Tag: Max Johnson

Looking back on LSU’s 2021 loss to UCLA

LSU and UCLA are set to meet for the second time in program history. Here’s what happened in the first meeting.

LSU will meet UCLA for just the second time in program history on Saturday. The first meeting came in 2021 with the Tigers dropping a 38-27 decision in Westwood.

LSU entered the game as a slight favorite. Neither team put anything on the board in the first quarter. LSU struck first early in the second quarter, with Max Johnson finding Kayshon Boutte for a three-yard score.

UCLA responded with two scores of its own and LSU fell down 14-7. The Tigers grabbed a field goal to cut the deficit to four before the half.

From that point on, it was UCLA’s night. The Bruins scored coming out of the half. LSU kept it a game with another Boutte touchdown, but a 17-3 run put the game in UCLA’s control.

Boutte scored again late in the third, but by then, it was too late and UCLA won 38-27.

LSU was hoping to bounce back after a dreary 2020 campaign. 2021 offered hope with LSU beginning the year ranked, but this loss brought back all the bad vibes from 2020.

Looking back on it, this was the beginning of the end for Ed Orgeron. LSU didn’t get much better and by early October, LSU announced it would separate with Orgeron after the year.

Saturday offers a chance for LSU to get some revenge but both rosters and coaching staffs are nearly completely different from when they met in 2021.

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Max Johnson returning to UNC nearly two weeks after breaking leg

Max Johnson won’t return to the playing field anytime soon, but he will finally return to Chapel Hill this week.

When North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Max Johnson initially fell to the turf on Thursday, Aug. 29 in the season-opener at Minnesota, a dark cloud encapsulated the entire program and fanbase.

Johnson laid on the field for several minutes, grabbing his leg in pain. Initial speculations were that Johnson initially suffered a hip injury, while other reports speculated a knee injury.

Johnson was carried off on a cart, then spent his night (and a few days) in Hennepin County Medical Center recovering from surgery on his broken leg. UNC knew Johnson would come back to Chapel Hill at some point, but a fixing a broken leg is no easy surgery for a doctor to perform.

While Johnson will not play again this year, Tar Heel Nation received some good news in regards to Johnson on Tuesday afternoon.

Johnson’s head coach, Mack Brown, said that Johnson will return to North Carolina on Wednesday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_vS0LGsFX6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

Johnson, who transferred from Texas A&M in the offseason and also spent a few years at LSU, was brought in to give UNC an experienced quarterback after Drake Maye’s NFL departure.

With the Tar Heels playing host to NC Central this coming Saturday, expect to see Johnson back within the walls of Kenan Stadium.

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North Carolina quarterback vows to return in 2025

North Carolina quarterback Max Johnson vows to return to the Tar Heels for the 2025 season after breaking his leg in Week 1.

It was not the start of the 2024 college football season that Max Johnson wanted for the North Carolina Tar Heels. While Mack Brown’s team went to Minnesota and won on the opening night of the season, the quarterback’s season came to an end when Johnson broke his leg in the third quarter.

The 23-year-old though does plan to return for another season, telling ESPN he has “a lot of football left in me” and that he will be back next year.

Johnson is the son of former Super Bowl winning signal caller Brad Johnson. He started his career at LSU, before going to Texas A&M for two seasons. He chose to transfer again, this time to Chapel Hill. In four seasons, Johnson has played in 31 games and thrown for just shy of 6,000 yards and 47 touchdowns.

Without Johnson, Conner Harrell will start under center. The Tar Heels have a Week 2 home game against Charlotte, and then they will see North Carolina Central and James Madison. The next road game for the Tar Heels is September 28th at Duke.

UNC quarterback Max Johnson releases statement on injury

UNC quarterback Max Johnson delivered some exciting news in his first media statement since suffering a season-ending broken leg.

Thanks to a much-improved defense and a perfect night from kicker Noah Burnette, the North Carolina Tar Heels hung on to beat Minnesota, 19-17, in both teams’ season opener on Thursday, Aug. 29.

UNC opened the scoring early in the second quarter, when quarterback Max Johnson evaded pressure and ran three yards into the end zone for a 6-0 lead. North Carolina never found the end zone again – and Johnson would leave the game late in the third quarter.

