Inside Carolina spoke with UNC commit Jordan Fieulleteau who stated he had spoken to Larry Fedora and the rumors concerning Tennessee's interest in the Tar Heel head coach were not true.
“I asked him about the Tennessee situation, because I wanted to make sure it was all rumors because he’s the coach of the school I committed to,” Fieulleteau said. “He said ‘Yeah, it’s all rumors. Don’t believe it.’ He said he didn’t even know how the rumors got started. He was just saying I don’t have anything to worry about, because he’s staying at UNC.
“I talked to him on Saturday, too, because I was there for the state championship game. He said he wasn’t going anywhere [and] he plans on ending his career at UNC.”
As with everything that has come out in the last 48 hours, take it for what it is worth. Especially given the two times coaches are probably the least honest is when they are talking to recruits or involved in a coaching search. Here we have both happening at the same time so I would take this with a grain of salt. The one caveat is this sort of thing could create nasty backlash since the same recruit also told Andrew Carter:
He's a man of his word. You can’t just talk to a kid ... and then go back on your word. I’m 100 percent confident
If Fedora were to renege on this there would be a serious price to pay in terms of his reputation. Is that enough of a caveat to believe Fedora was truthful with Fieulleteau? Maybe, maybe not. And while a formal denial would not end all speculation(see the above provision about coaching searches and the truth) it would calm the waters a bit.