(Note: Fedora's full Monday press conference posted below)

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora is facing some adversity these days, though, as he said during Monday’s weekly press conference, this isn’t his first rodeo on that front.

Fedora’s team is 0-2 coming off a 41-19 loss at East Carolina, a defeat that just might be the low point of an 18-game stretch that has the head coach fielding questions about his program, job status and searching for answers try to get this thing turned around.

“First of all, this is not the first bit of adversity that I’ve ever faced s a football coach,” Fedora said. “You lean on the lessons that you’ve learned from the past, hopefully you’ve learned from the mistakes that you’ve made in the past and you rally your team around what we need to do.

“And that is basically circle the wagons, believe in each other, believe in what we’re doing, and not worry about anything else and stay focused on your job and do your job.”

UNC went 3-9 last season, and since starting the 2016 campaign 7-2, UNC has gone 4-14, and this was on the heels of an 18-4 mark in the 22 games before going to Duke on Nov. 10, 2016, a game UNC actually led 21-7 at one point.

What two or three things has this program not done in the 18 games since that it was doing well in the 22 game prior to the dramatic drop off?

“Well one, I haven’t thought back to specific point in the season or in the program, so it’s hard for me to tell you that,” Fedora replied. “I would say, just looking at things from where I stand, one is our execution has to be much better, I think we’ve got to, as coaches, continue to look for different ways to put our guys in positions so that they can be successful.”

As the losses mount, the frustration has, too. And maybe even some pressure. But, Fedora is resolute in simply not going there. He’s still operating with a full-on, head-first mentality.

It’s who he’s been and that’s just not changing.

“I hate the fact that we’re 0-2 right now, but it is what it is, you can’t dismiss it,” he said. “You’ve got to fight, scratch and claw to overcome it. You go through the obstacle, not around it. That’s something that we talk about as a team.

“Adversity’s something that you have to deal with. If you’re going to live in this world, you’re going to deal with it every day whether it’s going to be on the field or whether it’s going to be in the classroom, whether it’s going to be at home. That’s life. So, how we handle adversity is who we are, what we become.”

Fedora said the Tar Heels had a spirited practice Sunday, the players worked hard and put the ECU game to bed.

As for himself, Fedora said he continues to learn form mistakes and says he will adapt and the staff “we’ll make some tweaks, some changes” to all three phases of the game.

The seventh-year head coach dismissed the idea his team is desperate and rejects the idea of playing in a desperate mode.

“What happens if you start playing desperate you start getting frustrated, and if you start getting frustrated then you start trying to do too much, and if you start trying to do too much you’re going to have major mistakes all over the field and you won’t be successful.”

*Redshirt freshman center Brian Anderson received a waiver from the NCAA to dress for Saturday’s game, but he did play, so the game counts as one of his suspended games.

*UNC scored on 5 of its 6 first-half possessions, but four were field goals. Why did the Tar Heels have problems getting the ball into the end zone?

“We just didn’t finish the drives off,” Fedora said. “When we got into the red zone or the top of the red zone – a lot of that was around the 30-yard-line, 28-yard-line – we weren’t able to consistently run wit the ball down there. We needed to be more physical and need to be able to punch that ball in.”

*With respect to the hurricane bearing down on North Carolina, which may significantly affect this weekend’s game, Fedora said there are three meetings going on with talks between UNC, the ACC, the AAC and Central Florida about options and what may ultimately be decided.