CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Rowan football alumnus Phil Longo '92 is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the University of North Carolina, which will play Texas A&M in the Capital One Orange Bowl on January 2. The 13th-ranked Tar Heels are 8-3 this season and making their 35th all-time appearance in a bowl game, but the first in a major bowl since the 1950 Cotton Bowl.
 
Longo, one of the top offensive coaches in college football, is a 30-year coaching veteran who has spent 24 seasons running the offense for programs including Mississippi, Sam Houston State, Slippery Rock and Southern Illinois. Now in his second year at UNC, the Tar Heels have set a program record averaging 556.6 yards per game, which is the fourth best in the nation. Longo was a semifinalist for the 2020 Broyles Award, which honors college football's top assistant coaches.
 
He was a running back for Glassboro State/Rowan from 1988 to 1991, playing under head coach John Bunting. In his senior year, the Profs went 9-2, won their first-ever NJAC Championship and made the school's first appearance in the NCAA Playoffs.  

Longo took the time to speak with RowanAthletics.com as his team was preparing for the Orange Bowl:
 
What has been the key to success for this North Carolina team?
Mack Brown is a big part of that. Anytime you have leadership like Coach Brown - when that caliber of leadership starts at the top and it trickles down. I think he's changed the culture here in two years and this program. I guess we went through 13 games last year and we're heading into game 12 this year which is an accomplishment unto itself with the pandemic because we've played every game (that was scheduled). So, you're talking 24 games to date and I think this program is 24 games better than when Coach Brown got here. It's probably just consistent progress and the culture change that are two of the biggest reasons why we're doing so well now.
 
What has coaching through COVID been like and how has your team been able to handle it so successfully?
Early on, truthfully, just understanding that because of the pandemic, as college football coaches we're all so used to this regimented schedule that we have. Every single week is identical. I think we realized in June and July that there was never going to be any two days the same. So, we got up every day and met with Coach Brown and we came up with the plan just for that day, knowing that tomorrow was probably going to be completely different. As corny as it sounds, you start to put the plan together for the day and you go execute the plan. But the next six days of the week aren't going to be regimented like they used to. It's mentally very exhausting. We got up every day - and you had to say, ok, well the rules change today, and we're allowed to do this, not allowed to do that. We've got positives; we've got negatives. We're allowed to practice; we're not allowed to practice... Every day it was something different. We just took it 24 hours at a time. Like I said, you get the template from Coach Brown and you go work it. And here we are 8-3 and in the Orange Bowl. A lot of the credit goes to the players. They all did a great job of staying in our bubble and staying healthy. We had one positive on the roster the entire season.
 
What was your most memorable moment as a player at Rowan?
The most memorable was beating Montclair on our home field for the conference championship my senior season.... That was the most memorable - the seniors getting together after the game and getting a picture with coach Bunting. We knew we were going to the national playoffs and we were NJAC champions.
 
That game marked a turning point where Rowan was as good as anyone in that conference afterwards. We probably overachieved a little - we probably weren't quite as talented as some of the other teams, but John got us to a point where we won anyway. After that, John was there another year and they took it to an entirely different level.
 
What made that team so special?
It was kind of a culmination of that process that we went through for two to three years trying to elevate the talent base on the roster... To have returning players and veterans and becoming more of a physical team on both sides of the ball. You just saw those things improve. Every year we became more talented. Every year, we were a little bit more physical. Every year we were more veteran oriented because we were doing what John wanted consistently. That senior class had played for a while together and it ended up being the season we earned and worked for, so it was a lot of fun. And to win it in the last game of the season was pretty dramatic. That was easily the most memorable thing that season.
 
How did John Bunting and the other coaches influence you?
K.C. Keeler was my offensive coordinator, so I worked with him on an everyday basis and John was the boss, so you obviously worked with him on an everyday basis. It's easy to explain and it sounds kind of cliché - John Bunting is such a great person. And so, what happens is, you don't want to disappoint him, and you want to win for him. That old cliché, you would run through the wall for your head coach... next to that comment is his face. We would've done anything for him and you can see that today. I think any of the guys who played for him at Rowan, and I'm sure just about anywhere else - but particularly that group at Rowan, I think, would drop on a dime and go somewhere to do something to help Coach Bunting. I know I would. He was, outside of my father, probably the greatest positive male influence I had in my life.
 
What did you take from John's coaching philosophy when developing yours?
I played on defense in high school, along with playing quarterback.  When I got to Rowan, I got moved to running back, which is a much more physical position. I learned how much more physical you really need to be at the college level to be able to compete. I was a marginal football player in college. I was the star in high school, but in college, I was just another guy contributing on the roster. I knew that the only way I was going to get on the field with a guy like Coach Bunting was to play the game physically and so I tried to play as physical as I could every single day I was there.
 
You find out a lot about yourself when the only way you can get on the field is to be physical and be physically dominant. And that was the only way we had any chance of playing on offense, defense or special teams was to be physical the way he wanted, and the way he had played his game in the pros. I think that now I'm coaching, as much as we like to throw the ball all over the yard... I have never lost a very realistic fact about the sport of football is you don't win games without being physical.
 
So, everything for us offensively at North Carolina, and anywhere I've ever been, starts with the offensive line.  And it starts with our mentality with regards to how physical we're going to play the game, both on the offensive line and at running back and at tight end, and even at wide receiver. He was a defensive guy - that was his mentality, that was a big part of what made him successful. That was the way he coached you to play the game. That's the way we did it there (Rowan) and that's probably the most important thing I've taken from my experience playing for John.
 
What are you most proud of in your coaching career to this point?
I'm probably most proud of the fact that I've never been at a job where I have looked at the next job. I've tried to make every single chapter in my career, every single place I was the place to be, and then when there were other opportunities, (wife) Tanya and I have said no to a lot of them and we said yes to some others. And I'd like to think we're doing something right if we're sitting here at such an awesome university like North Carolina - coaching for who I think is the best head football coach in the game.
 
We say in the game that you take care of this play. And you put in enough good plays together and the result of the game takes care of itself. I don't think coaching is any different - you take care of the job that you're at and that'll take care of the next one. And then before you know it, 31 years later, I'm sitting here looking out at Kenan Stadium through my office window, and I'm the offensive coordinator at North Carolina, which coincidentally is John Bunting's alma mater.
 
I actually knew Chapel Hill, and the buildings, offices and facilities a lot better than anywhere I've been because I came down here to visit John when he was the head coach. It was interesting to walk into the head coach's office and the head coach is John Bunting. And here I am 15 years later... John came to visit me last spring and we're walking down the hallway and all of a sudden, he jumped into place and it startled me. And he's like 'hey, we're at North Carolina'. We were here 15 years ago, and the roles were different, he was coaching and I was visiting and now I'm coaching and he's visiting.  We're walking around showing him the new facilities and we had lunch with Coach Brown. You asked about the coaching highlights and I said it was the fact that I didn't look for the next job... I would say the other one is being here as the offensive coordinator at John's alma mater and him coming back and visiting with me. That was as much fun of a day as I had in a long time.

** North Carolina will face Texas A&M in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Saturday, January 2 at 8 p.m., with the broadcast on ESPN.