At first, no one knew whether Johnson suffered a knee, hip or leg injury. Johnson’s injury was later confirmed to be a broken leg, which he then required season-ending surgery on.

After spending the past eight days recovering from surgery, Johnson finally released a statement to ESPN.

In Johnson’s statement, he confirmed some good news to Tar Heel Nation. Despite likely not being able to work out for months, Johnson plans to play for UNC in 2025.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1832112290809966714

While Johnson spends the rest of 2024 recovering from his broken leg, Conner Harrell takes over as North Carolina’s starting quarterback. Harrell had a memorable play in relief of Johnson last week, completing a fourth-quarter zone read to J.J. Jones, which set up one of Burnette’s five made kicks.

Here’s to hoping Johnson makes a speedy recovery – and we see him back in Carolina Blue next fall.

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Big opportunity for Conner Harrell after Max Johnson’s season-ending injury

Conner Harrell will replace Max Johnson at quarterback for North Carolina after Johnson suffered a season-ending leg injury on Thursday.

When Max Johnson went down in the third quarter grabbing his right knee, North Carolina fans feared the worst. Those fears were confirmed less than 24 hours later when the team reported Johnson underwent surgery for a broken leg and will miss the remainder of the 2024 season.

The former LSU and Texas A&M quarterback completed 12 passes for 71 yards in his lone game with the Tar Heels, an eventual win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

The job under center now goes to sophomore Conner Harrell, who competed against Johnson right up to the last minute before the veteran was awarded the starting spot.

Harrell went 2-4 for 34 yards to help the ‘Heels secure a Week 1 victory, and he’ll get a couple of opportunities against lesser opponents to get his feet wet with the team hosting Charlotte, North Carolina Central, and James Madison before heading out to face Duke on the road at the end of the month.

Harrell appeared in five games with North Carolina in 2023, completing 22 passes for 278 yards with a pair of touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.

The 6’2 native of Alabaster, Alabama was a three-star prospect in high school when he committed to North Carolina in July of 2021.

He was considered the 33rd best high school quarterback at 247Sports, and now gets a chance to prove he can replace not only Johnson, but follow in the footsteps of Drake Maye who starred in Chapel Hill before going No. 3 overall in the 2024 NFL draft to the New England Patriots.

UNC quarterback Max Johnson has season-ending surgery on Friday

UNC starting quarterback Max Johnson had season-ending leg surgery today.

Spirits were high after the 19-17 season-opening win on the road for UNC football and company, but one question loomed over the entire celebration. What was the extent of Max Johnson’s injury?

During the third quarter of the game with just over two minutes remaining, Max Johnson dropped back for a routine play. He was hit low by multiple players and rolled around in an effort to be tackled.

However, in the course of the tackle, Johnson’s femur broke immediately causing him severe pain. Simultaneously, everyone from fans, coaches, and players, knew that something wasn’t right.

After attempting to walk off the field, he was eventually put on a cart not being able to bear any weight. Mack Brown would not give a comment postgame.

Now, we have learned the extent of his injury has led to season-ending knee surgery for the transfer from Texas A&M. Johnson still has one year of eligibility left and can use it if he is able to get back from this injury.

Our thoughts are with Max, the team, his family, as he begins his recovery and road back on the field, today.

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UNC football starting QB Max Johnson leaves game with injury in opener

UNC starting quarterback Max Johnson goes down after being hit and twisted in his knee.

North Carolina opened its season tonight with a game on the road against Minnesota. Heading into the halftime, the Heels had just 28 yards through the air, and starting quarterback Max Johnson was struggling to get things going.

He came out into the second half and started to click with different receivers. Only two players caught passes in the first half and six different players caught passes on the first drive out of the break.

In the middle of the third quarter, Johnson went down on a third down and was hit low by two Minnesota players twisting his knee and landing awkwardly. Johnson immediately grabbed his knee.

With just over two minutes left in the third, the entire stadium was silent as Johnson could barely make it over to the cart and was obviously in extreme pain.

Conner Harrell will take over as quarterback with UNC down 14-10 and just over a quarter left to play. Johnson, who had one interception and a rushing touchdown earlier in the game, is on his way to the locker room to be evaluated.

