Elon… the first of 12 opponents that UNC will face in 2012
These posts will be about getting to know some things, besides the game itself, from the dozen opponents that Carolina fill face this season. Previews of the games will be done the week before the games.
For the North Carolina football program and its new head coach, Larry Fedora, the season will begin in sixteen days against a Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) opponent in Elon University, a member of the Southern Conference. The Phoenix, as they are nicnamed, will be making the less than one hour trip from Elon, N.C. to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on the Tar Heels at Kenan Memorial Stadium in the first game ever between these two schools in football. It will be Elon’s first game of the season as well.
Some of Elon alumni who went on to the National Football League include people such as: Bill Dougherty (RB for the Saints), Joey Hackett (TE for the Broncos and Packers), Rick McGeorge (TE for the Packers), Tony Settles (LB for the Redskins), along with several players and coaches at other sports.
While this game will be one that most of the fan base will take for granted there is a hint of rivalry to be considered here. Elon’s head coach, Jason Swepson, was the running back coach at N.C. State before taking the job as the head man of the Phoenix in 2011. Being in his second year at the helm, having been part of an arch rival of the Heels, all has to be taken into consideration when this game comes along, especially when you think that Elon is playing with nothing to lose and everything to gain in this match up.
This should be a good warm up game for North Carolina football team as it prepares to play its first season under a new coach, especially when you consider that the next game will be a conference game one versus Wake Forest. One, that no matter what the record will be will have no post season for the Tar Heels due to the NCAA sanctions, but one that could show if this team is ready to move past the dark cloud that has been over Chapel Hill and towards building something new with the beginning of the Fedora era. For more on UNC football and/or basketball make sure to check back with isportsweb!