As the third head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels in as many years, Fedora needed to breathe life into a program plagued by illegal benefits, academic fraud, and assistant coaches with ties to agents.
He didn’t just win the press conference, Fedora blew it out and was still throwing bombs at the end, instead of taking a knee.
“Today is the first day of a new era for UNC football, and it’s gonna be exciting,” Fedora said in December. “You better buckle your seat belts, and you better hold on, because it’s gonna be a wild ride.”
His players joke about Fedora’s appetite for energy drinks, and Fedora is about 1100 Five Hour Energies into his new job—still relentlessly positive and perpetually excited.
“He has one gear: He goes hard,” linebacker Kevin Reddick said. “Every time I see him, he’s enthused about something. We kind of needed that at Carolina. We needed that change as far as younger coach, an enthused guy to keep us up.”
Fedora is 49, not quite three months younger than Everett Withers, his predecessor as head coach. Withers was a lifetime assistant, thrust into the top spot on an interim basis when the embattled
At one point during Monday’s ACC Kickoff in Greensboro, Fedora’s table had drawn a crowd of 31 media members. That was almost as many as the combined total of NC State ’s
When Fedora entered, he made it worth the wait. Eying the crowd, he said, “We’re going to have people standing on the table.” Then he laughed at the nest of recording devices waiting at his seat, threatening to “shuffle them up like dominoes.”
Fedora took his name tag, flattened it out on the table and slid it out of the way. “We don’t need this. We all know who we are.”
Touchdown, Fedora, and another press conference blowout was underway.
Fedora will likely need every ounce of his energy-drink attitude this season. He’s installing a new offense that’s as high tempo as he is, but quarterback Bryn Renner says about 50% of it has been installed so far. The defense is also new.
Despite his repeated claims that the off-field issues are behind the program, new allegations keep arriving on Fedora’s doorstep. It was revealed last week that record-setting receiver Hakeem Nicks played the entire 2008 season despite being ineligible.
A postseason ban means Carolina can’t go to a bowl or even the ACC Championship game, should they win the Coastal Division.
“For the first time in my life, I know that we have exactly 12 games. That’s it,” Fedora said.
After each of those games, Fedora will speak to the media. And no one will care whether or not he wins that press conference.
For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis from ACC bloggers Shawn Krest and Sean Bielawski, follow @CBSSportsACC
