Someone asked Larry Fedora recently if traveling here for the Sun Bowl felt a little like a homecoming. This is Texas, after all, and Fedora, the North Carolina coach who grew up in College Station, is back in his home state.
But El Paso, a border town where it's possible to walk into Mexico, is a long ways from College Station – about 680 miles. And Fedora and the Tar Heels are a ways away from where they thought they'd be back in August.
UNC began the season with grand hopes, and those hopes appeared justified. The Tar Heels won 11 games a season ago and played in the ACC championship game.