A breath of fresh air

A Texas tornado named Larry Fedora blew into North Carolina on Friday afternoon to take over as the next coach of the school's football program.

Fedora said that he was honored and privileged to take the North Carolina job, the second head-coaching position of his career, after being approved in the morning by the school's board of trustees.

And he left no doubt that he plans to bring an energetic brand of football to Kenan Stadium, starting next season.

"Today is the first day of a new era of North Carolina football, and it's going to be exciting," Fedora said. "You better buckle your seat belts and you better hold on, because it's going to be a wild ride."

Fedora, the Southern Mississippi coach for the past four seasons, received a seven-year contract that will run through Jan. 15, 2019. He will receive a base salary of $350,000 a season. He will get $1,350,000 in supplemental salary and a $30,000 expense account each season.

North Carolina will make a one-time payment to him by the end of January of $400,000, after taxes.

He will receive a bonus of one month's salary if North Carolina wins the ACC Coastal Division. He will also receive one-month salary bonuses if North Carolina wins the ACC championship, if it is invited to a bowl game, and if his teams reach specific academic goals.

He can get a bonus of two months' salary if North Carolina plays in a BCS bowl game. He can get $200,000 for reaching the BCS national-championship game.

The contract also calls for Fedora to pay the university should he leave before 2019. The payment would be $2,350,000 if he leaves before Jan. 15, 2013, and will decrease each year thereafter.

Fedora, 49, was born in College Station, Texas. He attended Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Fedora was 33-19 at Southern Mississippi and qualified all four of his teams for bowl play. He will coach the Golden Eagles (11-2) in the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24.

Fedora replaces Butch Davis as the Tar Heels' permanent coach. Davis was fired in late July after four seasons and two investigations into the program.

Bubba Cunningham, the Tar Heels' first-year athletics director, said that he started working on the coaching search on Oct. 16, two days after he was hired, although he didn't officially start work until Nov. 14.

With the help of a search firm, Cunningham said that the university conducted an extensive search for candidates and that interest in the job was strong. Cunningham wanted a coach who fit.

"He was recommended to me by three of his former athletics directors," Cunningham said. "And they all called me. I did not have to call any one of them. They called me to sing his praises, both personally and professionally."

Cunningham made sure that Fedora was aware that the NCAA has charged the North Carolina program with nine major rules violations. North Carolina has self-imposed penalties, among them two years of probation and the loss of nine scholarships total spread over three coming seasons, but the NCAA could add more severe penalties.

Cunningham told Fedora that North Carolina is "an unbelievably special" place, but that it is not perfect. Fedora said he wasn't fazed by the NCAA problems.

"It didn't scare me," Fedora said. "I've got a saying with the football team — when adversity strikes, you look it in the eye, you grab it by throat, and you choke it."

Fedora's football philosophy can be summed up in one word — attack. He wants special teams to provide game-changing plays.

He wants his defenses to fly to the ball and "knock the tar" out of the other team. Fedora's Southern Mississippi teams were known for their offensive productivity in generating yards and points in a one-back system that does not huddle and wants to run a play about every 20 seconds.

"We need (fans) to pack Kenan Stadium," Fedora said. "We need you to be there early. We need you to be wild and crazy. And we need you to stay late.

"And understand — if you get up to go get a drink, you just missed a Tar Heels touchdown."