UNC football: Virginia Tech postgame reactions

Following North Carolina’s defeat to Virginia Tech in the rain, Larry Fedora sat down to discuss the many disappointments of the game.

Don’t blame it on the weather

The weather was obviously a factor in this weekend’s loss, but Fedora isn’t allowing it to be that simple. Despite the conditions, he doesn’t feel like it should be an excuse.

“I’m not going to blame it on the weather. They played in it too and seemed to handle it well. We did a poor job all the way around.”

That doesn’t mean the rain and the wind didn’t affect the way Carolina played. Fedora admits that the weather did limit their options when it came to passing, but they should have been able to make it work.

“It was definitely a factor in the passing game. We couldn’t throw and catch basically. It was a struggle to throw and catch just basic routes. Unfortunately we should be able to do that.”

One issue they had all day long was taking care of the football. UNC allowed too many turnovers, especially in key situations, to give them a fair chance to win. He felt that his players should have been able to adjust to the conditions like Virginia Tech was clearly able to do.

“You’ve got to perform in that situation, you just have to. So whether it’s extra concentration or whatever you’ve got to do to make sure you’re taking care of the ball whether you’re throwing it or running it, you’ve got to do it. It’s just part of it.”

Lack of Rhythm

It was pretty clear that the Tar Heels offense was just not ready to go at the beginning of the game, and they never figured out how to get into a rhythm. Whether it was the weather or something else, Fedora didn’t think that Virginia Tech was to blame for keeping Mitch Trubisky off his game.

“They did exactly what we expected them to do. They played the coverages we thought they were going to play, they played the fronts we thought they were going to play. You just can’t turn the ball over four times. You’re not going to be able to get anything going.”

Fedora didn’t believe there was “any one point in the game” where he realized that the team didn’t have what they needed that day. There were a few bad moments throughout the game, but it was mostly a slow fade into realization that the Tar Heels just weren’t going to show up.

He also discreetly called out his team during the press conference when asked how a team can get into a rhythm after starting off so poorly.

“It’s hard. You’ve got to have a tremendous amount of leadership and guys that are strong enough to overcome it, and we didn’t do that.”

Moving Forward

When asked about how Mitch Trubisky will take this crushing defeat, Fedora was very complimentary of his quarterback. They might have looked bad, but Trubisky would have the right reaction.

“I expect him to handle it like he is. He’s a competitor and a leader and he’ll handle it fine. He’s going to be very disappointed just like all those guys are. He’s going to come back in and be critical of himself tomorrow while watching film but he’ll bounce back and get the mistakes corrected and I think he’ll be fine.”

This Tar Heels team has shown themselves to be tough all season long, and though this was a bad loss, no one expects it to affect them moving forward. As Fedora says, they will bounce back and correct mistakes to make themselves even better.