UNC had a close win against Minnesota last night, but also lost a QB

uh kind of amazing isn't it that we're uh we're sitting here after game one going defense look good yeah I mean the defense looked great after the South Carolina game last year too nine sacks and uh so I would okay caution UNCC fans to pump the brakes a little bit they did look very aggressive very attacking you saw finally the the four and five star players you know be productive javar ritzy had it the best game of his career he was a massive recruit and he was all around the quarterback three sacks definitely a career high um and they you they held Minnesota and check until that last drive when the quarterback picked him apart but you you do have to feel pretty good about the front seven um I think there's some defensive secondary issues but first game I think the defense is certainly a positive particularly the defensive lineari ritzy Cayman Rucker was everywhere linebackers were pretty good but um I think they'll I think they can get better and I think there's a lot of potential on that side of the ball yeah it's it's very interesting that that was my focus going in I the obviously major offensive questions to answer going forward and we'll talk about that but to me the focus was can North Carolina be represent like good on the defensive line in that front seven we knew power Eckles is a playmaker but can they find help for him and the guys you mentioned all just absolutely jumped off the page uh I'll just go number five number seven I thought we saw good stuff from Travis Shaw as well maybe not as consistently like all over the place as uh What uh ritzy and Rucker uh I thought Elijah huzzy was excellent apparently if you wear number 28 it's all good at UNC uh cuz amarian Hampton obviously is a tremendous player but I thought there were play makers on the defensive side of the ball that we haven't seen make a lot of plays in the last several years yeah it's about time wait I've been waiting for something like this for a while um and I mean credit to uh Jeff Collins you know you saw something different I think you saw some quarterbacks coming in on blitzes yeah safeties coming up you saw I think you also saw those star players winning their one-on ones and pushing the pocket and getting to the quarterback and that's something we haven't seen in a while so credit to the defensive line coach they made a change there made a change at um defensive coordinator as well so got say positive they did enough to win the game and offense just had to do you know four field goals to get the win it wasn't exactly pretty the defense enough and um I don't think Minnesota's awful but they have a chance now with three games at home to really improve on both sides of the ball starting with the defense and offense yeah I think well Minnesota's got a really big offensive line so uh that's something they're probably going to you know try to rely on I don't I don't know that the quarterback back is bad I don't know that the quarterback is great uh I thought Carolina helped out with some Miss tackles uh in in spots had a chance to make it third and really long uh and who was it Lane number one just kind of uh ran past the play lowered his lowered his head lowered his shoulder and whiffed uh as a tackle was broken and it created a 20 yard gain but uh ultimately I thought there was a lot more good than bad a ton more good than bad on the defensive side the ball offensively Ross Martin from 247 Sports at Ross Martin NC on Twitter um it it I assume Max Johnson's injury is at the very least uh several months it it didn't look good they said it was a hip after the game which I actually can you know thinking about it now uh it did look like it that could have been it more than maybe more so than KN um but Connor Harrell as the quarterback it uh it I don't know maybe jacobe Chiswell gets another look at some point but they basically did not have any semblance of a passing game and didn't they really didn't try except for the triple option pass which was a great play call uh they really didn't really try uh they were really playing it very conservative when he came in yeah I mean they didn't ask Conor to do much with his arm they really didn't ask Max to do much with his arm I'm not sure either can I mean the days of Drake May and Sam how tosing hu you know 30 40 yard bombs down the field or over they don't have that quarterback they don't have a an NFL quarterback on the roster um and that's going to affect how they can stretch the field how they can open up the middle by stretching the field and hitting those those long outs they have to get creative um I do think they need to play Conor even after the first half it seemed like nothing was cooking with Max he just doesn't bring I I mean he's injured so I feel bad speaking poorly of him but he just didn't do much to right move the offense he had 10 yards passing like you got to move the ball down the field and at least Conor brings some stuff with his legs I think he can add a different element I said this on the podcast last night in our live reaction show that um you know college quarterbacks like it is such a benefit to be able to get out of the pocket and go get the first down go get seven yards go get 10 yards that's an element that Drake had that Sam had that that really any heisen winner has that ability to to win the game on their feet and I think Connor brings that different angle to the offense and that might uh combined with Omari and Hampton which I know you want to talk about I mean that might help the offense be a little more flexible and I think it's up to chip Lindsay now to script an offensive game plan that complements what both those guys do and you've got to kind of play to their strength like it's a different offense now than than what we uh came to know under Phil Longo in the air raid with with Drake and Sam 30 carries for Omari and Hampton 129 yards longest carry was 16 yards so it was very workmanlike uh I you