CHAPEL HILL – As the quarterback position remains an uncertainty for North Carolina, the Tar Heels will use two players there for the foreseeable future, UNC Coach Mack Brown said following his team’s 45-10 victory over NC Central on Saturday night at Kenan Stadium.

Conner Harrell’s opportunity after a broken leg ended Max Johnson’s season in the opener at Minnesota hasn’t gone as smoothly as he and the program certainly hoped.

Harrell filled in for Johnson over the final 18 minutes of the win in Minneapolis, started and played most of last week’s win over Charlotte, and started the game against Central. But he struggled, appeared uncomfortable and lacking command of the offense.

Insert Jacolby Criswell.

However, while it appeared Criswell was subbing in due to Harrell’s inefficiency, it was actually planned earlier in the week.

"We decided during the week that we were going to put (Criswell) in in the third series regardless,” Brown said. “And then he threw the ball, because we wanted to play both of them. And if you just put him in, and you don't tell Conner you're going to put him in, then Conner thinks you're taking him out.

“So, we've learned enough. We didn't want to do that. And then when he (Criswell) took it right down and scored, we wanted him to go back in. And then he played well.”

Criswell was 14-for-23 with a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown. Where Harrell (2-for-6, 22 yards) struggled with check downs and made nothing look easy, Criswell played with calmness that stabilized the offense.

Central led 7-0 after UNC’s second punt on its second possession, but a muffed punt gave UNC the ball at the Eagles’ 41-yard-line. Criswell took his first snap of the season a minute later, and in four plays led the Tar Heels into the end zone for a touchdown. Carolina scored 17 points in the quarter.

Harrell got the second series of the third quarter, and it appeared to stagnate the offense some. The Heels failed to score but got it going again in the final period, scoring 28 points to pull away. Criswell was on the field for six of UNC’s seven scoring possessions.

"I was pretty comfortable," Criswell said. "Just felt like I had no pressure whatsoever. Just (wanted to) go out there and play ball if my opportunity came."

This quick turn of events could be alarming in the sense that the week leading up to the Charlotte game, Brown said the quarterback job was clearly Harrell’s, and there was no discussion about Criswell or true freshman Mike Merdinger. It was Harrell’s team.

But whatever was seen in Harrell up to that point, hasn’t been on film enough since. After one full start in the 38-20 win over the 49ers, the staff decided to give Criswell a chance, one that wasn’t expected when he returned from spending a year at Arkansas.

Criswell, who graduated from Arkansas in the spring, wanted to attend grad school at UNC and be a part of a program to which he still felt a connection. And even when Johnson went down, Criswell was still in the process of losing weight – 15 pounds since the start of fall camp on July 29 – and just wasn’t in the mix.

But he embarked on a plan to correct his body and be ready if the opportunity surfaced, and it did.

"I think when he got here, he was a little heavy,” Brown said. “Obviously, he's getting low second-team snaps or third-team snaps when he's not going to play. And then when he was doing a really good job with the white team in practice, the second team in practice.

“So, we thought, ‘let's give him a chance.’ He's never played, so we've got two quarterbacks that are very talented, and neither one of them have played a lot of football."

Although Criswell outplayed Harrell on Saturday, that doesn’t mean it’s the Jacolby Criswell show moving forward. For now, and perhaps the remainder of the season, both will play. If one is doing well, he may stay in the game and finish it out. If the other is playing better, he will remain in the game.

“We'll be playing both of them,” Brown said. “We're just going to look at it and see what we can do to find the hot hand and keep them out there.”

Next up for the Tar Heels is James Madison, which is 2-0 and has developed a reputation as one of the top Group of Five programs in the nation.

A stiffer test awaits Criswell and Harrell next weekend, and perhaps further clarity will surface in this two-headed role.