Fedora On Red Zone Issues, Fortin, Waivers & More

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

Among the things Fedora spoke about were freshman quarterback Cade Fortin, running back Michael Carter, the defensive front applying pressure Saturday night, balancing the positives with the negatives from the Virginia Tech game, the team’s response Sunday to the difficult loss, getting another waiver for Malik Carney and more.

Here are a few of those snippets:

*Fedora opened the presser saying that it was a matter of Virginia Tech making more plays than UNC did in the 22-19 loss Saturday night.

“We played really well in so many different areas and really did some great things throughout the game in all three phases, but we didn’t make enough plays to win the football game and they made one more than we did,” Fedora said. “We needed to find a way to make a play one more than we did at any point in the game, and there were opportunities that were there.”

*The most glaring collection of opportunities came from nine trips inside the Hokies’ 26-yard-line and seven trips inside the red zone with just one touchdown to show for it.

“I go back and look at what we used down there, what we called, what we had planned for and that was no different from how I felt about things we had in other areas of the field. I thought we had a good plan. We have to finish, we’ve got o execute, you’ve got to have a nose for the end zone.

*The Tar Heels always practice on Sundays to put the previous game “to bed,” as Fedora calls it. How did the team respond Sunday after such a difficult defeat?

“Yeah, yeah. They were hurting, no doubt about it. And watching film didn’t make you feel any better. But, again, they come over here and they get the truth, we show them what they did really well, we show them what they didn’t do well, and hopefully we learned from the mistakes that we made.”

*Fortin was 10-18 with 97 yards passing and had a big 40-yard run to set up a field goal before being injured late in the first half when he was running toward the end zone but got hit at the 5-yard-line. He did not return and it’s uncertain yet what the situation is. Fedora, however, liked what he saw from Fortin.

“I thought he did a really nice job. There were a couple of throws that he would like to have back. But when you really watched what he did he took care of the football, he didn’t throw the ball into coverage, there may be a couple where his feet got a little happy and he was concerned with the rush. That was early and then he kind of settled in and I thought he did a nice job.”