UNC Football: Larry Fedora takes blame for Syracuse loss

UNC football head coach Larry Fedora takes the blame for Saturday’s loss at Syracuse

This hasn’t been the season the North Carolina Tar Heels football team had hoped it would be, dropping to 1-5 overall with a 40-37 loss at Syracuse on Saturday.

It marked the second-straight game in which the Tar Heels had a lead in the fourth quarter but could not put it away on the offensive side of the football.

The offense had a few chances late to seal the game against Virginia Tech but fumbled at the goal line and then watched the Hokies march down for the game-winning score. Against Syracuse, UNC dropped a wide-open pass on third down that would have ended the game and then couldn’t muster a yard in the final seconds despite being in ‘Cuse territory to set up a field goal attempt.

For a team that’s coming off a 3-9 campaign in 2017, there’s essentially been no progress made in 2018.

UNC would need to win out to be bowl eligible but have tough games remaining on their schedule against Virginia, N.C. State and Duke. Making a bowl likely isn’t going to happen as this team has lacked consistency all season long.

Saturday’s game was just the latest example of what could have been with this team and following it, head coach Larry Fedora took the blame.

Fedora’s hot seat right now is on fire with the Tar Heels 1-5 start and things aren’t looking up for him.

UNC has a lot of talent on both sides of the football but often times there’s been some poor decision making from the coaching staff. At this point, a bowl bid would certainly save Fedora’s job but is Bubba Cunningham willing to take the hit and pay millions if he fires the head coach?

There’s been a lot of frustrations with this program over the past two years and rightfully so.

After that 2015 season in which the Tar Heels reached the 2015 ACC Championship Game, it’s all been downhill. The Tar Heels finished the 2016 season 5-3 in the ACC and 8-5 overall but lost to Duke and N.C. State in two of their final three games. The season ended with a loss to Stanford in the Sun Bowl.

That team was loaded with talent, led by No. 2 overall draft pick Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback.

It was a disappointing finish and Fedora entered 2017 with a rebuild. The 2017 season wasn’t expected to be a big one but UNC did finish worse than many people expected.

UNC has five games left this season and at this point the thing to watch is the development of players and any progress being made.

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