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UNC football’s plan at quarterback vs. Minnesota is revealed

The UNC football program’s quarterback battle is not over as both quarterbacks will play vs. Minnesota.

After an offseason and then training camp of competition at the quarterback position, Mack Brown and the North Carolina Tar Heels have yet to name a starter. And it sounds like they won’t have a starter for Week 1 at Minnesota.

Instead, the Tar Heels are planning on playing both Max Johnson and Conner Harrell at quarterback for the season opener, Brown revealed on Friday. They also could do it for the entire season per the head coach.

“Depending on how the game goes, we would like to play both quarterbacks,” Brown said at his Friday press conference via Inside Carolina. “And we’d like to do it for the season.”

EDIT: MACK BROWN HAS CLARIFIED HIS COMMENTS

Now, we should keep in mind that this could be a tactic to not reveal any plans on who the starter could be against Minnesota. The Gophers elected not to released a depth chart for the game, and the Tar Heels are following suite.

However, this quarterback competition could still be going on and neither Johnson nor Harrell did enough to win the starting job and solidify themselves as a starter.  That would be concerning.

Ideally, the Tar Heels would love to have one guy be the starter all season and play well. They don’t need whoever that is to be a Sam Howell or Drake Maye, that’s just not realistic at this point. But just be good enough to lead the offense.

We will see if Mack Brown’s telling the truth as kickoff at Minnesota is under a week away.

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Where does LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier rank on 247Sports top QBs list?

Garrett Nussmeier is a top 10 quarterback entering the season despite having only one career start.

Clint Brewster of 247Sports recently ranked every Power Four starting quarterback for the 2024 season. Where does [autotag]Garrett Nussmeier[/autotag] rank on the list?

Brewster actually gave Nussmeier a good ranking as the Tigers new starting quarterback comes in at No. 10 on the list. As you can imagine, the Top 10 is full of SEC quarterbacks. Six out of the top 10 all hail from the best conference in college football.

Nussmeier joins Quinn Ewers, Carson Beck, Jaxson Dart, Connor Weigman and Jalen Milroe in the top 10. Nussmeier waited his turn as he sat behind [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag] and [autotag]Max Johnson[/autotag] for three seasons, but now it is his time to shine.

He got the first start of his career against Wisconsin in the bowl game last year. He finished the game 31-for-45 with three touchdown passes and only one interception as he led the Tigers to a 35-31 win and their second straight 10-win season under [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag].

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Nine Tar Heels named to prestigious Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List

The UNC football team sports plenty of 2025 NFL hopefuls on its 2024 roster.

Every college football player’s goal is to help their team win a national championship, but they also hope to be lucky enough for NFL Draft selections.

The Reese’s Senior Bowl, seen largely as a post-college football season All-Star Game, is a great way for NFL Draft hopefuls to showcase their talents in front of NFL scouts.

Despite UNC losing football standouts Drake Maye, Devontez Walker and Cedric Gray to the 2024 NFL Draft, there are several more Tar Heels on the current roster who are 2025 NFL Draft prospects.

Those Tar Heels – Marcus Allen, Power Echols, Desmond Evans, Omarion Hampton, Max Johnson, J.J. Jones, Willie Lampkin, Bryson Nesbit and Kaimon Rucker – are being recognized with nominations to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl Watch List.

Hampton is amongst the country’s best running backs, leading the ACC and finishing fifth nationally with 1,504 rushing yards last season. Rucker is one of college football’s top edge rushers, as he led North Carolina with 15 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 2023.

Nesbit is amongst the country’s best tight ends, combining for over 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns the past two years. Jones is poised to take over UNC’s top wide receiver spot – he led UNC with 711 receiving yards last season.

Texas A&M transfer Max Johnson is battling for the Tar Heels’s starting quarterback spot with Conner Harrell. If Johnson starts, he’ll be protected by the likes of All-ACC lineman Willie Lampkin.

Finishing up with defense, Echols will form a deadly duo with Rucker by returning 102 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss. Evans is coming off a 33-tackle, five tackles for loss and 3-sack season that many expect out of a 5-star recruit, while Marcus Allen will arguably lead the secondary after his sophomore season with 49 tackles, an interception and a North Carolina-best eight pass breakups.

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