What UNC’s coach and players had to say about how they looked in Saturday’s scrimmage

North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora said Saturday’s scrimmage was what you would expect for a first scrimmage.

“A lot of young guys that heads were swimming,” Fedora said. The game was moving faster for them that it had ever before, he added.

But he still liked what he saw. He saw flashes of potential, and big plays from some of his veterans.

“The game will slow down for them as their head stops smoking,” Fedora said. “They’ll pick it up faster and they’ll adjust to the game speed.”

The scrimmage was the first live activity of the summer for the current team. While implementing its offense and defense, the coaches were able to better evaluate the talent they currently have and figure out the things they need to work on. The scrimmage was closed to the public, so there were no cameras or reporters there to witness the action.

Among those Fedora singled out for having good scrimmages were senior safety J.K. Britt, junior wide receiver Anthony Ratliff-Williams, junior running back Antonio Williams, freshman running back Javonte Williams, senior linebacker Cole Holcomb and junior linebacker Jonathan Smith.

“J.K. Britt had an exceptional scrimmage,” Fedora said. “You had guys like Anthony Ratliff who was going to make plays in every scrimmage that we have. You have guys like Antonio Williams and Javonte Williams that really had big scrimmages. Defensively, I thought you saw some things from Cole that you would expect to see from him, and then Jon Smith did some really nice things.”

Britt also said that the team had a good scrimmage. He said the defense had not forced a turnover until late in the scrimmage. The turnover occurred on a play when the offense ran the ball. Britt tackled the running back to force a fumble and the defense recovered it.

“Me for the scrimmage, I was able to come in and lead the defense on the back end,” Britt said. “We had a couple of guys who were injured so they couldn’t really play. Having some nagging injuries. So I was able to come in lead guys, and just be that leader whenever things got rough.”

It is unclear who was dealing with injuries.

Among the things that need improvement, Britt said, is everybody knowing their job.

While Fedora did not specifically mention junior quarterback Nathan Elliott as a player who stood out Saturday, he has said that Elliott is better than he was last year. Elliott was named the starter earlier this month for UNC’s game against California, after Chazz Surratt, the quarterback he was competing with for the starting competition, was suspended for selling team-issued shoes.

Elliott said Tuesday that he felt he played well in the scrimmage.

“I felt confident,” he said. “It felt good to be out there in a game-like situation. Because it’s always different when it’s game time. It was a lot of fun.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 3:55 PM.