Notre Dame enters the teeth of October with North Carolina sandwiched between Stanford and Florida State, two likely Top 10 teams. But overlooking the Tar Heels is the last thing the Irish should do, with Larry Fedora’s team coming off a strong finish to 2013.
Fedora enters his third season as the head of the North Carolina program, on his way to turning around a program that was in disarray when Butch Davis was relieved of his duties after an academic scandal shook Chapel Hill.
With the Tar Heels back on the Notre Dame schedule for the first time since 2008, we reached out to Brian Barbour of SBNation’s Tar Heel Blog to get up to speed on what to expect from North Carolina next season.
After losing five of their first six games, the Tar Heels looked like a different team, winning six of their last seven games, including the Belk Bowl over Cincinnati. What changed? Is the late season push one of the biggest reasons for the optimism heading into 2014?
The schedule in 2013 was frontloaded. UNC played South Carolina, Georgia Tech(an offense UNC struggles against), an ECU team that ended up winning ten games, Virginia Tech on the road then Miami. Compare that to the back half where the best team UNC saw was Duke. The 1-5 start was not necessarily shock with the loss to ECU at home being the notable exception. Of course winning a bowl game and returning most of your personnel always sets a team up to “have momentum” going into the next season.
Larry Fedora is one of the more intriguing coaches in college football. Can you assess the work Fedora has done in his two seasons in Chapel Hill? Considering the circumstances he inherited, has his short tenure been a success?
Fedora’s tenure has been on course for the most part. There is a sense he has done a better job putting together a solid coaching staff and the recruiting is rolling along. He isn’t bringing the same quantity of Butch Davis-type talent but doing well enough in his own right. At this point much of the talent from the Davis years is gone so the next season or two offer a true test of his tenure. What can Fedora do with “his guys” who have been recruited for and played from the first day in his system. The transition to that period will be worth watching.
Seth Littrell comes in from Indiana to replace Blake Anderson as offensive coordinator, after Anderson took the Arkansas State head job. After spring practice, does it look any changes will be implemented to the offense?
Despite the change in offensive coordinator this is still Larry Fedora’s offense system. I would expect there could be some subtle changes in what UNC does, perhaps even more attention to passing downfield and stretching the defense out. Otherwise nothing jumped off the page during the spring game other than a fairly healthy competition at quarterback.
How is the quarterback position shaking out? Is the job Marqise Williams’? On paper he looks ready, though he seems to have struggled against Duke? Who do you think is behind center when the Tar Heels come to South Bend?
There is really no way of knowing. Mitch Trubisky played well in the spring game and rumor has it that he is Fedora’s preference since he was recruited by Fedora specifically to play in this offense. At the same time, Marquise Williams brings experience to the table and brings that mobility dynamic that can be so effective at the college level. The knock on Williams is the passing game simply isn’t as refined whereas Trubisky is probably more accurate. There is also that element of keeping everyone happy, especially Trubisky who could transfer and still have two seasons left whereever he goes. At this stage there is the possibility Fedora uses both quarterbacks in a game. This happened with Williams and Bryn Renner last season after Renner missed a game. The issue with the dual QB system is there were times when the rotation seemed haphazard and counter intuitive to the flow of the game. If they can iron that out, using both players could be effective.
Defensively, Vic Koenning and Ron West’s unit seemed to have found their stride around midseason. While they need to replace Kareem Martin, there’s a lot of talent back. Are there a few defensive players Notre Dame fans need to keep an eye out for?
Cornerback Dominque Green showed some chops as a walk-on freshman last year. Green had five pass break-ups and three interceptions in thirteen games. Norkeithus Otis and Darius Lipford, both linebackers, are expected to be solid contributors. Otis had 8.5 sacks last season and 14 tackles for loss which was second behind NFL draftee Kareem Martin. Lipford has 2.5 sacks and six TFLs.
How did Elijah Hood look this spring? Between he and Gio Bernard, the Irish have had a tough time holding onto running backs against the Tar Heels. (But then again, Kelly poached Everett Golson late in the game from the Tar Heels.)
Will Hood be an immediate contributor in the North Carolina backfield?
Elijah Hood didn’t do much in the spring game collecting just 15 yards on nine attempts. T.J. Logan did the bulk of the rushing for the Blue Team with 108 yards. Hood will face some stiff comeptition for carries. Logan returned from injury last season to produce in the last half of the schedule and Khris Francis, a small but quick back, will get this share of carries but also be used in quick throws to the sideline. Hood certainly has the talent and with Fedora pressing the tempo, there will be plenty of carries to go around not to mention opportunities to catch passes out of the backfield.
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For more coverage of North Carolina before the Irish and Tar Heels do battle on October 11th, check out the Tar Heel Blog or follow on Twitter @TarHeelBlog.