be done. You have to do it and it will make you a better person down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDefensively for them, they\u2019re really big up front. They\u2019re athletic up front. They lead the league in sacks so they\u2019re doing a great job putting pressure on the quarterback. You know they\u2019re going to play extremely well against us. Secondary line has some skill back there with big corners who can run and they do a really nice job. Their running corps is young, or inexperienced I should say, but they\u2019ve really come on. I wouldn\u2019t say they\u2019re inexperienced now after [being over halfway through the season], but I think they\u2019re coming into their own. Offensively with [Mike] Glennon, he can spin the ball really well and he\u2019s got some good receivers. The offensive line is doing a nice job. I think they\u2019re pretty balanced with what they do as far as run-pass. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re trying to dominate one way or the other; they just make you take what they give you and take what you give them. They\u2019re very, very sound in the special teams. They don\u2019t do anything fancy. They\u2019re pretty much base and they\u2019re good at what they do. They\u2019re a well-coached football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI cannot tell you how many [people have said how badly we need to win this game]. I couldn\u2019t count. If I meet somebody new, it\u2019s what they talk about. It\u2019s something our fans have made it aware to me what they would like to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s your typical rivalry. Again, that\u2019s the great thing about college football. I\u2019ve never coached in the NFL so I can\u2019t speak for that, but I can tell you that this is what makes it so much for especially for your fans. That\u2019s their bragging rights, that\u2019s the thing that they get to talk about the entire year at the water cooler. That\u2019s what\u2019s fun about college sports. On both sides of it that\u2019s what makes it exciting. They\u2019re so passionate about it, and that\u2019s fun to know that it matters so much to so many people. The worst thing would be apathy and that nobody really cared one way or the other. So I think it\u2019s a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt was a very depressed group when they came in yesterday. I didn\u2019t expect it to be any different and we talked about that. It should feel that way and it should hurt. If it means something to you, that\u2019s the way it\u2019s going to be. That\u2019s a good thing, but it also has to be controlled. At that point once we evaluate that film, are critical of ourselves and how we played, and once we\u2019ve looked in the mirror and tried to figure out why, then you\u2019ve got to turn it off. That\u2019s easier said that done. We\u2019ve talked about making a conscious decision of what you\u2019re going to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ll tell you I\u2019m glad they\u2019re coming here. Our team has played well in the Tar Pit. We\u2019re going to continue to try to build that tradition and that\u2019s a big part of what we\u2019re trying to do. Our kids have taken a lot of pride in that. I think they\u2019ve played well and hopefully we can continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"