In his weekly press conferences, North Carolina head football coach Larry Fedora usually answers questions about the previous weekend’s game and addresses ones about the upcoming week.
But on Monday, the tone in the Kenan Football Center was set by the news that senior wide receiver Mack Hollins would miss the remainder of the season after having collarbone surgery on Sunday.
Hollins — who led UNC in receiving yards and touchdowns in 2015 and has a team-high four receiving touchdowns this season — suffered the injury late in the second quarter of the Tar Heels' 20-13 win at Miami on Saturday.
Fedora said Hollins’ impact would be felt especially on the deep ball, but he doesn't expect the offense to miss a beat without him.
"We’ll miss Mack’s ability to (catch long passes) because that’s probably the thing that he does best,” he said. “But we’ve still got guys that are getting behind people.”
Quarterback Mitch Trubisky acknowledged he is losing a key weapon in the passing game, but he said he has faith in younger players — like Austin Proehl and Anthony Ratliff-Williams — to step up.
“We’re just going to have to find someone else who can get behind the defense,” Trubisky said. “You definitely miss that deep ball threat with Mack, so someone else will have to do it. We’ll find out who can make plays for us.”
Fedora said Hollins’ biggest on-field impact was felt on special teams, where he was a three-year captain and a starter on all four units of the kicking game.
Despite this, Fedora said the Tar Heels will be better suited to fill Hollins’ absence on special teams than they were in their opening game against Georgia — when the senior receiver served a first-half suspension after his ejection for targeting in UNC’s 49-38 loss to Baylor in the 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl.
