Advertisement
football Edit

Fedora Talks Scrimmage, William Barnes, ARW & More

CHAPEL HILL – Fall camp is past the midway point for North Carolina, as the Tar Heels are three days removed from their first scrimmage meaning the coaching staff is getting closer to having some clarity on a few players and position battles.

But that will still take a bit more time and another scrimmage or two before Larry Fedora speaks definitively on relevant issues. Following Tuesday’s practice, the 10th one of fall camp, Fedora was asked several questions about the scrimmage. And while he didn’t reveal much, which is the norm for the seventh-year head coach, Fedora did offer a few interesting tid bits.

“J.K. Britt had an exceptional scrimmage,” Fedora said, before rattling off a few other names. “You had guys like Anthony Ratliff (Williams), who is going to make plays in every scrimmage that we have. You had Antonio Williams and Javonte Williams that really had big scrimmages.

“Defensively, I thought you saw some things from Cole (Holcomb) that you would expect to see from him, and then John Smith really did some nice things.”

Here are some more notes from some of what Fedora spoke about:

Overall, what were his takeaways from the scrimmage?

“There were a lot of really good things. A lot of individual effort, a lot of guys that made plays. I think it was a typical first scrimmage. You had a lot of young guys whose heads were swimming that the game was moving a lot faster than it’s ever moved for them. But, you saw flashes from them, so that was a good thing. The game will slow down for them as their heads stop smoking, they’ll pick it up faster and they’ll adjust to the game speed. There were some really good things.”

Clarity after one scrimmage needing more…

“You start getting a feel, especially for your older guys – your younger guys, not in one scrimmage. You’ve still got young guys that don’t realize they’re moving slow because they’re thinking on the play, they’re trying to think about what they’ve got to do. They look at it on film they go, ‘Oh wow, I was moving slow.’ But that’s why we’re doing it. The more reps we can get for them the better they’ll be.”


*Even with the first scrimmage behind them, Fedora said the rep distribution hasn’t changed yet. So, 10 practices in, one being the scrimmage, and everything along those lines remains the same.

“We’ve gone all the way through the first scrimmage and today with normal reps,” Fedora said. “We will start managing that as we go.”


*Anthony Ratliff-Williams’ name comes up as much or more than anyone else’s whenever the media has opportunities to speak with Fedora, and that was no different Tuesday. Among the questions the coach was asked focused around Ratliff-Williams as a leader and the process in him developing into that role.

“It’s been fin to watch, because as he’s grown into the position he’s become a better leader. When he was still learning he was really worried about taking care of himself. Now, he’s at a point where he understands the nuances of the position and now he can concentrate on other guys, also. So he’s doing a good job of raising the level of the guys around him.”

A follow up questions was if his teammates feed off of his energy.

“You feed off of Anthony’s plays,” Fedora replied. “The plays that he makes out here on a daily basis – he made one out here today that was, I want to say it’s an unbelievable catch, but it was a typical Anthony Ratliff catch.”

Advertisement