North Carolina has had a pair of quarterbacks working this spring in Max Johnson, the transfer from Texas A&M, and Conner Harrell, who just finished his redshirt freshman year with the Tar Heels. They’re different players in their own right, which would mean different approaches for whichever one eventually wins the position battle.
Still, Mack Brown said after the first portion of spring practice that it’s more about preference than tailoring an offense fully to one quarterback or the other. He wants to know what those two would rather do or throw to set them up for their best success, regardless of who is taking snaps for North Carolina.
“There’s certain throws that some of the players like better than others when they’re at quarterback. We went to Vince Young when we got to Texas. He was young guy, he was a freshman. He was struggling some and I said, ‘Give me the five passes that you like the best’. Those are the ones he’s going to complete more often. And then you grow from that,” Brown said. “Give me the five runs that you like the best or movements as a quarterback. We’re going to move the quarterback some. What do you like the best? Do you like it better to his left? Does Conner like it better to his right? Max would say I’m good either way, got to turn my shoulders.”
“It’s totally trained to get them confident enough that we’re in their head and we know what they want on fourth down & four. Like, sometimes, we’d even ask Drake (Maye). We’d get down to fourth & three and say, ‘Here’s two calls – which one you want?’. He might even say I’d rather have this one, which was a third one,” explained Brown. “You want to go with what he wants, what he feels like is going to be there. That’s what we’re doing with each of these guys right now.”
Johnson is the more experienced of the two after several seasons at Texas A&M and LSU in the Southeastern Conference. In that career as a starter and a reserve for both, he has thrown for 5,853 yards, 47 touchdowns, and a dozen picks at a 60.5% completion rate.
Harrell is the returning member of the room after his time in Chapel Hill. All of his production came from last year with essentially all of it coming during his first start in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. In the 30-10 loss to West Virginia, he went 18-27 (66.7%) on his throws for 199 yards, a touchdowns, and a pair of interceptions.
That’s not even to mention the return of Jacolby Criswell, a third quarterback now in the running. He rejoined the program earlier this week from the transfer portal after one season away at Arkansas.
Brown just wants both quarterbacks to be comfortable with whatever they’re running at North Carolina. That’s why he and the offensive staff are asking them about it now so that they’re all on the same page heading into the fall.
“I think both quarterbacks started playing better when we let them have more input into their package. That was something I felt after halfway through the spring,” Brown said. “Also, it’s telling when they tell you what they like because you’re saying, ‘Hm, I hadn’t thought about that.'”
“They’re more confident with things that they’ve completed the most,” said Brown.
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