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The Daily Tar Heel

What to know from UNC football's weekly press conference

North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora spoke with the media Monday morning inside the Kenan Football Center for the team's weekly press conference.

Here's what happened.

Back to business

On the scoreboard in Kenan Stadium on Monday, the score remained from Saturday’s thrilling football game: North Carolina 37, Pittsburgh 36. But on the fifth floor of the Kenan Football Center, the team had moved on.

“People are excited because we won,” said quarterback Mitch Trubisky. “But we realize that we have another job to do this week. So we enjoyed it while we had it, but we’ve got a big work week for Florida State.”

Defensive tackle Nazair Jones said there is no balance between enjoying the win and moving on to the next game. Saturday’s win, as exciting as it was, is in the past.

“We are over it now,” he said. “After Sunday, we'll enjoy it for maybe 24 hours, but we are on to Florida State. We seen all the mistakes that we’ve made, we made all the corrections, so it’s time to move on."

This is the mentality Coach Larry Fedora has ingrained in his football team: The next game is the most important one. Never get too high or too low emotionally, and never dwell too much on a result. 

“That’s what we preach,” Fedora said. “We want them to be the same way all the time. We really don’t want to be up and down. We really would like to prepare the same way each and every week, so that we will hopefully play that way.”

Memorable day for Mitch

Any doubts about Trubisky that surfaced after a subpar showing against Georgia were quieted by Saturday’s performance against Pittsburgh.

Trubisky went 35-for-46 for 453 yards and five touchdowns. Crucially, Trubisky also didn’t throw an interception — extending his school-record streak of 202 consecutive passing attempts without a pick. Trubisky also leads the nation in passing attempts without an interception (137).

His performance in North Carolina’s final 17-play, 63-yard drive was one that will go down in Tar Heel history as an all-timer. Trubisky stayed poised in the huddle on that final drive, but he also enjoyed the moment and the win.

“I love it,” he said. “I might not show it in different ways, but I’m having so much fun out there. It was an incredible experience. I will never forget that game.”

Elite company

Next up for the Tar Heels is a date with the Seminoles at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. North Carolina is taking this conference game as an opportunity to prove itself on a national stage.

Larry Fedora said the biggest difference between UNC and Florida State is depth. Jimbo Fisher consistently has one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, and that manifests itself in a two-deep roster filled with four-star and five-star prospects.

This game will be a challenge for the Tar Heels, but the team sees it as a great opportunity to play a ranked opponent and to measure itself against one of the nation’s elite programs.

“We go on a stretch of games that people are ranked, people have a bunch of momentum going into our game, and I think that’s huge for us,” receiver Austin Proehl said.

“It makes everybody on this team have to step up and really realize what’s in front of us and what we have to do to win big games.”

@bauman_john

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