The Tar Heels went into the 2014 season with a new offensive coordinator, Seth Littrell. That year, the Tar Heels were never able to achieve much consistency on defense, giving up over 497 yards per game (111th in the nation, and fourth-worst among Power 5 teams) en route to a 6–6 regular season and a 40–21 loss to Rutgers in the 2014 Quick Lane Bowl. In an effort to address this, Fedora fired defensive coordinator Vic Koenning after the season and hired former Iowa State and Auburn head coach Gene Chizik as defensive coordinator.