Via Tar Heel Blue here is the full statement with quotes from AD Bubba Cunningham and Chancellor Holden Thorp
Chapel Hill - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will hire Larry Fedora, who led Southern Miss to an 11-2 record and 2011 Conference USA championship, as the Tar Heels' next head football coach, pending final Board of Trustees approval at a 9 a.m. meeting Friday (AlumniHall III, George Watts Hill Alumni Center).
The University expects to hold a press conference at 1 p.m. on Friday in the Concourse Club at the Loudermilk Center. The public is invited to attend.
"We identified and spoke to a number of highly qualified coaches and the person whom we believe is the best to lead the Carolina football program forward is Larry Fedora," says UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham. "We share great expectations for the potential of Carolina football and we are excited that he has agreed to be our next head coach.
"Larry has a strong record both as the head coach at Southern Miss and for 18 years as a college assistant coach. Throughout his career his teams have been known for their exciting and highly productive offenses and aggressive defenses."
Fedora's first team at Southern Miss broke 36 school records. In 2011, the Golden Eagles compiled a school-record 6,123 total yards of offense, won 11 games and the Conference USA championship.
"Coach Fedora has a plan and a vision for the future of Carolina football that I strongly believe will make us successful on and off the field," says Cunningham. "He has more than 20 years experience in college football, has tremendous enthusiasm, understands the academic and character values that are important to the University of North Carolina, is committed to fully developing the student-athletes who are under his charge and has the ability to excite both our fans and prospective student-athletes about the potential for great success here.
"We are fortunate to have outstanding student-athletes and coaches at UNC who have had a winning season and will be competing in the Independence Bowl. Our interim head coach Everett Withers will coach the Tar Heels in that game. I especially want to thank Coach Withers, who did an outstanding job in leading the football program this year. Everett is an excellent football coach and a first-class individual. He and his staff provided exemplary leadership under trying circumstances and I am glad they were rewarded with an opportunity to play in a bowl game."
"I am very impressed with the search process that Bubba Cunningham ran," says UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp. "He did a very thorough job of identifying and evaluating the best candidates and, ultimately, selecting Larry Fedora as our football coach. I think Coach Fedora will be a great fit for Carolina, and we look forward to giving him a warm Tar Heel welcome."
Needless to say that was perhaps the most painless coaching search I have ever witnessed.