CHAPEL HILL
In the weeks before his team began the season with a 33-24 defeat against Georgia, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said more than once that he was preparing the Tar Heels to play 15 games. The implication was clear enough.
Counting 12 regular season games, one ACC championship game and two College Football Playoff games, Fedora offered an optimistic, if not unrealistic, goal for the Tar Heels. After that loss against Georgia, though, he backtracked.
“I wouldn’t sit here and say that 15 is a goal of this football team,” he said then, referring to the number of games.