With less than 24 hours before kickoff of the Hyundai Sun Bowl, North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora is ready to play some football.
“We’ve had a wonderful experience here,” Fedora told the media Thursday, “Being a native Texan, I was extremely excited about bringing our team to the state of Texas and also showing what El Paso has to offer.”
As the bowl game festivities wind down and both teams get ready to play on Friday, Fedora’s ready to turn the focus to how they’ll try and stop the Cardinal on Friday. After giving up over 645 yards in last year’s bowl game against Baylor, the Tar Heels match up against another team that likes to run the ball and Fedora acknowledged how tough of a challenge it will be for his run defense.
“I know that’s going to be a major factor in this game. Stanford’s a physical, downhill running team that will run it right at you and try to impose their will. I don’t think anybody has stopped the run against Stanford, but we have to limit the run. We can’t let them stay on the field and run the ball the entire game.”
One area that Fedora does see some advantage in is in special teams, particularly Ryan Switzer who enters the Sun Bowl just one punt return touchdown away from tying the NCAA all-time record for a career. Wes Welker of Texas Tech and Antonio Perkins of Oklahoma each have eight, while Switzer has seven.
“We pride ourselves in special teams and one thing we always talk about, it’s the need to make a game-breaking play. We definitely think that special teams will be a major factor in this game.”
Ultimately, North Carolina also prides themselves on their high-octane offense, which averages over 33 points per game. In their four losses this season, the Tar Heels have scored under 30 points in each of those games. Despite those numbers, Fedora is focused on just getting the win rather than reaching that 30-point benchmark.
“We don’t ever go into a game saying ‘Let’s score more than 30 points,’ It’s always, let’s score one more win than our opponent. Unfortunately, we weren’t good enough in those losses and we have to do a much better job offensively this week.”
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