Larry Fedora, UNC Agree to New Contract: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

Heading into Saturday night's ACC Championship Game, the University of North Carolina announced it has rewarded head football coach Larry Fedora with a long-term contract extension through 2020. 

ESPN's Joe Schad initially reported the deal.

He originally signed a seven-year deal with the program in 2011 that paid him $1.73 million per season.

"Coach Fedora has done an outstanding job of leading our football program and I am pleased that he has agreed to be our coach well into the next decade," UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in the team's release. "He has helped to lift Carolina football into the national discussion and put our program in a position to compete for championships on a consistent basis while also allowing our student-athletes to succeed in the classroom and have a positive impact in the community."

Fedora is in his fourth season with the Tar Heels, leading them to an 11-1 record in 2015 and first-ever appearance in the conference title game, where they will take on No. 1 Clemson. He has compiled a 32-18 record at the school with one bowl win in 2013. 

Making North Carolina's run this season more noteworthy is that it has come in the wake of multiple NCAA investigations that could have derailed the program. An independent investigator hired by the school revealed nearly two decades of academic fraud involving student-athletes in October 2014, per Sara Ganim and Devon Sayers of CNN. 

Fedora recently told Carter that dealing with the fallout from the scandal took a toll on him. 

“The ongoing investigation or the multiple investigations or the regurgitation of the same information over and over and over, just to keep bringing it up to create a negative atmosphere for as long as somebody could create it—that was difficult,” he said.

In the same report by Carter, Fedora laid out his mission statement for what he wanted the Tar Heels football program to stand for. 

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Really it was establishing a vision of where we wanted to go and then putting the plan into place to do that. It’s making sure that we have great people on our staff, not only football-wise but the support staff and everything that [goes into understanding] the vision and understand it’s all about the kids.

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Fedora's hard work and dedication to the program have paid off for him and the school.

He has given North Carolina's football team a chance to win the ACC and an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff. It's been a dream run for the Tar Heels so far, with only one more hurdle standing in the way of making it a reality.