CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman met with the media Monday to discuss what they accomplished during the Tar Heels’ bye week, their units at the midpoint of the season and looking ahead to Virginia Tech.

Here are their pressers and a few excerpts:

One of the things that was clear in the Georgia Tech game is that Phil Longo and the UNC staff have decided to not change their approach even though they have just one scholarship quarterback available, starter Sam Howell.

Howell attempted 51 passes versus Georgia Tech and was credited with six runs, one of which was a sack. That’s 57 opportunities to get hit. Now, Longo took a while to get around to him not pulling back and calling what is necessary to win, but he got around to it when asked how important it is to be who they are and not pull back.

“Two things I would say, one, you never go into a game knowing if you’re going to run it 51 times or pass it 51 times, it’s really dictated by what the defense gives you,” he said. “I would also say a number of those throws are just extended run plays in an effort to get our back the ball so the numbers are a little deceiving.

“We’re throwing it, it counts as a pass, but it’s a perimeter run or a vertical run. The sack that we gave up we credit to our line really wasn’t them, Sam (Howell) dropped the snap on that particular play and that’s what created the sack. So, I was very happy with the execution by our o-line and our RB’s and our tight ends in pass pro. Sam has also been helping our protection because he’s making even quicker decisions now or getting rid of the football more like you would want to in this system and it makes it harder to scheme pressures to get to him.

“We’re going to be smart about what we do with any position that doesn’t have depth but I think, philosophically, it doesn’t change what we do from an offensive standpoint. I don’t know if it affects my play calling or not really. We’ve got to call and do what we’ve got to call to do to when the game. That’s kind of the approach right now.”

With Trey Morrison now out indefinitely with an upper extremity injury, it means that Jay Bateman and his unit will have to find a way to overcome losing the secondary’s third starter since the season opener. Patrice Rene was lost during the Miami game, Myles Wolfolk was lost for most of the season (and hasn’t returned) a couple of weeks later, Cam’Ron Kelly went down for the season two weeks ago and now Morrison is out for a while.

“So Dre’ (Bly) tells me in the headset (during the Georgia Tech game) Trey’s out, and I’m like ‘okay, whatever.’ It was a little more serious than I thought, ‘It doesn’t matter, no one cares, next guy’s got to go play.’

“It’s one of those deals where we’ve got depth there and we’ve been preparing those guys there, next guy’s got to go play. We’re lucky that we’ve got some guys like Greg Ross who’s played a lot, who stepped in and (did) a good job.”

Regarding Morrison being out along with the other injuries back there, what can Bateman do to get around that?

“Any time you put stress on one part of your defense it affects the rest,” he said. “So, you have to decide if we’re going to protect that corner or this corner, how does that affect the rest of the defense? So we have the ability to do that, we do that all the time, whether we feel like we have a matchup problem or not. That’s what you do as a defensive coordinator is pass the stress around.

“We’re not going into this game like ‘Oh my gosh, this guy’s playing.’ Were going to be fine.”