The quarterback battle between Max Johnson and Conner Harrell went all the way into Week 1 with the program planning to play both of them. But after Johnson’s injury, the job was turned over to Harrell.
And now, there’s another quarterback involved.
Senior Jacolby Criswell entered the game after two offensive drives for North Carolina and answered the call in Saturday’s win over NC Central. The Tar Heels scored on Criswell’s first drive of the game and from there, he got the majority of the reps at quarterback including in the second half of the win.
While Criswell appeared to make the decision easy for Mack Brown and his staff, the head coach says the team will play both of them next week. That’s something he hinted with Johnson and Harrell earlier this season.
“He’s worked really, really hard at practice and we saw progress, so we are going to give them both a chance,” Brown said after the game when praising Criswell. “That way we are going to have two quarterbacks that can play. If one is struggling, like we did before, I mentioned when we were here before, we will put the hot hand in and leave him in.”
Criswell finished the game 14 of 23 for 161 yards and a touchdown compared to Harrell’s 1 of 5 passing for 4 yards. Harrell got just two drives but UNC’s offense was lackluster on those drives as they trailed NC Central 7-0 on both of them.
With James Madison looming before the ACC opener at Duke in two weeks, the Tar Heels really need to figure out the quarterback situation moving forward.
But who will start next week? Brown says that’s still to be determined.
“We will look at every play tonight,” Brown said. “It’s funny, and I hear everything on the headsets when Chip says “HAND THE BALL OFF!” and he should of if he messed up. So Chip will grade it tonight, we have Clyde Christensen, who is the best out there, he will grade it tonight. Then all the coaches will grade it tonight, then I’ll grade it separately. Then we will all get together in the morning. They will get together first as a staff and will go over everything that they think. I will write up my thoughts. Then we will get together tomorrow. I’m not sure what we will do for practice tomorrow afternoon but we will look at what we think we are going to do.”
The hot hand tonight was Criswell and it does feel like UNC should stick with that option. But Brown and his staff want to make sure both are ready to play just in case.
Follow us @TarHeelsWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.