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UNC Football: ESPN includes Larry Fedora in Hot Seat article

By Zack Pearson

TALLAHASSEE, FL - OCTOBER 01: Head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels Larry Fedora watches his team before the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium on October 1, 2016 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Gammons/Getty Images)
TALLAHASSEE, FL - OCTOBER 01: Head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels Larry Fedora watches his team before the game against the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium on October 1, 2016 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Gammons/Getty Images) /
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As we turn the calendar to 2018, is UNC head coach Larry Fedora on the hot seat?

The heat is apparently on for University of North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora, that is according to ESPN.

Staff writer Adam Rittenberg put out an article on Friday morning labeling the 10 coaches he thinks are on the hot seat going into the 2018 college football season.

Among those 10 coaches is Fedora.

The Insider article gives an extremely early look at some potential changes we could see in November and December of this season, especially if things go bad at these programs.

Fedora was listed at No. 9 ahead of No. 10 Clay Helton of USC.

Rittenberg cites that all Fedora has to do to avoid being fired is avoid a repeat of the 2017 season, which was a disaster for the Tar Heels.

Fedora is 43-34 over his six seasons with the Tar Heels and led the team to an appearance in the 2015 ACC Championship Game after winning the Coastal Division.

He’s had talent in the program but at times the Tar Heels really haven’t been able to take that next step.

The most recent example of that is the 2016 season.

UNC returned Mitchell Trubisky, Elijah Hood, T.J. Logan, Bug Howard, Ryan Switzer and Mack Hollins on offense. But that team finished the year 8-5 despite all of that talent.

That season started with a loss to Georgia after UNC held the lead in the third quarter. They rebounded by winning four-straight before losing 34-3 in Hurricane-like conditions at home to Virginia Tech.

Still, with the loss to the Hokies, the Tar Heels had the chance to win the ACC Coastal. Losses to both Duke and NC State in the span of three weeks put the finishing touches on a disappointing year.

They capped it off officially with a loss to Stanford in the Sun Bowl.

The talent was there for Fedora to win and make it back to the ACC Championship Game, it just didn’t happen and then the criticism came about.

Last season was a tough pill to swallow. The Tar Heels finished 3-9 overall and 1-7 in ACC play, beating only Pitt.

It’s hard to fault Fedora there especially after UNC lost 98% of its offensive production when all of the above-mentioned players left for the NFL Draft or graduated.

However, UNC’s quarterback problems stood out. Fedora didn’t name a starter before the team’s Week 1 loss to Cal and rolled with graduate transfer Brandon Harris and redshirt freshman Chazz Surratt.

That continued for weeks until Nathan Elliott finally got the nod.

The Tar Heels will go into 2018 with some hope. They had a good 2017 recruiting class and are building a sold one in 2018 with the chance to land some big recruits come National Signing Day.

The quarterback competition will be between Surratt and Elliott in the offseason but the hope is that one emerges as a victor.

UNC’s non-conference schedule has them going to Cal in Week 1, at East Carolina in Week 2 and then hosting UCF in Week 3 who just completed an undefeated season capped off by a win over Auburn.

Next: Tar Heels Tidbits: ACC statement, Julius Peppers and more

If UNC can get off to a 3-0 or 2-1 start in non conference, it should bode well for Fedora barring an absolute collapse in ACC play.

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