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CHAPEL HILL – Max Johnson was the original focus of North Carolina’s quarterback position before he was lost for the season with a broken leg. Then it was Conner Harrell, whose struggles opened the door for Jacolby Criswell.
Criswell is the man of the hour around UNC football right now, because he’s essentially the next man up.
Harrell is healthy, but the coaches staff decided to give Criswell a shot this past weekend against NC Central, and he did well enough to earn at least a split on the job this weekend against James Madison.
So, naturally, Criswell was a hot topic Monday for Chip Lindsey, his position coach and the Tar Heels’ offensive coordinator, during a weekly press conference inside the Kenan Football Center.
Lindsey was asked more about Criswell than all other topics combined, so to give UNC fans a full view of what Lindsey had to say, below is his presser plus a transcript of everything he said about Criswell and the position:
NOTE: Lindsey's full presser from Monday is posted below this transcript.
*The first question was about the progress Criswell has made, considering he didn’t arrive until the summer, was admittedly overweight, and had to learn a new playbook. But he has obviously taken strides of late.
LINDSEY: “He’s made tremendous progress. He got here late in the summer and he got a lot of reps in fall camp early, but then you had to start getting ready for the first game, and we just felt like at that time, Conner and Max (Johnson) were ahead him from the standpoint of reps and the offense and so forth.
“What I’ve seen especially since Max went down, not that he wasn’t preparing before, I’ve seen a bigger sense of urgency probably on his part. It may be just because he’s gotten more reps. I think young quarterbacks that don’t have a lot of experience they just needs reps, they need to see things multiple times.
“Every play kind of has a life of its own based on the coverage you’re seeing. So, if you’re running four verticals and it’s cover one and it looks like this; if it’s cover four it looks like this; if it’s cover three it looks like this. I think the more reps they get of seeing those same concepts over and over against the different looks that you’re going to get – and now we’re getting blitzed so we have to get the protection right.
“There’s just a lot of things I think you go through with that. Now, with that being said, he has played some and was a really good high school player. But seeing it at this level and seeing it over and over, I think is the key, and the more reps he’s gotten, I think the more comfortable he’s gotten with the offense.”
*When Criswell entered the portal at Arkansas last spring, it was around the same time UNC’s Tad Hudson also entered the portal. Carolina needed a fourth quarterback to go with Johnson, Conner Harrell, and true freshman Mike Merdinger.
UNC wasn’t looking for a starter in the portal, it wanted depth. In talking with Criswell, it was communicated he wasn’t expected to start, but Criswell was happy in returning to Chapel Hill, going to grad school at Carolina, and possibly having a chance to play at some time.
LINDSEY: “We always try to be real honest with them (players), and with him it was a unique situation because he had a relationship here, he loved it here, but just felt that the opportunity was better somewhere else at that time. And then things changed, circumstances changed.
“So, when we were in the market for another guy, he was interested in coming back, and I think that was a real conversation Coach Brown was adamant about, ‘Let’s be real honest with him where we see him that he is.’
“Not to say we were right, either. You never know about injuries, you never know about he comes in here and lights it up. It was still a competition, but I think coach felt like we knew that family, knew him before I did, and wanted to be really and be real about where it is… We were just trying to be really up front and make sure that we were honest about what we were telling him, and I think we were.”
*Since Criswell arrived knowing he wasn’t likely to start and was more insurance for the program, does Lindsey believe that relieved any pressure from him, so when he got into the game Saturday, he felt no pressure. Instead, he was loose and calm as a result?
LINDSEY: “I think when he got here he was honest with himself from a standpoint of the offense and him physically. When he decided to leave there; I’m not sure all the circumstances, he wasn’t in the normal routine of working out and being at training table, and then throughout the summer, he had to finish a class.
“He was honest about that and he was honest about where he thought he was. I didn’t have to criticize him. We had honest conversations, ‘Hey, we need to get you in a little better shape, we need to get you back to where you can move around.’ And he’s done that. He’s work really hard to get himself kind of physically ready to go.
“I think looking for the future, maybe. But I told him, ‘You’re really two snaps away from being the guy, and now it’s an opportunity that he got the other day. And I think it was probably a little bit of a less pressure situation on him because of the way he came in. He didn’t come in being told, ‘Hey, you’re going to be our guy, you’ve got to be ready to go.’ He came in with the ability to get his feet wet.
“And it probably helped him. And I thought the other night, for the first real action he’s had, besides a few plays in the game before, I thought he handled himself. He had a calm demeanor. I thought he was very calm in the pocket. You can see he’s got arm talent and the ball came out usually on time. There’s some things obviously he wants to clean up, but really for the first time out, I was pleased with what he did.”
*So, did Criswell do anything Saturday that surprised Lindsey that he hadn’t either seen or anticipated was part of Criswell’s game yet? He was in the battle with Drake Maye two years ago, so did any of that surface and surprise him?
LINDSEY: “Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen him do well in practice, especially the more reps (he gets). I think that’s extremely important. When you’re getting ready to play a game, you can’t get everybody reps, so some of it we just hadn’t seen a lot of because we were getting the other two guys reps.
“The one thing that jumps out is arm talent. He can really throw it. We understand that. But are his eyes in the right place all the time? He’s improved in that area, and the reps he’s gotten I think helped that. I thought the way he handled himself was good. He didn’t seem rushed, he seemed very comfortable, and it was good to see that.
“And some of that may be because of the process he’s had to go to where he was the other night.”
*The poise in the pocket and going through his motions are certainly positives, and yet Lindsey called Criswell a young quarterback because of experience he is. Criswell is in his fifth college football season, but his 161 yards were a career-high Saturday. He hasn’t played that much. So, he’s really a young old quarterback.
LINDSEY: “Yeah, I think you’re right. Young from the standpoint if you just talk about number of snaps, but he is an older, mature kid that I think approaches it that way. I think his demeanor says that.
“We had good pass protection the other night, too. The o-line did a nice job, running back did a nice job in protection, tight ends are involved. Overall, our protection was pretty solid. We didn’t have a lot of free runners, which makes it easier to sit in there and really read through.”
He added Criswell’s composure was the most impressive thing. Not specifically transcribed here because he bounced around a bit in that part of the discussion.
“He stayed calm and stayed in the moment and didn’t rush things and tried to throw on time. I know he was pretty gassed up early on. He overthrew a couple of deep balls that looked like it came out like a rocket. So, he was probably really anxious but I really thought he settled in and did some nice things.”
*On what went into the discussion he had with Brown about putting Criswell in for the third series against NCCU.
LINDSEY: “I just think as you look at trying to make your team better and get ready for what we know conference play is going to be a tough deal, you’re just trying to maximize the offense and we need to be as good as we can be and be playing as well we can.
“Since we had a couple of nonconference games, I think the thought was, ‘hey, he’s improved, he looks better in practice, let’s get him some game reps and see what happens.’ The week before, Conner did some really nice things, too, and they both have played well at times, and they both have things they need to improve on.
“But our job is to try to put the best guys on the field that give us the best chance to score points, and I think we’re still trying to figure that out. I think both guys will probably end up still playing. I just think we’ve got to make sure that we turn over every stone, so to speak, and try to make sure that we’re maximizing our abilities on offense.”
On if they will go back to Harrell as the starter with Criswell ready to go?
LINDSEY: “I don’t know if that’s ready to say yet. We need to practice this week and see how both respond. I think there’s merit to both those guys playing, to be honest, but we’ll go through the week and see how it goes.”
