UNC Football: A Tale of Two Half’s

The North Carolina Tar Heels were embarrassing in the first half against 19th ranked Louisville Cardinals Saturday.  In fact, the play was so bad, it looked like UNC was a 1-AA team playing a top 5 BCS program.  Nothing the Heels did on either side of the ball even resembled quality football.

September 15, 2012; Louisville, KY USA; Louisville Cardinals cornerback Andrew Johnson (15) breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for North Carolina Tar Heels wide receiver Erik Highsmith (88) during the second half of play at Papa John Photo Credit: US Presswire

The execution was bad, the effort was bad, play was sloppy, the fundamentals weren’t just lacking, they were completely missing. The Cardinals diced up the Tar Heels defense to the tune of six consecutive scoring drives, Louisville’s punter, he didn’t move off the bench in the first half. Safe to say, UNC couldn’t stop a nose bleed. As bad of a performance as you could possibly imagine.

The offense, Bryn Renner looked like a freshman with zero clue out there. Poor decisions, bad passes and a completely and utter lack of control of the offense. The Heels couldn’t tackle anybody, they couldn’t get a first down and managed just seven points in the first half, a touchdown I felt they were lucky to get.

What in the world did head coach Larry Fedora say at halftime? I have to admit, my thoughts at halftime were pretty much a pile of complaints that I had to stick around and cover the game. What’s the point, my game review, I saved a draft with the title “Tar Heels embarrassed in Louisville” I wanted the game to be over ASAP so I could get out of dodge, cover the game for Keeping It Heel, go eat and do my best to forget about it. Boy was I wrong.

UNC looked like a team with nothing to lose. They played free, with passion and without the constant mistakes that plagued the first half. Down by a score of 36-7, the Heels came storming back. UNC outscored the Cardinals 27-3 in the second half and came just four yards shy of winning the game.

Fedora has brought a completely different style in all phases of the game to Chapel Hill. These players aren’t used to running these systems and although talented, this isn’t exactly the roster Fedora would build for his style of play if he were the one that constructed it. I’ve said since the hiring of Larry Fedora that this would be a process, likely at least a two year process before things click for the Heels.

Football is as much of a mental game as it is a physical one. Executing assignments, accountability, playing sound fundamental football by being in the right position and paying attention to the details is what wins games. When you are worrying about what you need to do, or how fast you do it, things break down. There needs to be a confidence that these things will be done correctly by each and every man on the field, and if there isn’t the result is sloppy play. When you strip away the worry, you can play football and that’s what the team did in the second half.

Perhaps Fedora’s greatest challenge this season isn’t installing the systems themselves or utilizing the teams strengths to guide them victory after all. Maybe it’s stripping away the worry, instilling confidence and getting this team to just play. When they do, they look pretty darn good, and when they don’t, well, you watched the first half.