CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman met with the media via zoom Monday morning for their weekly press conferences to discuss the win over Duke, some aspects of their units and to look ahead at Wake Forest, which visits Kenan Stadium on Saturday.

Here are the full videos of their pressers along with some notes and pulled quotes from what they had to say:

*One of the major points of emphasis for UNC’s offense last week was keeping Duke’s prolific pass rush away from Sam Howell. The Blue Devils entered the game third in the nation in sacks but got to Howell just once. Why were the Tar Heels successful in keeping Howell clean?

"One, we established the run game, that helps,” Longo said. “We threw the ball a bunch in the beginning and I think 14 of the first 20 plays were passes, but only seven of them were called pass plays. They were RPO's or throws that we had that Sam took because they were there.

“But, we wanted to throw the ball a little bit off the run game, we wanted to get some quick triggers out to the receivers and the slots so that Sam's not holding the football. And then we were able to do that also with the running backs in some key third down situations. And then our offensive line played some good football.

“Asim Richards had his hands full and he battled all game. Jordan Tucker gave us 20 or so reps, didn’t know if he was going to play last week, so that was a bonus. And our guys did a good job in drop-back protection on Saturday against a very, very good defensive line. So, that was the emphasis last week when you all asked me and we worked on it all week long and that’s the area of the game I thought we got better at last week, and it paid dividends on Saturday.”

In addition, tight end Garrett Walston was held back to help with pass protection more than what had been the norm, and it paid off, too.

“Garrett did a good job, and we did keep him in the box,” Longo said. “He helped us in terms of giving us six-to-seven man protection at times when we felt like we needed it to trigger the ball down the field a little bit.”

*Junior center Brian Anderson was thrust into the starting lineup during the second game of last season after Nick Polino went down with an injury and has kept the job since. On Saturday, however, Anderson was injured early in the fourth quarter at Duke and his status will be evaluated this week, but what does he mean to UNC’s offensive line and how much has his game growth over his 18 starts since taking over?

“He is a veteran now,” Longo said. “He worked his butt off early on last season when he wasn't starting to know all the calls, study all the fronts from a run standpoint and from a protection standpoint. And, this year, it just comes much more naturally I think.

“He very readily ID's fronts and understands maybe before he's told how we want to block something up because he's been there and he's seen all these scenarios so often. I think he's playing with a lot of confidence this year and so he's our quarterback up front."

*Of teams that have played more than one game, Wake leads the nation in turnover ratio having forced 15 and lost just one. The 15 forced turnovers is second in the nation to UCF’s 16, so what are Longo’s thoughts about that element of Wake’s defense?

“They are a tremendous fundamental football team,” Longo said. “I haven’t been there, I don’t know what their defensive practice looks like, but what I envision is there’s a huge emphasis on pursuit, there’s a huge emphasis on tackling, there’s a huge emphasis on block destruction. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have an extensive strip circuit that they go through.

“It’s something that’s obvious that they emphasize and they work on, and I’m sure that comes from the culture that coach (Dave Clawson) develops, I’m sure it comes from the fact that they emphasize it during the week and they do a really, really good job of getting the ball out.”

*Carolina played very well early on defense at Duke and kept it going while the game was still in doubt, so the final stats are a bit misleading. There are still things to clean up from the group’s performance, but Bateman is pleased with how his guys played.

“"I told Coach (Mack) Brown on Sunday, I felt like it was the first game in a while, and even against NC State, there were a lot of plays where we weren't exactly the way we wanted to be,” Bateman said. “I felt like it was the first game, when mistakes happened, and give Duke credit, too. Sometimes it was good play calls and good execution by them.

“Our kids knew exactly what the problem was and I think that was the thing I took away from it the best."

*Among the young Tar Heels who saw action on defense Saturday, which included six true freshmen combining for 144 snaps. Kevin Hester is a redshirt freshman defensive lineman, but he’s only played football for a few years, yet was in the game for 21 snaps. He’s now played 52 snaps on the season, so what are Bateman’s thoughts about how the 6-foot-4 former basketball player is coming along?

“Kevin Hester’s huge,” Bateman said. “When we signed him, he’d played one year of high school football and he was about 260. Now he’s about 320. When we put him in the game we can really put some big people in the game right now, and I think we did that some on Saturday and I think it really helped us. Kevin is really coming along really well.”

Now, considering his limited amount of time playing football, how is Hester doing developing football instincts?

“That is very noticeable with him,” Bateman said. “Certain things like, ‘Hey look (at) where the running back’s aligned? Which way is the run going now?” Some of those things he was a little bit of a blank slate when he got here, but he’s getting more reps in, and I think with all of those kids, the more reps they get the better they’re going to get.”

*While the noted six true freshmen played 13 or more snaps at Duke, perhaps the one newcomer who would have been more ready to contribute right away when he arrived was Kedrick Bingley-Jones. But KBJ, as everyone in the Kenan Football Center calls him, suffered a knee injury during the late spring and will not play this season. He is progressing quite well, Bateman added when discussing some of the other freshmen who played this past weekend.

"I don't want to forget about my man KJ Bingley-Jones, who looks like a million dollars right now,” Bateman said. “I think, when we get him back in the spring, we've got a really good group of young kids."