CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora met with the media Monday inside the Kenan Football Center for his first weekly press conference of the season.

The Tar Heels open the campaign Saturday at California (4:00 pm, FOX), though most of the questions the seventh-year UNC coach fielded were about his team, its young players and even his own admitted paranoia, which is why media access has been trimmed the last couple of years.

Here are some notes and quotes from Fedora’s press conference:

*This time last year, UNC’s staff was preparing for a Cal team with a new coaching staff making it difficult to get a good feel for what the Bears were going to do. Now, most of Cal’s staff has remained in tact and it returns quite a few starters, so how much different is it preparing for this opener versus a year ago?

“You have some film to look at and actually figure out how you want to game-plan it," Fedora said. "That makes it a little bit easier. They’re going to make some tweaks and changes, according to their talent, but you also have the base things – you know, basically, what they’re going to do.

“It’ll be better for them in this go-around, they’re second year in the program.”

*With Chazz Surratt suspended for the first four games and Nathan Elliott the clear starter, the battle for his backup is between a pair of true freshmen, Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder. That decision, however, hasn’t been made yet.

“We’ll settle it out here probably in the next few days, (which) is when we’ve got to make a final decision,” Fedora said. “We’re starting to get there, I’m just not ready to make that call, yet. But, we’re starting to get there.”

Note that it isn't entirely out of the realm that depending on circumstance that senior walk-on Manny Miles gets into the game, but that's very unlikely.

*Fedora said they will travel “quite a few” true freshmen to Berkeley, though he wasn’t specific about which players. He started rattling off a few names – Dyami Brown, William Barnes, Javonte Williams, Antoine Green – but then continued naming seemingly every true freshman on the roster.

He stopped at eight names, but did so with a big smile. This was Fedora being Fedora.

“We’ll travel quite a few guys on this trip, and we’re going to have some definite guys that get on the field as true freshmen on both offense and defense and definitely on special teams,” he said.

He did say there’s “no doubt” that William Barnes will play. He said “there’s a chance” offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu will play, too, in addition to the names previously noted.

*No depth chart was released Monday, but Fedora did give a little insight to who has won certain jobs:

Dazz Newsome will return punts and be backed up by Anthony Ratliff-Williams.

“You could see maybe both of them in the game,” Fedora said.

When asked about Ratliff-Williams telling the media dating back to last spring he’s been pushing the staff to let him return punts, to which Fedora smiled before responding.

“He’s always pushing me, he’s always pushing me for everything,” the coach said, still smiling. “He wants to be out there with everything, every chance you can put the ball in his hands he wants the ball in his hands. That’s one of the things I love about Ant, is he wants the ball in his hands and he knows he can make plays and he can help this football team.”

*Nobody has won the tailback job and it likely will be by committee, a trio that includes Jordon Brown, Antonio Williams and Javonte Williams.

Williams transferred in after spending two years at Ohio State where he saw limited action. A former 4-star prospect from New London, NC, he was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA and will be in the rotation Saturday. Fedora can’t say enough positive things about Williams.

“A kid that has bought in completely, that’s thrilled to be here, that loves being home, that is excited about playing and is a kid that is starting to establish himself as a leader on this football team, which has really been neat to watch,” Fedora said.

Another thing Fedora noted about the rotation is that determining whoever takes the field first will be based on the package or script called for that series, which is situational going in.

*A few other spots Fedora acknowledged, Hunter Lent will handle the punting duties while Freeman Jones will again be Carolina’s primary placekicker.

*Fedora said he hopes to have the depth chart finalized by Thursday or Friday. The team travels to the West Coast on Thursday afternoon.