Why UNC football is skipping the spring game this year

There are logistical reasons why North Carolina’s football team is not playing a spring game.

There’s also some logic to the decision , coach Larry Fedora said.

“We’re going to scrimmage and we’ll probably get twice as many plays and get what we need to help our team be better,” Fedora said.

So there will be no public showcase for the Tar Heels this spring. N.C. State will have what amounts to an open practice on April 7 at Carter-Finley Stadium and Duke, which calls it a “spring showcase” will hold their event on April 14 at Wallace Wade Stadium.

UNC didn’t have a spring game, or showcase, in 2015 because of a storm drain at Kenan that needed to be repaired but this is the first time Fedora has opted not to have one.

The last two years have been entertaining with Fedora employing a modified scoring system with points for defensive stops and for the offense for yardage gains on certain downs and distance. The final score last year was 80-70 and the 2016 final was officially 74-70.

But the NCAA allows only three scrimmages, among the 15 practices each spring, and Fedora wants to maximize the scrimmage time after a 3-9 finish in 2017.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys that we’re trying to get reps,” Fedora said. “We need as many reps as possible.”

Fedora, who is going into his seventh season with the Tar Heels, has used the spring as a recruiting showcase with scrimmages in Charlotte and Greensboro in years past. He called the spring game a “celebration” and a chance to interact with the fans but said “we don’t always get as much as we want out of it as a coaching staff.”

The UNC players weren’t exactly crushed by the news of the spring game going on hiatus.

“I didn’t even know we weren’t having it,” junior safety Myles Dorn said. “Really during the spring, every practice is to get better. It’s not really for the spring game.”

Junior receiver Anthony Ratliff-Williams said he didn’t think the Heels were missing out on anything by not having a spring game.

“Not really,” Ratliff-Williams said. “You take the practices as your spring game.”

UNC completed its seventh spring practice on Tuesday and will have eight more with the final scheduled for April 14.

This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Why UNC football is skipping the spring game this year."