UNC Football: Is Larry Fedora's coaching seat getting hotter?

Carolina is off to a 1-3 start this season and after some subpar performances the last two years, is it time to set the fire on Coach Fedora’s seat?

There is no question that the North Carolina Tar Heels performance over the last year and a half has been a bit disappointing, considering all the talent they have had on the field, but is it time to call for Larry Fedora’s firing?

The Tar Heels are sitting at 1-3 in the current 2017 season and are facing their toughest five game stretch of the entire year, which could easily result in a 2-7 record coming out of it.

Last year, Carolina finished 8-5 with another bowl loss and a lot of the fanbase was already calling for Fedora’s firing, and now this year’s start is just adding to the fire.

The Tar Heels lost a higher percentage of their offensive production coming into this year than anyone else in the FBS (98.6 percent), most of which are on an NFL sideline right now.

This year, the expectations were way too high for a team that didn’t even have a starting quarterback until the end of their Week 1 game.

Now, after four games, people are either calling for Fedora to be gone or saying how hot his seat is.

Should he be fired? How hot is his seat?

Think back to the end of the 2011 season. Carolina finished 7-6 with a bowl game loss to Missouri.

The head coach was Everett Withers, the former defensive coordinator who took over as the interim head coach after the Butch Davis firing in the summer. With no real direction of the program, they gave the keys to Larry Fedora.

Since then, Fedora has finished first in the division TWICE, and is coming off of a second place finish last year.

Fedora currently holds a 41-28 overall record with a 26-16 record in ACC play.

Since 2012, fans around the program have had expectations, something that was a rarity before Fedora’s arrival. Fedora has brought in great recruiting classes, and is in line to bring in another couple in the coming years.

He took the Tar Heels to their highest ranked season since 1997, No. 8 during the 2015 season.

And Fedora has the sixth highest winning percentage in Carolina football history (min of two seasons).

Getting into this current season though, I’m not sure how much blame is on coach Fedora.

As mentioned earlier, losing 98 percent of your offensive production is hard to bounce back from, but then add the multiple season-ending injuries the Tar Heels have had so far through four games, many of which were to starters, and there isn’t a lot any team can do.

Yes, he has been able to recruit very good players, and added much needed depth, but let’s not confuse Carolina’s depth for Alabama’s or Ohio State’s.

Now for the negatives about Fedora’s tenure at Carolina.

For starters, Fedora is only 2-4 in season openers since he arrived in Chapel Hill, but 0-3 in the past three years.

His lone wins coming against Liberty and Elon, both FCS programs at the time.

For the games with the longest preparation period, you’d think that record would be the other way around.

In addition, he is also now 5-6, after last week against rivals, Duke and N.C. State. Only one year has he beaten both teams in the same year.

Four straight bowl game appearances for the Tar Heels is great, don’t get me wrong, but a 1-3 record in those bowl games isn’t. Again, a terrible record in games in which he has an extended preparation period.

And lastly, his head scratching play calls that we have all become accustomed to.

Whether it be running the ball only 16 times with Elijah Hood and T.J. Logan against Georgia last year after they had combined for 152 yards, or the play call last year in the bowl game against Stanford on the two point conversion.

Or the many other play calls that happen early in games that cause the Tar Heels to fall behind early.

We all talk about the head scratching play calls almost every game, and that is something I can’t defend. But everything mentioned earlier is something a lot of people forget; just how much he’s done for this program, and how far he has taken them.

This year has been a struggle, and it may be for the remaining eight games, but do I think Larry Fedora should be fired, no.

Do I think it is time to start burning the fire under his seat? Yes.

Next year will go a long way in determining Fedora’s future, but he has done far too much for the program to start throwing him in the fire just yet.