Fedora's coaching star continues to rise as Tar Heels inch closer to Coastal title
North Carolina football's restoration project is two weeks away from completion.
The season-opening loss to South Carolina has disappeared from sight in the rearview mirror. A second straight blowout win, even though a College Football Playoff spot is the longest of shots, should have the Tar Heels quickly rising up through the rankings. And, most importantly for a program sitting just one win away from its first ACC title game berth, the list of top teams playing better is incredibly short. If it exists at all.
Larry Fedora's Tar Heels battered the struggling Miami Hurricanes 59-21 on Saturday afternoon to inch closer to the Coastal Division crown. As other division contenders have stumbled from bouts of poor play or bad luck, UNC has been the lone prevention method of Coastal chaos — handling its business more and more convincingly each week.
Pittsburgh's win over Duke on Saturday afternoon kept the Tar Heels from capturing the Coastal Division crown outright with a win over Miami, but now the magic number sits at one: A Pitt loss or UNC win over the next two weeks will set up a Clemson-North Carolina showdown in Charlotte. And there's not a single team the top-ranked Tigers would rather see stumble than the Tar Heels right now.
North Carolina is hitting its stride at the perfect time. There was the wild comeback against Georgia Tech following by too-close-for-comfort victories against Virginia and Pittsburgh, but the Tar Heels have outscored Duke and Miami 125-52 in their past two outings, the first time the school has scored at least 50 points in back-to-back games since 1914.
It's a scorched-earth approach to grabbing national attention.
Marquise Williams is arguably the most productive quarterback in the country over the past month, and he's rarely logging fourth-quarter playing time. The defense, which had long been the program's problem child under Fedora, posted its best performance of the season against an NFL-caliber quarterback. Middle-of-the-pack ACC teams Virginia Tech and NC State are the only obstacles standing in the way of the program logging its first 11-win season since 1997 ... and that's before a projected conference championship game and bowl trip.
What all of this success means for the future of the Tar Heels program, and its head coach, remains to be seen.
Next comes a case study on whether North Carolina is a stepping-stone job or long-term solution for a rising coaching star. With this breakthrough season in Chapel Hill, Fedora has already surpassed the achievements of his three immediate predecessors — Butch Davis, John Bunting and Carl Torbush never finished higher than third in ACC pecking order nor ended a season ranked nationally — but Mack Brown's legacy still lingers. Brown turned the Tar Heels program around in the late '80s and early '90s, culminating in two top-10 finishes, when Texas came calling before the 1997 Gator Bowl. The offer was too good to pass up.
It took the program 15 years, six losing seasons, one interim coach, 16 vacated victories and a two-year postseason ban to return to ACC prominence. Now the program could face a similar scenario this offseason.
At 53, Fedora orchestrates one of the nation's most electric offenses and comes equipped with a program-rejuvenating, Red Bull-fueled public persona. He's now resurrected two programs at two different levels. Safe to say Fedora is going to be on multiple athletic directors' radars in the coming months.
High-profile coaching vacancies abound already: Southern Cal, Maryland, Miami, South Carolina and Virginia Tech stand out. Legitimate hot-seat situations are popping up at places like Georgia. It's difficult to envision Fedora making a pseudo-lateral move — or even taking over another ACC program — but if a "destination job" shows interest, would the Tar Heels match any offer? Would it matter?
North Carolina's athletic department joined the coaching arms race by bumping up the salaries of Fedora's staff, notably with top-notch defensive coordinator Gene Chizik this past offseason, and he's in the fourth season of a seven-year deal he signed back in 2011, but, barring a late-season collapse, market dynamics point to either an extension or departure. According to USA Today's recent FBS coaching salaries database, Fedora is the ACC's 11th-highest paid coach (excluding Wake Forest and Pittsburgh). That is bound to change one way or another.
That's all on the horizon for athletic director Bubba Cunningham, who hired Fedora back in December 2011 with NCAA punishment looming, but for now the team's 38-point over the Hurricanes leaves it with another high-profile romp.
Fedora's star continues to rise in the coaching ranks, and it's something the school will have to address in the near future. For now, the Tar Heels can just enjoy the climb.
