Mack Brown addresses when he hopes to name North Carolina's starting quarterback

North Carolina has two likely options as their starting quarterback coming into camp in Conner Harrell and Max Johnson. Now it’s just a matter of when one or the other wins the job going into kickoff in Chapel Hill.

Mack Brown broke down his timetable for a decision at that position during a press conference after the Tar Heels’ first practice on Monday. He said he expects to have a choice anywhere from a week to 10 days out from their opener at Minnesota on August 29th. That will give them all, including their new starter, time to adjust to everything that will come with that role.

“What I’ve liked in my experience is about 10 days or a week before the start,” said Brown. “Let him be the starter so he’s comfortable talking to the team as the starter and also let him talk to (the media) before the game.”

That timeframe would go against a suggestion that Brown received last week while at ACC Media Days.

“I’ve never been one of those that said you’ll see at game time,” said Brown. “Mark Packer said I’m supposed to tell you when the huddle breaks in the first game – then you’ll know who the starting quarterback is. Well, we don’t huddle anymore so that’s kind of hard to do.”

Harrell and Johnson are the top two options for UNC with Jacolby Criswell also returning to the program.

Harrell redshirted as a freshman before appearing in five games as the backup for North Carolina behind Drake Maye. He posted some decent statistics in a 52-point win over Campbell. Still, most of his production came from his first career start in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. In a 30-10 loss to West Virginia, Harrell went 18-27 (66.7%) for 199 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.

Johnson arrives from the transfer portal after four seasons of experience in the Southeastern Conference at LSU and Texas A&M. In 30 games as a Tiger and Aggie, he has thrown for 5.852 yards, 47 touchdowns, and a dozen interceptions on 60.5% completion. He now comes in as the No. 276 player and No. 30 QB per On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players.

Brown wants both Harrell and Johnson to battle one another for the spot until that deadline. Still, they’ll eventually have to make it official after these next few weeks so as they can all appropriately prepare for the start of the season.

“I’d like for them to compete at a very high level,” said Brown. “One of them is going to look good one day. The other one is going to look better the next day. So, if you go back and forth every day, then it gets confusing for them.”

“We want to get a body of work. Chip (Lindsey) and Clyde Christiensen have given them five things that they need to be successful at if they’re going to take the job,” said Brown. “Then, in the morning – we’ll meet twice tomorrow before we practice as position groups. They will go through every play in practice with those five things and say this quarterback did these things better today than you did. So, coming out of this practice, you did a better job. Then we’ll see what happens tomorrow night.”

Harrell and Johnson have three weeks to become North Carolina’s QB1. From there, only one of them will earn the designation from Brown and for the Tar Heel offense.