For the first time since Mack Brown returned to Carolina, there is real competition to be QB1 of the Tar Heels.
Brown waited until just before the 2019 season opener against South Carolina to declare Sam Howell the starter over two holdovers from the Larry Fedora era as the first true freshman quarterback to open the season in UNC history.
And after Howell engineered the stirring comeback win over the Gamecocks in Charlotte, there was no doubt he had won the job during summer training camp. Howell earned ACC Rookie of the Year honors and did not miss a game in three seasons. He completed 64 percent for 10,283 yards and 92 touchdowns, both school records, with at least one TD pass in every game.
Over the summer of 2022, Brown kept telling us the competition between red-shirt freshman Drake Maye and red-shirt sophomore Jacolby Criswell was like threading a needle. Once Maye was announced as the starter, he barely missed a snap in his ACC Player and Rookie of The Year season when Criswell had only a few plays in four games and totaled 56 yards of total offense.
Writers and bloggers who attended practice regularly knew it wasn’t even close, and Criswell transferred to home-state Arkansas, where he remains a back-up QB for the Razorbacks heading into the coming season.
As 2024 spring practice ended before summer training camp, there is clearly a battle royal brewing between red-shirt sophomore Conner Harrell and graduate transfer (by way of LSU and Texas A&M) Max Johnson. In the unrealistic and inconclusive Spring Game Saturday, Harrell had the UNC experience factor but only a slight edge over Johnson in his fifth college year.
These two candidates to start for Brown, who in his four decades as a head coach has rarely used alternating quarterbacks, could not be more different.
Harrell is 6-foot-2 with a muscular body, excellent running ability and a strong arm (he threw for a 68-yard TD pass to freshman receiver “Vari” Green and another to Nate McCollum). Johnson is a 6-foot-5 lanky lefty with maybe an even stronger arm than Harrell but needs more time to get his wheels rolling. He had a TD strike to freshman Jordan Shipp.
Billed to be an actual game, it was far from that. Brown was on the press box PA serving as an analyst and game director, telling the officials where to spot the ball to start each series and giving defenders credit for sacks when they came anywhere near a retreating quarterback (Mike Merdinger and D.J. Mazzone also took snaps for the offense, which played against the “first” defense).
The true nature of Carolina’s program was on full display, with one side of Kenan Stadium holding a small fan base that had about as many patrons as a good weekend at game sponsor Wegman’s. The grocery chain was the only name on the digital boards, which was better than the scoreboard that stayed at 0-0.
Omarian Hampton, the returning starter at running back and runaway ACC leading rusher last season, was one of a few regular starters who saw limited action to stay healthy and give some others a chance. The best of those were graduate transfer Darwin Barlow from Southern Cal and true freshman Davion Gause, one of a dozen or so signees who enrolled in January.
The offensive line, almost completely gone from a year ago, had aspiring back-ups and transfers galore. The defense was only allowed to hit certain players at certain times but had the highlight of the day when Will Hardy turned in a pick six untouched down the left sideline, which was good because Hardy wore a yellow jersey that meant no one was allowed to touch him anyway.
North Carolina quarterback Conner Harrell runs for a touchdown against Campbell in the second half of an NCAA college football game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023. North Carolina won 59-7. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
After the game, Harrell and Johnson were the most anticipated interviewees, and both acted like this was brotherly love more than tackle football.
“It’s definitely a tough thing to balance,” Harrell said, “but we’re both great dudes. We are both men of God and understand we’re competing. But we understand we’re just people and trying to help each other. We’re talking about everything because we’re the only two people going through exactly what we’re going through. Nobody else in the country is in this place at this time. And so when somebody’s going through what you’re going through, you kind of bond. I think it’s been good.
“I tell myself to just do the best that I can do. Some things are out of my control. Anything that’s in my control, I have to work the hardest. I have to watch as much film as I can. I have to lead as much as I can, control all the controllables and not try to worry about all the outside stuff too much. I made a point of emphasis coming in and I stuck to my guns a lot during spring. I obviously still have a lot of stuff to work on, but I think I did a pretty good job.”
While Harrell is a handsome dude with great dreadlocks and smile, Johnson has short hair and a kind-of a goofy smile but, clearly, is also a student of the game. He played at LSU (with Joe Burrow) and Texas A&M before making his last college move to UNC, where he somehow has two years of eligibility left due to one red-shirt season and that expiring COVID year.
“We’re competing but at the same time we’re on the same team,” Johnson said of his running mate. “I have a really good friendship with him. We go out and play golf. We eat lunch together almost every day. We talk then, talk before meetings, talk after meetings. I’ve enjoyed coming back after a play. Hey, what’d you see right here? What I see and we’re just continuing to bounce ideas off each other.
“I’ve absolutely loved just being around everybody here. People love football and especially within this building, and we’ve kind of changed our whole mindset on what we break down. We used to break it down to family, now we break it down as champions and think we’re kind of just changing the motto and playing some hard nose football.
“Getting everybody back is going to be pretty special. We didn’t get a lot of reps with those older guys this spring, but I’m looking forward to working with them over the summer and then into Fall Camp.”
Featured photo (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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