know per a that's not great for his long-term Health uh that's a lot of carries you you'd like 30 carries to equal 200 yards uh in the college game um but if they can't stretch the defense that's going to make it even more difficult Hampton is awesome absolutely a tremendous football player it's going to be hard for him yeah I mean I but you got to think he wants the ball too and I think he I agree they scripted the game plan in the second half to give the ball more and you saw started off you know he was just getting two yards three yards and then in the third fourth quarter he started falling forward more those three and four yard games became five and six passed 100 yards and then broke a couple plays caught the ball a couple times I he's an NFL guy I would expect him to be a top two round pick next year year um you know he's just a third year player he doesn't have too much wear on his tires but they would like to see Darwin bar Barlo out of USC the transfer play more and I think against teams like Charlotte Central JMU who they all have at home the next three weeks you'd like to split it a little more evenly maybe 20 carries and let Marlo get B 10 but they're gonna have to ride they're gonna have to ride amarian for a lot of these games um and that's up to the offensive line the offensive line was was below average too there wasn't much there for arm Marion so that's a group that now has one they only had one start or one player had started a game heading into the season so now you have all five started one game no injuries they all played no one else played the five offensive linemen but that group you've got to think is g to gel and get a little bit better every game because they're so new so young and so inexperienced so that group has kind of a a project the next three or four weeks is to really come together I think every game is Just it helps them improve and become uh you know have more chemistry and whatnot everybody will have a chance to scout if you want to watch the uh the game between JMU and Charlotte at 8:00 on ESPNU you can scout two of their next three opponents uh and that maybe will be uh super convenient I I'll bet that Ma Brown and Company are watch are watching that game why wouldn't they uh it certainly is of interest to uh to them for the next few weeks uh so what do you what do you do I mean you have to you have to be creative to get Hampton the ball he's your best player uh I thought the to me they've got options on the outside they've got good wide receivers and tight ends uh but they're going to have to get creative getting the ball at least forcing the defense to uh to cover the field uh if it you know they obviously didn't even try last night once uh once Johnson went down uh they're going to how do you get that creative if you're not willing to throw the ball down the field yeah I think I'm not sure they have a a wide receiver that can really create the separation needed or a quarterback who has the accuracy um as well I mean you saw a lot of passes that were underthrown or thrown to the wrong shoulder and there's not a Josh DS on this team there's not a TZ Walker there's not a dii brown the team kind of lacks a a a you know go-to number one receiver right now I think Bryson neswick can be that they have they do have guys I'm not sure they have the guy and when you don't have someone who can kind of either take the top off the defense or always get open speaking of like a TZ Walker or a Josh DS it forces you know it forces a quarterback to have to be perfect um and we'll see it's kind of like they don't have the stud receiver they don't have the stud quarterback so it's going to be a work in progress and when the quarterback can't throw the ball you know 20 yards down the field it creates a lot of issues with the offense so I think it's a uphill battle for offensive coordinator chip Lindsay I'm interested to see kind of how it looks against you know lesser opponents in charlott and Central and what they can get cooking um but I'm waiting for one guy to emerge I don't think it's JJ Jones I think it's could be Nesbit yeah maybe a young guy I mean where was Nate McCollum last night um where was Kobe pacau these guys who played a lot of games they just weren't there yesterday I don't know if that's because of the offensive scheme or because of the quarterback or combination of both my sense it's probably because of the quarterback Ross Martin final thing we heard for you know weeks and weeks we're going to play we're we're going to use two quarterbacks and play both uh and I I just unless both of their quarterbacks were both wearing number 14 and left-handed they only played one until the injury uh do you think Mack was just playing with all of us and he was always going to use max Johnson unless he had no other choice I think it was a yeah a lot of mental games with Mack ahead of this game to force a new defensive coordinator at Minnesota to half to game plan for running quarterback and Conor harrold because they had tape on him from the bowl game right I don't know D I don't know sometimes what Max's thinking and the purpose of it um I mean I think genuinely nobody won the job and I think mat has the experience uh but now the hands in force so I thank God for UNCC they brought in jacobe chriswell because they're gonna they may need a second quarterback now if Max can't go you're gonna have uh chriswell and um Conor Herold kind of is the one and two guys there so I think it's Conor's kind of a team now so you got to R rally around him and and see where things go personally I like him he's a a snappy dresser too we talked to him about uh his his fit at the ACC football meetings uh Ross Martin 247 Sports big hitters only podcast uh thank you man welcome back to North Carolina glad to see you back in the business you you weren't gone long it's in your blood man uh we'll talk again yeah check out the podcast on Apple Spotify YouTube big hitters only thanks so much Adam and Victoria you got it take care