Fittingly, coach Larry Fedora walked into the press conference room after North Carolina’s season-opening 62-0 win against Elon while taking a swig from a can of Red Bull.
The high-energy first-year coach has sworn that the new UNC offense would be equally as energetic. Saturday, he kept that promise.
But despite rolling over an FCS opponent, Fedora said there is much more to the new offensive system than what was showcased Saturday.
“We were as simple as we could possibly be,” Fedora said. “The whole deal was, let’s go out there, let’s make sure we know what to do, and let’s let our guys play.”
Quarterback Bryn Renner completed 14 of his 21 passes for 236 yards and threw one interception. He looked comfortable in the fast-paced offense. Still, Fedora thinks his signal caller will improve by leaps and bounds by next week.
“Bryn really did a nice job of management,” Fedora said. “There were some tempo situations where he wasn’t moving quick enough. I thought the offense was lined up and ready to go and he wasn’t moving quick enough. But we’ll get those things straightened out.”
A defensive dominance
Scoring 62 points, the most from a North Carolina team since a 1995 victory against Ohio, the Tar Heel offense was the topic of conversation.
But Fedora doesn’t want you to forget about his defense.
“I told the defense, it’s hard to get a shutout against air these days,” Fedora said. “You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for what they were able to accomplish today.”
Last season, the young UNC secondary struggled. Saturday, the unit held All-American wide receiver Aaron Mellette to just two receptions for nine yards.
“I’ve seen those guys grow from little boys to men,” linebacker Kevin Reddick said about the secondary. “They’re doing better. They’ve still got a ways to go.”
The shutout was the first posted by a UNC team since the Tar Heels beat Duke 38-0 in 1999.
Punt-return prowess
Three different Tar Heels returned punts Saturday. The trio combined for an ACC-record 260 yards.
On his second career punt return, Giovani Bernard took it 70 yards for a touchdown, UNC’s first punt return for a touchdown since Da’Norris Searcy did it against the Citadel in 2009. Bernard, who only played in the first half, had 203 all-purpose yards against Elon, his second-highest total since UNC’s regular-season finale against Duke last season.
Knowing how hard it is to be a successful punt returner, Fedora expressed extreme respect for his return unit’s performance Saturday.
“When you stand back there in front of however many thousands of people, your head’s up in the air and you know there’s 11 guys that all want to take your head off,” Fedora said, “to see all of them handle the ball very solidly back there, that’s impressive.”
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