Football at UNC: Who will start at quarterback?
Mack Brown and North Carolina are 34 days (counting today) from kickoff in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and the Tar Heels are still without a presumed starting quarterback. The calendar is nearing August and three possible signal-callers are in the running, but there has been an odd lack of chatter this late in the offseason in terms of who will trot out Week 1.
The quarterback room consisting of Max Johnson, Conner Harrell, and Jacolby Criswell is one of the more well-rounded groups in the conference, giving Mack Brown three talented options to replace superstar Drake Maye. Maybe that’s the problem though, because each guy is capable of winning the job and no one seems to know who’s in the lead just weeks from kickoff.
Max Johnson is a 6-foot-5 senior from Athens, GA. The left-hander has spent time at Texas A&M and LSU (two years each), making Chapel Hill his third and final collegiate stop. In 2023 with the Aggies he threw for 1,452 yards and 9 touchdowns over eight games played. Johnson has contributed in every place he’s gone, but it’s never been extremely noteworthy.
The pros with the transfer start with his SEC experience and veteran presence. Four years in arguably the toughest conference in the sport is hard to ignore. He is also familiar with winning on teams where he isn’t the clear-cut superstar. His best statistical season came in 2021 with LSU, but since then he’s been a product of some high-level systems.
Johnson presents an elite arm with below average pocket mobility. His size gets the scouts raving, but they’re still waiting for it to all come together on the gridiron.
Conner Harrell is the more consensus second option behind Johnson, as the sophomore looks to build on a bowl game start and a year behind Drake Maye. The 6-foot-2 speedster is a true dual-threat in the pocket, tallying seventeen carries in his one start in 2023. The potential is clearly there for the Alabaster, AL, native, putting Tar Heel fans on notice multiple times when relieving Maye last season late in games.
