2015 North Carolina Tar Heels football team


The 2015 North Carolina Tar Heels football team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was led by fourth-year head coach Larry Fedora and played their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium. The Tar Heels competed as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and were the Coastal Division champions. They finished the season 11–3, 8–0 in ACC play to win the ACC Coastal Division Championship. They represented the Coastal Division in the ACC Championship Game where they lost to Atlantic Division champion Clemson. They were invited to the Russell Athletic Bowl where they lost to Baylor.

Recruiting

was on February 4, 2015 and was the first chance for high school seniors to officially declare which university or college they will be attending for their college career. North Carolina had 19 high school seniors sign a National Letter of Intent to play football with them. Of the class, 10 athletes enrolled early to UNC.

Coaching staff

North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora entered his fourth year as the North Carolina's head coach for the 2015 season. After ranking as one of the worst defenses in the country in 2014, Fedora completely revamped the Tar Heel defensive coaching staff. Fedora hired Gene Chizik as the new defensive coordinator. Chizik was most recently the head coach at Auburn, where he led the Tigers to a national championship in 2011. With the coaching change, UNC also switched from a 4-2-5 base defense to a 4–3 defense. Other defensive coaching hires include John Papuchis, former defensive coordinator at Nebraska, as linebackers coach, Tray Scott as defensive line coach, and Charlton Warren as defensive backs coach.
NamePositionSeasons at North Carolina
Larry FedoraHead Coach4th
Gene ChizikDefensive Coordinator1st
Gunter BrewerCo-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers4th
Chris KapilovicCo-Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line2nd
Seth LittrellAssistant Head Coach for Offense/Tight Ends2nd
Keith HeckendorfQuarterbacks2nd
John PapuchisLinebackers Coach1st
Tray ScottDefensive Line Coach1st
Charlton WarrenDefensive Backs Coach1st
Lou HernandezStrength and Conditioning Coordinator4th

Schedule

In a piece of scheduling trivia, North Carolina is the only FBS team that played all of its 2015 regular-season games, both home and away, on grass fields.

Game summaries

vs. South Carolina

Overall recordLast meetingResult
34–19–42015SC, 17–13

North Carolina A&T

Overall recordLast meetingResult
1-02015UNC, 53–14

Illinois

Overall recordLast meetingResult
3–02015UNC, 48-14

Delaware

Overall recordLast meetingResult
1-02015UNC, 41–14

at Georgia Tech

Overall recordLast meetingResult
19–28–32015UNC, 38–31

Wake Forest

Overall recordLast meetingResult
69–35–22015UNC, 50–14

Virginia

Overall recordLast meetingResult
62–54–42015UNC, 26–13

at Pittsburgh

Overall recordLast meetingResult
7–32015UNC, 26–19

Duke

Overall recordLast meetingResult
58–37–52015UNC, 66–31

Miami (FL)

Overall recordLast meetingResult
8–92015UNC, 59–21

at Virginia Tech

Overall recordLast meetingResult
11–20–62015UNC, 30–27

at NC State

Overall recordLast meetingResult
66–33–62015UNC, 45–34

vs Clemson

vs Baylor

Rankings

Postseason

All-Conference Selections

• Elijah Hood - Running Back
• Landon Turner - Guard
• Marquise Williams - Quarterback
• Mack Hollins - Wide Receiver
• Jon Heck - Offensive Tackle
• Caleb Peterson - Guard
• M. J. Stewart - Cornerback
• Ryan Switzer - Specialist
• Ryan Switzer - Wide Receiver
• Quinshad Davis - Wide Receiver
• Lucas Crowley - Center
• Nazair Jones - Defensive Tackle
• Shakeel Rashad - Linebacker
• Des Lawrence - Cornerback

All-American Selections

For the second year in a row, North Carolina did not have any players selected in the NFL Draft.
The following players signed as undrafted free agents: