UNC Tar Heels Season Preview | Life without Drake Maye, Omarion Hampton Spotlight and more!

next up in our ACC preview is the North Carolina Tar Heels and Doan Mack Brown who we interviewed by the way check out the interview with Coach Brown he was an awesome awesome guy to have on the show he led North Carolina to their fifth consecutive bowl game in 2023 D the last time that that happened for the Tar Heels was back when Ma Brown was in his previous stint as North Carolina's head coach in the late 1990s right so it's been a long time since North Carolina's had a stretch as good as this and really a common theme for North Carolina over these past 5 years has been having an absolute Superstar at quarterback whether that be Sam Howell and then Drake May both those guys same how was a starter in the NFL last year Drake May is projected to be a starting quarterback at some point right for the New England Patriots as a number three overall pick in the draft now they have a new quarterback and Max Johnson we'll get into in just a second the Texas A&M transfer he is talented but this offense is probably going to really rely on a Marion Hampton one of the best running backs in America the defense has some really good uh players at the first and second levels but still they were below average defense last year at 74th in EPA per play but dlan tell me more about uh the engine of this offense which is a Marion Hampton oh for sure you're talking about a 220 PB beast that's a lot faster than you think he would be at that size 1500 rushing yards last year led the nation in yards after contact even though his team wasn't the best run blocking team Hampton's going to be the engine no matter who the quarterback is and he's one on a short list of guys who is In Contention to be rb1 in next year's draft he's going to be the engine he's going to get a boatload of touches and honestly he might be a Heisman Darkhorse candidate oo I love that and I think one thing that will maybe really affect his game obviously in the biggest weakness of this team is the offensive line uh it was a concern last year and is still a concern right now man they only bring back one starter from their offensive line now granted that one starter is a really good player and Willie lamin their guard but other than that man their other four projected Starters play to combin 2 56 snaps last year so the offensive line was a problem last year and it looks like it could be a problem once again in 2024 uh and especially when they're protecting a new quarterback in Max Johnson the Texas A&M transfer D when you watched his tape what did you see from the former Texas A&M quarterback well that pass protection is going to be at a premium Max because um max Johnson is actually a lot like a he's a lefty version of his dad super former Super Bowl winning quarterback Brad Johnson right they're true statue quarterbacks with shotgun arms that read defenses from the pocket right and we'll go into what he's good at first right you give him a clean pocket he's going to beat you you're the ninth best clean pocket passing grade in the country last year and he has a natural ability you can see the pedigree of getting Beyond his first read right we see so many college quarterbacks now who are either one read and run and then that then that's it right but Max Johnson one of his special abilities is making throws Beyond his first read when he did that he actually had the fourth highest passing grade in the country so if you give him enough time to operate and enough space to operate in the pocket max Johnson can win games he could win a lot of games right the problem is is when you do get to him right because much like his dad not a whole lot of Mobility right not a whole lot of improv so it's about poor play Under Pressure right and it's about giving the ball away Under Pressure he's got 21 fumbles over the last three seasons really high total and a 4.4 turn per turnover worthy play rate over the last three seasons so it really comes down to if you project if you protect him Johnson can be really really productive right and I think the Run game helps a lot with that getting into the play action game helps a lot with that if you don't protect him you're going to run into some issues right and it's going to be about how their offensive line can pick up blitzes and block the best pass rushers in the in the ACC right guys like Ashton gelotti or or Patrick pyton or Peter Woods or whoever else right if they can protect Johnson he could have a really really good season yeah absolutely but like we said before the really the the focal point of this offense is going to be Maran Hampton right he's he's by far the best player I think on this team especially the best player on this offense especially uh 6 feet tall 220 PBS bruising bruising running back in fact mck Brown actually told us in our interview with him that he said man our defensive backs hate going up against Maran Hampton in practice because of how physical of a runner he is and you saw by stats man 1,72 yards after contact that led the nation 1,72 rushing yards is a great year for any running back he had 1,72 yards after contact as well you mentioned it D serious serious juice at 6 feet tall 220 he had a top speed of 23 miles an hour last year that was fourth among all running backs in the country this guy is big and he's fast and he is not afraid of getting physical and you mentioned it North Carolina was a h 100th in run blocking grade last year only had a 55.5 run blocking grade