Note: Both coordinators' full press conferences are posted below

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina coordinators Jay Bateman and Phil Longo met with the media Monday for their weekly press conferences to discuss the Clemson game, elements of their units and to look ahead to Saturday’s contest at Georgia Tech.

Here are a couple of things from what each coach had to say. Videos of their full pressers are posted below.

*With UNC’s secondary suddenly very young, senior safety Myles Dorn has become even more important than he was, and that’s saying something. Dorn has been asked to do an awful lot, but he can handle it. Coordinator Jay Bateman has described Dorn as “elite smart” before and just can’t say enough positive things about him.

Versus Clemson, Dorn was rotating between the two safety spots, which backs up some of the things Bateman and head coach Mack Brown have said about the Charlotte native.

“I love Myles Dorn,” Bateman said. “I told him (last) Monday when we found out Wolf (Myles Wolfolk) definitely wasn’t going to play, ‘Hey look, you’ve got to be able to play these two spots.’ And then prior to the game, (assistant coach) Dre’ (Bly) said, “Who’s going to be our third nickel?’ I was like, ‘Myles.’ You better be ready for that, too.

“Myles is really smart (and) I think the boundary safety is probably what he’s a more natural fit for. All the NFL guys, when I talk with them, that’s what they think about him.”

*Carolina disguised a lot of stuff versus Clemson in part because they didn’t blitz as often as they might typically against other opponents because the Tigers handle blitzes so well. So using two high safeties and showing all kinds of looks was something that helped the Heels hold Clemson to the fewest points (21) and total yards (331) from any other times during the Tigers’ current 20-game winning streak.

What went into this?

“Certain calls are extremely detailed,” Bateman said. “Certain calls, we’re trying to paint a picture of it of a different play, especially if you have some success with a play on defense the next game you try to paint a picture of ‘this is that same look but it’s not.’

“Some of it more we’re trying to show two high safeties or one high safety and then how you work with that. I thought we did a really good job on Saturday with our safeties disguised. That was a big help to our defense.”

*If things were exactly as Longo would prefer, the Tar Heels would regularly get off plays as fast as any team in the nation, but UNC runs his version of the air raid offense, and as the coordinator, he gets to choose when they go tempo and when they employ a wrinkle that best suits facing certain opponents. That’s why the Tar Heels used a lot of huddles on offense during Saturday’s one-point loss to Clemson. And it was about more than just shrinking the game.

“It did a few things. I think it helps us kind of conceal what we’re trying to signal. I think it helps us slow the game down to minimize reps for the defense (allowing it to get longer breaks on the bench). I think another benefit we got on Saturday was it gave our guys a little bit of time to breath (between plays).

“It was a little bit of an adjustment, though, because our guys are used to going and they want to go and they know what the advantage is when the other side is more fatigued than we are. But those were three of the advantages that we got out of game planning… and I thought it worked and helped us with what we wanted to do on Saturday.”

*Longo didn’t say he was concerned Clemson might be stealing UNC’s signs, but

“Oh I don’t know, that’s a concern every week with anybody…,” he said. “It also gave (quarterback) Sam (Howell) maybe a little bit of an opportunity to interact with the guys, and that’s something you lose when you’re in no-huddle.

“But, one other thing I think is changing the tempo for us because we went some tempo in between some of our sugar huddle stuff, and that change was an advantage for us a few times. We popped some bigger runs because we got lined up and we snapped it before they got lined up.”