{"id":530741,"date":"2017-07-17T15:27:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T19:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=530741"},"modified":"2017-12-19T16:19:49","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T21:19:49","slug":"uncs-fedora-gets-his-wish-heels-picked-low-in-acc-preseason-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=530741","title":{"rendered":"UNC’s Fedora gets his wish; Heels picked low in ACC preseason poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNC coach Larry Fedora got his wish as the media chose his team well down the ladder in the ACC Coastal, which is expected to be a wide-open division.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels have lost their starting quarterback and running back who left early for the NFL as well as high-powered receivers who graduated. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that 90-something percent of the offensive production is gone,\u201d Fedora said. \u201cThe more you guys talk about the guys who left, the better it is for us, It\u2019s motivation for our guys to prove they are good football players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UNC<\/a>
UNC coach Larry Fedora.<\/figcaption><\/figure>He \u201curged\u201d the media to keep talking about how the Tar Heels aren\u2019t expected to do much this season. \u201cPick us low,\u201d he said. \u201cI would much rather prefer that. That would be a good thing for our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media who attended last week\u2019s ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte did just that. In the preseason poll released Monday, the media chose North Carolina fifth in the seven-team Coastal Division.<\/p>\n

Evidently, though, there were four members of the media who didn\u2019t want to help Fedora\u2019s motivation game as they picked the Tar Heels to win the Coastal Division.<\/p>\n

Fedora admits to using the low expectations as motivation. \u201cSure, why not?,\u201d he said adding that he really doesn\u2019t have to do much. \u201cY\u2019all (the media) are doing it for me so I appreciate that. Makes my job a little bit easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior offensive tackle Bentley Spain said he\u2019s not worried about any drop off from last year. \u201c(The low expectation) motivates guys to try harder and prove people wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t control what people say about us so we\u2019re just going to be the best we can every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there are a number of young guys who are going to step up and shock people. \u201cEven though they aren\u2019t household names, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not going to be good players,\u201d Spain said. \u201cWe just had a lot of really good talent they were behind last year. They\u2019ll break out and it\u2019s going to be just as good as last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

ACC Championship Votes<\/strong>
\nFlorida State – 118
\nClemson – 35
\nLouisville – 7
\nVirginia Tech \u2013 3
\nMiami \u2013 3
\nDuke \u2013 1 <\/p>\n

Atlantic Division <\/strong>
\n(First-place votes in parenthesis)
\nFlorida State (121) \u2013 1,108
\nClemson (37) \u2013 1,007
\nLouisville (9) – 843
\nNC State – 658
\nWake Forest \u2013 415
\nSyracuse – 362
\nBoston College – 283<\/p>\n

Coastal Division<\/strong>
\n(First-place votes in parenthesis)
\nMiami (103) \u2013 1,065
\nVirginia Tech (40) \u2013 932
\nGeorgia Tech (9) \u2013 708
\nPitt (7) \u2013 673
\nNorth Carolina (4) – 606
\nDuke (4) -473
\nVirginia -219<\/p>\n

ACC Player of the Year<\/strong>
\nLamar Jackson, QB, Louisville – 113
\nDeondre Francois, QB, Florida State – 23
\nChristian Wilkins, DT, Clemson – 11
\nHarold Landry, DE, Boston College – 8
\nJaylen Samuels, AP, NC State – 7
\nEric Dungey, QB, Syracuse – 2
\nShaquille Quarterman, LB, Miami – 1
\nAhmmon Richards, WR, Miami – 1
\nDaniel Jones, QB, Duke -1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC coach Larry Fedora got his wish as the media chose his team well down the ladder in the ACC Coastal, which is expected to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530741","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\/530741","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=530741"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530777,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530741\/revisions\/530777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/530744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=530741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=530741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=530741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}