Max Johnson saw his North Carolina debut end prematurely Thursday night when he was forced out of the game with a right knee injury late in the third quarter.

Johnson was hit while throwing and his right leg appeared to get caught awkwardly underneath a defender. He stayed down on the field holding his right knee and was quickly tended to by team trainers. Eventually, a cart came out to take him off the field.

At the time of his exit, Johnson had just 71 yards passing with 12 completions on 19 attempts. He was intercepted once and sacked twice. Johnson also added a rushing score in the second quarter that gave UNC its first points of the season.

Conner Harrell replaced Johnson and UNC settled for a field goal to cut a 4-point Minnesota lead to 1.

Heading into the game, head coach Mack Brown said UNC would rotate its quarterbacks and put both Harrell and Johnson on the field. But Harrell’s first pass and first rushing attempt of the night came after Johnson was forced out of the game.

UNC called 4 straight running plays for Omarion Hampton immediately after Johnson’s injury.

Harrell started the bowl game for UNC last season. Johnson transferred into the program after 2 seasons at Texas A&M. Part of the thinking in preparing both to play, according to Brown, was to ensure either quarterback would be ready in the case of injury. Unfortunately, UNC had to deal with that scenario earlier than it would have hoped.