Tar Heels open ACC play at Wake Forest

The North Carolina football team will play in the Super Bowl this Saturday, and then it will play in 10 more Super Bowls after that.

At least, that’s the mentality coach Larry Fedora has tried to instill in his team.

In reality, the Tar Heels will travel to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest on Saturday. That’s not quite Super Bowl level on paper, but it certainly means more than last Saturday’s 62-0 blowout of Football Championship Subdivision foe Elon.

For Fedora, Saturday represents another opportunity for the Tar Heels to prove themselves, and he wants his players to approach it like it’s the last one they’ll get.

“We only get 12 (games), right?” Fedora said. “This is number two. It’ll all be over with before you know it. Even though we’re at the beginning of this season, there’s gotta be a sense of urgency, and this is the next step.

“You gotta take advantage of it. You gotta cherish every moment.”
Saturday’s matchup with Wake Forest will likely be a much tougher task for UNC than Elon was last weekend.

It’ll be UNC’s first game on the road and first ACC game of the season — an unusually early start to conference play.

“It’s kind of weird. You don’t get those tune-up games anymore,” quarterback Bryn Renner said.

“Every game is huge from this point on. We can’t take any game lightly. We have to prepare like it’s the Super Bowl every week. That’s what coach Fedora says.”

The Tar Heels hosted the Demon Deacons last season and didn’t have much trouble, disposing of them 49-24.

And for the most part, Wake Forest looks the same on film as it did last year, according to running back Giovani Bernard, who expects to play this week after injuring his left knee last Saturday.

Bernard rushed for 154 yards against the Demon Deacons last year, so he said he matches up well against Wake Forest’s 3-4 defense.

“They still run most of the same scheme as last year,” Bernard said. “I remember a lot of it from last year.

“And I’ve always been a big fan of three down front. I don’t know why. It’s just one of the defenses I like to run against.”

Of course, UNC isn’t running the same offense as it did a year ago. And despite what the 62 points UNC scored against Elon might tell you, that offense is still a work in progress.

As he had said throughout much of training camp, Fedora wants his offense to run even faster, to get in even more plays.

Renner said he knows his team can quicken its pace, and a lot of that starts with him at the quarterback position.

“I got caught looking a couple of times, and that got exploited on film from coach Fedora and (quarterbacks coach Blake) Anderson, and so I got an earful,” Renner said.

“I won’t let that happen again. I let the team down in that regard of not pushing the tempo … I can’t be a spectator. I may as well buy a ticket.”

The Tar Heels used a simplified playbook in the opener as they adjusted to their first game with a spread offense.

But after getting their feet wet against Elon, the Tar Heels will likely be tacking on more complicated plays.

With the competition and the stakes rising with the start of conference play, it’ll be important for the Tar Heels to learn those plays quickly.

“I mean, for me, and I know for a lot of guys on this team, we want to continue,” Bernard said. “We want to continue to show everybody that we’re a top-notch team, not just against an Elon type of team.

“They had great players on their team, but I think we want to show everybody that we can play with the top dogs.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com