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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 29, 2018

Larry Fedora

Greensboro, North Carolina

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora.

Coach, if you could please make an opening statement, then we'll take questions.

LARRY FEDORA: Our team is anxiously awaiting Saturday. They've had a really good fall camp. We thought training camp went really well for our team, the way they developed, the way they came together, the amount of reps that we were able to get and be productive.

Looking forward to this trip to find out a little bit more about who we are this season.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Fedora.

Q. With the NCAA rule regarding redshirts, do you go into the year with kind of a plan for who you want to play and how much, or is it more of a fluid situation based on who develops your needs, et cetera?
LARRY FEDORA: It's a little bit of a both. We have a plan of what we think we would like to be able to do. But it will be very fluid throughout the season. You can't predict your injuries, you can't predict depth problems, you can't predict how well a guy is going to -- how far he's going to advance during the season. So it will be fluid.

It would be nice to be able to get all those freshmen some reps, some game reps, because they're very valuable. If we can get them some reps throughout the year at some point, even when we don't have to, that would be a really good thing for them.

Q. Do you think it's a situation, especially for young kids, you can kind of keep them a little more focused and engaged because you have that carrot to dangle: if you keep developing, you could play at the end of the year?
LARRY FEDORA: I don't think there's any doubt about that. I think that was one of the reasons the rule was put into place. A player, especially a young player, who is going to experience all of this for the first time, I mean, he can get overwhelmed, he can stop being engaged if he doesn't see that he's going to get playing time.

I think it's just really good for the young man. I think all of them will benefit from this.

Q. Nathan Elliott, what can you say about his handling of the offense through camp, then taking on the roll as the starter, what he can bring to this offense?
LARRY FEDORA: Yeah, Nathan has done a really good job of stepping into the role as the starting quarterback. He's much more comfortable at this time of the year than he was last year. He's more comfortable in the offense, he's more comfortable in the role. His presence, there's a better presence from him on the field and off the field. He's developed into a good leader. He can do everything we need to run this offense.

Q. The runningbacks in the backfield, what can you say about the guys that have stepped up in the backfield, how you're looking at that runningback corps at this point?
LARRY FEDORA: We've got Antonio Williams, Michael Carter, Jordon Brown, we've got probably about four guys there that are going to be in the mix. We expect them to be in the mix in this first game.

It will be interesting to see. It's still going to be about production. Whoever is producing and has the hot hand, that's the guy that is going to get the majority of the reps.

Q. What is your assessment of how your run defense looks going into the season as you get ready for a good Cal runningback?
LARRY FEDORA: Not only a good runningback, but the entire offensive line is back. Definitely poses a problem. But it's something that we know we've got to be able to do. I thought we did a fairly good job of that last year against this team. The problem was giving up a few catastrophics that really hurt us.

I think our run defense will be much better and much improved.

Q. Talk about why is your teams from the East Coast have a hard time playing on the West Coast? Is it the time difference? How are you going to go about that to get adjusted to the Pacific time zone?
LARRY FEDORA: To answer the first question, I really don't know what the issue is or why. I mean, we have done a lot of research, talked to a lot of people that have experienced a five and a half hour trip across three time zones. We've.

Made some changes to the way we will do our travel and what we expect of our guys in that travel. We hope that we have a really good plan put together for our guys.

Q. What is one thing you'd like to see to improve on? Last year you had a hard season with a lot of injuries.
LARRY FEDORA: I'm going to say two things, okay? Turnover battle, we got to win the turnover battle in each and every game, that's number one. Number two would be finishing.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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