Harrell, Johnson Balance Being Buddies and Competitors
CHAPEL HILL – Both Conner Harrell and Max Johnson acknowledge there is a balance between being best buddies and fierce competitors going for the same job.
Maybe not best buds, that would be a lot to expect from either of them. But pretty good friends isn’t a stretch at all. And if you go by what they and others around the program are saying, the two quarterbacks are just that.
“They like each other a lot,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “They’re pulling for each other a lot. There is no animosity in that room.”
Okay, they like each other.
They hang out, spend plenty of time shooting the breeze beyond talking shop. And they are quick to offer pointers after reps in practice. But they are competing for the prize of leading an offense that has been among the nation’s best over the last five years.
So, there is certainly some gray area in the relationship. It’s only human.
“That’s definitely a tough thing to balance,” Harrell said about being best buds and also competing against each other. “But we’re both great dudes, both men of God, and we understand we’re competing. But we understand we’re just people and we’re trying to help each other.
“We talk about everything because we’re the only two people that’s going through what we’re going through. Nobody else in the country is in this place at this time. So, when somebody’s going through what you’re going through, you kind of bond.”
There is an island element to their current football lives.
Position battles and depth-chart jockeying is going on with most of the spots for the Tar Heels, but only one competition draws considerable interest of fans in April, and it’s more heated as the season nears.
Quarterback is such a unique position. It’s almost like being on that island, but strangely, the microscope might be clearer when two guys are battling it out because everyone has to have an opinion. Conner or Max?
So, Harrell and Johnson have done their best trying to go about this as normally as possible, making it about the team instead of themselves. As challenging as that may be.
“We’re competing, but at the same time, we’re on the same team,” Johnson said. “I’ve got a really good friendship with him. We go out and play golf, probably three or four times. We eat lunch almost every day with each other.
We talk before meetings. We talk after meetings. I’ve got a really good friendship with him.”
What’s interesting is that when they play golf, they aren’t competing against each other, they are with each other. Teammates on the links.
Harrell and Johnson have teamed up quite a few times facing teammates for 18 holes. They usually play for meals, so the stakes, or possibly steaks, are high.
For example, they recently squared off against tight end Deems May and Jake Johnson, Max’s younger brother, who now plays tight end with the Tar Heels.
“I thought we were going to come out with a win, had a lot of confidence on the first tee box,” Max said. “Then me and Conner, I don’t really remember, but I’m sure we both shanked it. We ended up shooting at 84 scramble and they shot a 74.”
No meal. No steaks. At least free ones for Harrell and his QB companion.
If that’s not enough insight to their relationship, which started last December when Johnson transferred in from Texas A&M and took part in a few pre-bowl game practices, their conversations reach points where the much more experienced Johnson is teaching Harrell simply through the course of talking.
Johnson has started 22 of the 30 games he’s quarterbacked in the SEC, first at LSU and then at A&M. His father, Brad Johnson, played 15 years in the NFL as a quarterback, including leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title.