um so he really had to work for every single yard he's gained and you know with a new quarterback and Max Johnson with Drake May gone he's going to be relied on even more as a junior and in my opinion in our opinion he's one of the three best running backs that we have in college football right now yeah and when I think of amaran Hampton right I think just he's a violent football player right he just hits people hard he's real violent North Carolina's got a guy defense like that too you look off the edge and there's C on Rucker look I'm going to kill your quarterback man an 89 pass rush grade last year 96 pressures over the last two seasons really arguably the best pass rusher in the ACC he's an absolute animal he's not your usual 66 lengthy defensive end sort of guy he's only 6'2 he stands up he's a true outside linebacker but man is he a violent football player in the pass and run game and he's the guy more than anybody we watched when we did our top 10 Edge Defender list when he hit quarterbacks I like cringed a little I was like this guy wants to just get to the football and hurt somebody man and he brings the attitude you need in your front seven but he's one of the best pass rushers in the country and a huge asset for this defense so Z you just told me that m brown had a very interesting quote at ACC media Day saying Hey listen I know we don't have you know Drake May or Sam Howell but I actually think our team is better than what it was last year do you agree with that do you think North Carolina's going to be better than they were last year or do you think the fact that they lost a superstar quarterback in Drake May that the the tario is going to take a step back to be honest like I understand the coach speak part of it right because they w they only won eight games last year with Drake May at the helm right and and they were kind of flawed and you mentioned the offensive line and at times they got in these shootouts and this secondary and and I I think what m brown was really getting at as opposed to maybe the word better was more balanced right and you go okay so you have a guy and Max Johnson who you can't just rely on to throw 50 times a game like Drake May right you have a Marion Hampton you need to run the ball you have you do have weapons on the outside but they have to run the ball better they have to play better defense and I think the message he's sending to his team and to anybody in the media is look we're going to be and we have to be more balanced this year and and a lot of coaches are even when you have a superstar quarterback they're going to believe that balance is better right like even team like USC and Caleb Williams didn't have any defense last year right or a team like Michael pennick in Washington where we saw some of the games they had to grind through with Dylan Johnson in their run game I think that's what Ma Brown knows he has to build with this I think it's possible they could win you know they could do better than eight and for right it's just they have to protect Johnson and they have to play just better team football than maybe they have the last couple of years yeah I I think actually 84 is around what I expect for this team this is one of those teams D though that you look at and you say man if they have some injuries they're screwed right because I think there's a lot of this team is really relying on a few star players like if Hampton goes down if Rucker goes down um that that could really tank this season right that's something that um that they really need those guys to stay healthy the entire year I like some of their other guys on that defense like power e I think got linebacker is a really good player as well we haven't mentioned him yet but like I said man if they lose a mar on Hampton for any reason and listen at running back too I know he's a big player big physical player but if you're giving him 30 35 touches a game like that's a lot of hits he's going to take next year so hopefully he stays healthy the entire year because if he goes down that offense could all of a sudden be lost right so I think that this is a team that really is going to need their star players to stay healthy but if they do um I still think they have a one of the better teams in the ACC right now and they could be like an eight and4 type team as they were last year as well so I think that uh that's certainly possible for uh North Carolina as they head into 2024 but that's what we got for our preview of the North Carolina Tar Hills hey thanks for watching the PFF college football show before I let you go though we have an unbelievable deal for you guys right now if you use the code cfb2 you get 25% off your PFF plus annual subscription we got the 2024 college football preview guide you can find over at PF f.com featuring the best players in the country from all 70 power five teams plus 10 group of five teams that have the best chance of making the college football playoff as well you can also gain access to NCAA premium stats for historical games uh teams and player tracking dating all the way back to 2014 so the last decade or so of college football all the stats you can hope for you can find in PFF premium as well also you can be the GM of your favorite NFL team with our unbelievable Mock Draft simulator where we can draft up to seven rounds of players for your NFL team and if you want to dominate your fantasy league you could do that as well using the best fantasy tools on the planet 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