CHAPEL HILL – With the quarterback competition between Conner Harrell and Max Johnson easily the storyline North Carolina fans are most interested in regarding the football Tar Heels, an interesting question recently surfaced.
In multiple press conferences with UNC Coach Mack Brown, and one Q&A session with offensive coordinator and QB Coach Chip Lindsey, they were asked how Harrell and Johnson are being graded.
What makes the question unique from a typical quarterback battle is that very few of Carolina’s experienced pass catchers were available this spring. Think about it:
Wide receivers Gavin Blackwell, J.J. Jones, and Kobe Paysour were largely unavailable, as were tight ends Bryson Nesbit and John Copenhaver. In addition, Jake Johnson, Max’s younger brother, got dinged up and did not finish the spring.
So, Harrell and Johnson were mostly throwing passes to young, green, wet-behind-the-ears route runners, somewhat complicating the grading process.
“We’ve had to be really careful not to get mad at a quarterback when the route was wrong and he threw it right, or he had to hold it too long because they messed it up,” Brown said Monday during his post-spring press conference at the Kenan Football Center. “So, we pretty much said (in the eval), through that play out, it doesn’t count.”
Good thing for Harrell and Johnson that UNC’s early enrollee receivers are uber talented, and either ready to get on the field this fall, or awfully close.
Jordan Shipp will play, and Alex Taylor and Vari Green are knocking on the door. Yet, all three should be finishing up their final semesters in high school. Couple that with having just one scholarship tight end for much of spring, and that was true freshman Ryan Ward, and the challenge grading the QBs was considerable.
“We worried some about their confidence because they’re competing so hard, what happens if young guys drop balls one day,” Brown said. “We don’t count that against the quarterback.”
Harrell and Johnson, however, didn’t bite on the young-receiver questions.
“They’re looking at a lot of little stuff,” Harrell said. “Our footwork they’ve made a huge emphasis on. Getting the ball out quick and not wanting to take sacks. Not wanting to turn the ball over is a huge point of emphasis for everybody. But that’s a big thing that they measure us on."
“Making good decisions over and over and over. Being consistent.”
Those decisions, as Brown noted, have been partitioned depending on the route and drop rate of the receivers. Throwing out the bungled plays added to the pressure of making right decisions and effective throw when everything else was smooth and by design.
Typically, quarterbacks competing for a spot get a similar number of reps with various groups, but the staff made sure to literally even out everything between Harrell and Johnson. It was copious for both and monitored closely.
“That’s why we felt like we had to make sure that they were throwing to the same people all through the practice,” Brown said. “So one of them didn’t have an advantage over the other one because this receiver is more experienced than this one.”
The next phase in their competition are player-led practices, which are organized from a design standpoint but not overseen by the coaches. Brown and Lindsey will rely on what teammates tell them privately about the QBs. And, they will have Blackwell, Jones, Copenhaver, Nesbit and Jake Johnson for those workouts.
So, plenty of intel is coming, and the grading process will stiffen when August hit. After all, the Tar Heels need someone to take the field first with the offense August 28 at Minnesota.
