UNC football plans to play two quarterbacks in season opener. Who starts? Stay tuned

Six days before North Carolina opens the 2024 football season, UNC coach Mack Brown talked about Minnesota, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, about playing on the road and such concerns as an inexperienced offensive line.

Brown said it had been a “fun” preseason camp. There was a lot of hitting, he said. The team came away from camp healthy, the players ready to go.

What the coach did not say on Friday — during an hour-long press conference — was who would be the starting quarterback for the Tar Heels against Minnesota, on the road, playing behind that inexperienced offensive line.

Brown said graduate transfer Max Johnson and sophomore Conner Harrell both could play in the Thursday night game in Minneapolis. That’s the plan.

“Depending on how the game goes, we would like to play two quarterbacks, and we’d like to do it for the season,” Brown said on Friday. “We will have both quarterbacks ready, and we would play them based on how the game would dictate.”

Brown smiled, saying, “There will be some who say, ‘I can’t believe they don’t have a quarterback.’ And some will say, ‘Oh, gosh, maybe we have two quarterbacks.’ And really and truly they’re both good enough to win.

“... Listen carefully. We would like to play both based on how the season goes. If one looks like Drake Maye on Thursday night and he’s winning all the games, we’re going to play one quarterback. What you do is figure out what gives you the best chance to win the game and that’s what you do.”

Questions about the starter have lingered since the spring and then all through fall camp. Johnson and Harrell have been the top two QBs in camp – with Jacolby Criswell also available – and Brown will continue to let the Gophers keep guessing about who will be taking the first snap.

“Conner and Max are different,” Brown said. “They’re the same in some ways but different in others.

“The offensive staff has done a really good job of blending the line with what both of them do best. I feel really good going into the game about the plan for both of those, because they’ve tailored it to where the quarterback who’s in the game will have things he can do best.”

Johnson, who played at both LSU and Texas A&M, has more experience and been battle-tested in the Southeastern Conference. Harrell, recruited and groomed by the Heels, has had one start: the 2023 Duke’s Mayo Bowl, after Maye declared for the NFL Draft and then opted out of the bowl.

Johnson might be the better passer. Harrell might be the better runner. That’s what the Gophers have to consider, although Brown said he’s sure about Fleck’s defensive approach, regardless of the Heels’ QB: stop Omarion Hampton and the Heels’ running game first and make the QB win the game.

The Gophers, 6-7 last season, will have a transfer at QB: Max Brosmer, a 6-2, 225-pound graduate student who left New Hampshire after five years for a shot in the Big Ten. Brosmer, a Georgia native, played 36 games, passing for 8,700 yards and 70 career touchdowns.

“He’s really good,” Brown said. “He can move. He’s a guy who’s very accurate, he goes to the right place, he’s hard to sack.”

Brown said the Gophers’ offensive line has stacked up a lot of starts and could have some NFL Draft picks among them. As for the Heels …

“Only one offensive lineman on our team has ever started a game,” Brown said.

Brown, starting his sixth season as coach since his return to UNC, believes his team has made the most of fall camp. There has been an emphasis on better discipline and eliminating undisciplined penalties. There has been an emphasis on special teams.

Brown noted a former UNC tradition was being renewed — players being awarded heel-shaped stickers for their helmets to signify big plays they made in games. That came up in camp and has been approved.

“We’ve hit more, scrimmaged more, we’ve tackled more than in any time since we’ve been back because we’ve got more depth,” Brown said.

One player who has not been hit very much is Hampton, a junior and preseason All-America.

“Omarion Hampton has been hit enough (in games). He’ll get his first contact next week,” Brown said.