Jay Bateman isn’t having any of that waking-up-at-4:30-am nonsense.

That’s what North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo does every day. But not the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator.

With many people’s routines dramatically altered during the coronavirus-fueled shutdown, Bateman has carved out his own daily and weekly approach. But no way is he getting up before the roosters do.

"Yeah, I don't get up at 4:30,” Bateman recently said, smiling as he often does when humor is part of the intent. “My son wakes up - like 6:30 is sleeping in, so I get up pretty early with him.”

And from that point on, Bateman is onto his day. But what does a defensive coordinator of a Power 5 football program do during the shutdown? What can he do?

“Two days a week, we meet with our players,” Bateman explained. “I meet with the linebackers at one time and the DBs at one time, so I kind of work on those meetings in the mornings, getting ready for those meetings, getting the film ready. And then, I spend a lot of my time, honestly, with the recruits texting them, texting their moms, because they're out of school, too, so I do a lot more with that.

“The days that I'm not meeting with our players, I'm looking at NFL stuff, I'm looking at opponents. One day a week working on our first couple opponents and then one day to work on NFL stuff.”

The NFL stuff is interesting, as Bateman continues mining the football landscape for any nugget he can find to consider implementing into his scheme. Or, it’s just part of the man’s passion.

Coaching major college football is basically a 24/7 job, but it’s actually more than that, it’s a lifestyle. So peeling away at NFL film after NFL film is part of who Bateman is, but it also satisfies a thirst to keep getting better.

“I'm trying to make the best of it and try to come out of this ahead of my opponent when we get back together,” he said. “That's my goal.”

Every minute is important, but with the Tar Heels’ spring practice cancelled, the player meetings have taken on an even greater importance. There’s only so much the staff can do remotely, but they’re working every angle imaginable.

"Basically, what I did is I took our 15 spring practices and we do an install for scrimmages and we do an install with the spring games, so you end up with about a dozen installs,” Bateman said. “I took those and basically made them into 12 meetings and added film to them and some of it's new stuff we haven't done before, so we've got other colleges' or NFL teams' film in there and we go through it with them for about 45 minutes to an hour.

“And then we do that twice a week, so it's about six weeks worth of work, and then we do other things like to learn to win. We're doing some other things to complement those meetings.”

Basically, it’s a matter of finding a way.

“The enemy gets a vote, right, so everybody’s got to deal with the virus the same way,” he said. “Our thing is, whatever you get dealt with you deal with and try to attack it the best way you can and come out the end more positive than your opponents.”

For Longo, that daily quest begins long before the sun comes up, but for Bateman, it begins a couple of hours later but is no less involved.

It’s his new normal, the pandemic version.