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UNC Football: Larry Fedora ranked just outside Top 50

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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UNC head coach Larry Fedora was ranked just outside the Top 50 in Athlon Sports’ coaches ranking for the upcoming season

With the calendar officially turning to Summer, we are just a few months away from the return of the college football season. As you prepare for your Fourth of July plans, Summer vacations and NFL training camp to open, there are plenty of ways to get your college football fix.

Each year, dozens of magazines come out as they preview the upcoming season and what fans should expect from their favorite team and teams around the country. One of those magazines is Athlon Sports which puts out regional editions all across the United States.

To help fans get ready for the upcoming season, Athlon Sports recently released its ranking of all the coaches in Division I football. For each of the past seven seasons, the publication has ranked the 130 coaches in order with the criteria of “everything is considered.”

Yep, that means everything. Here’s how Athlon Sports describes their formula:

"This is not simply a list of coaches ranked by accomplishment or wins. While those aspects are important, it doesn’t provide a complete picture of how successful coaches are. Winning 10 games at Alabama is different than winning 10 games at Kentucky. Also, every program has a different amount of resources available. Hierarchy in college football also plays a vital role in how successful programs are. It’s always easier for programs with more built-in advantages to contend for a national title on a more consistent basis."

For North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Larry Fedora, he was ranked just outside of the top 50 going into the 2018 season. Athlon Sports had Fedora at No. 51 on the list behind nine other coaches from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Ahead of Fedora on the list is: Dabo Swinney (3), Mark Richt (13), Bobby Petrino (16), Justin Fuente (21), David Cutcliffe (25), Dave Clawson (35), Willie Taggart (36), Paul Johnson (39) and Bronco Mendenhall (40).

N.C. State’s Dave Doeren was ranked No. 53 on the list.

After taking North Carolina to the ACC Championship Game in 2015, Fedora got a disappointing result the following year when the Tar Heels lost three of their last four games including to Duke, N.C. State and their bowl game to Stanford.

Things got worse in 2017 as the Tar Heels were hit hard with injuries and won just one conference game all season. There’s some hope that they can turn things around in 2018 with a nice recruiting class coming in and hopefully a quarterback that can take the job early in training camp and keep it throughout the season.

UNC will open up their training camp in August as they prepare for the season opener against Cal on September 1st.

Next: UNC represented at The Opening

For more on the Tar Heels and the football program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.

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