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CHARLOTTE, NC – Conner Harrell and Max Johnson were connected in more ways than the obvious on Thursday as they prepared to meet with the media at the ACC’s preseason Football Kickoff media event.
Both are quarterbacks preparing to compete for the starting job at North Carolina. But when they walked into the main interview room together, they were surprised to see they’d been assigned seats next to each other at the same table.
It was a dynamic that could easily have turned into a Hunger Games-type situation.
Two Tributes fighting it out in a public arena in a cut throat battle only 1 can survive.
To their credit, they made the best of the situation. They said all the right things, with no awkward moments.
“We saw 2 seats up here and just thought this is how it’s supposed to be,” said Harrell, who spent last year as an understudy to No. 3 overall NFL Draft pick Drake Maye.
“We have a great relationship inside and outside of football,” added Johnson, a Texas A&M transfer. “So we handled it well.”
That might not always be case once preseason practice begins Monday. Once they get out on the field and begin competing, the dynamic of their relationship can’t help but change.
And they’re not the only ACC quarterbacks about to experience it.
As many as 6 conference teams head into camp still unsure, at least publicly, who will start in their opening game. It’s such a fluid situation that 4 of them – UNC, Duke, Cal and SMU – couldn’t decide which of their Tributes, er, candidates, to bring to Charlotte.
Tar Heels coach Mack Brown explained the phenomenon by saying that the ACC asked each team to bring a quarterback to this week’s event. Because he couldn’t decide between his 2, he decided to bring both.
The ACC likes to refer to itself as the Conference of Quarterbacks.
But this is a little much.
If nothing else, the overload of passers – 19 in all among the 17 teams – emphasizes the importance of the position and the delicate nature of a hotly contested quarterback competition. Especially in an era of NIL and loosened transfer restrictions.
“At some point, you’re going to have to make a decision on who the starter is going to be,” said Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson, the 1 ACC coach who left both of his quarterback candidates – incumbent Michael Kern and Louisiana Tech transfer Hank Bachmeier – home from the trip to Charlotte.
“The second you make that decision, you know there’s somebody who’s extremely happy and there’s somebody who’s extremely upset. But then how do they respond to it?”
There are 2 options.
One is to brood. Or in some cases, pack up and leave like Kelly Bryant did at Clemson when replaced by Trevor Lawrence in 2018, or NC State’s MJ Morris did to protect his redshirt a year ago.
The other is to keep working hard at practice, supporting the starter and willingly carrying the clipboard during games until your number is called.
Duke and Wake Forest used 3 quarterbacks last season. It’s also not uncommon for a coach to alternate between 2 during a game or season because of their contrasting styles.
UNC’s Brown has done that several times, most notably with Chris Keldorf and Oscar Davenport in his first tenure with the Tar Heels and the duo of Major Applewhite and Chris Simms at Texas. In this particular case, he even has a 3rd option to consider in transfer Jacolby Criswell, who returns to UNC after spending last season at Arkansas.
“If you can’t choose between the 2 and you feel like both of them are good enough, then I think it’s a luxury because they’re different in who they are and what they do,” Brown said. “If you can make it work for your offensive line, it puts more pressure on a defense.”
The problem with that kind of system is making sure both players get enough reps in practice. It’s a tough enough juggling act leading up to the first game. But several other ACC coaches are about to face it, too.
The league’s other quarterback battles are between Grayson Loftis and Maalik Murphy at Duke, Fernando Mendoza and Chandler Rogers at Cal, Preston Stone and Kevin Jennings at SMU; and Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea at Virginia.
While those jobs are technically up in the air, there are at least a few hints to help handicap at least a few of the battles. Stone, for instance, threw for 3,197 yards and 28 TDs last season for SMU. He is QB1, so SMU’s situation is more about finding spots or packages for Jennings.
It’s usually an ominous sign for incumbents such as Harrell, Loftis and Kern that coaches don’t often bring in transfers to have them sit on the bench.
That’s particularly true, as in the case of Duke’s Manny Diaz, when the coach is new and one of the quarterback candidates is not.
Diaz has known Murphy since Murphy attended a camp at Miami, where Diaz was coaching. He was in the 6th grade at the time. When the former 4-star prospect entered the portal after finishing 3rd in a previous quarterback competition with Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning at Texas, Diaz was quick to renew their relationship and bring him to Durham.
“At the end of the day, there’s a great opportunity here (at Duke),” Murphy said. “I couldn’t ask for a better chance at making myself better and being an asset to this team.”
Despite his apparent advantage, Murphy said that he and Loftis plan to “go at it” once practice begins. But that they’re going to “keep it football” and remain close no matter how the competition turns out.
At least as close as 2 competitors can after a battle in which only 1 can survive.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
