CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman met with the media Monday for their weekly press conferences to discuss the win over Miami and other elements of their units.

Here are their pressers along with some notes and transcribed quotes:

*Longo said during fall camp that Sam Howell had an “It Factor,” is his performance through the first two games, leading the Tar Heels to comebacks wins in the fourth quarters of both contests examples of what Longo was talking about?

“I think so, I really do,” Longo said. “he has just a calmness about him. I heard Mack (Brown) talking about it at some point over the weekend, there’s just a very natural poise. He’s mature for his age.

“It’s interesting because he’s sitting in a high school classroom in December and he is leading us to two comeback wins in the fourth quarter. It lends to his demeanor and also, he’s supremely confident right now and I think players at any position have confidence when they know what they’re doing.”

*Among the things Longo wasn’t happy with from Saturday’s game?

“I thought we were happy with our short yardage stuff in our opening game (but) we did not perform as well short yardage Saturday against Miami. They were very good up front and we needed to win the physical battle and get a little bit better control of the line of scrimmage in the short yardage situations. That’s one are.

“I think I’ll never be happy with third downs. It could be 40, 50, 60-percent – third down is the toughest down in football, but you’re constantly working to do better on third down.”

Longo was happy there was just one penalty, and Mack Brown said it was the staff’s fault, and Longo was also glad the Heels didn’t turn over the ball.

*The fourth-and-17 play when Sam Howell converted a 20-yard pass to Toe Groves was an obvious topic Monday. Brown said after the game Saturday Longo had to convince him to go for it, what does Longo say?

“He says that, we had a conversation about there’s two scenarios,” Longo said. “Is there a chance to manage the clock? There really wasn’t. So the best option was to go for it. You don’t feel great when you just gave up two sacks so we went with a different protection and went with a clear-out concept. We have two in the offense that we like and I just chose the one I thought was better for Miami, Toe ran a really, really good route and we did a good job of picking up their third-down pressure and Sam threw a dime and got us the first down.”

*Sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel registered 14 tackles in the win over Miami, which was basically the second game of his career. Was he better than the week before or were the tackle numbers a bit deceiving, which sometimes happens.

“South Carolina was his first game ever really playing, so I think you always improve after you’ve played once,” Bateman said. “And we played more plays because they (Miami) ran the ball better. But yeah, Jeremiah I thought played really well.”

*Trey Morrison was limited in the opener versus South Carolina after suffering a concussion on the Gamecocks’ first offensive series but was back in full swing against the Hurricanes. Bateman says Morrison was given a big task and handled it well.

“We matched him on (number) four (Jeff Thomas) for Miami, who I think is a really elite player, and did a great job – they took a couple of shots at him and he defended it really well. He’s got great quickness. When you’re playing press-man you’ve got to win at the line of scrimmage and you’ve got to win at the end at the top of the route, and I thought against Miami he did a really good job of winning it at the line of scrimmage and at the top of the route.”

*Surratt-versus-Surratt will be get a lot of hype this week as the Tar Heels are headed to Wake Forest on Friday night. UNC linebacker Chazz Surratt will take on his younger brother, Sage Surratt, who is a wide receiver for the Demon Deacons. Bateman was asked Monday about that matchup.

“I asked him today if he wanted to go out and play press man on him and he said, ‘Yeah,’” Bateman said. “So we’ll work on that for third downs. But, I think it’s a pretty cool story. They’re both really good players. I asked his their mom and dad after the South Carolina game if they’re planning on having any other ones because we’d like to offer that one a scholarship, too.”