Carolina Football Mailbag: Quarterback That Gives UNC The Best Chance to Win

Intro welcome back to another mailbag Edition I'm Evan Rogers with Taylor Vias and today we are going to dive into which quarterback should start for UNCC week one at Minnesota who's trotting out there that first drive for the tles we have to preface this first college football 25 has kind of been the The Craze of the summer and if you're asking me about real life I have a different answer than I would have in this new game because in this new game Connor Harold is my God I put Connor Harold in and I'm sprinting I'm waiting for plays to break down and I the second the second one of my linemen loses somebody I'm taking off I'm not even going to the second the third read so in in the college game Conor Harold I are are you are you with me there I'm I'm all in it was it was honestly I saw the I think it was like 85 speed or something like that I mean you've got to have a mobile quarterback and football it's just it's just a cheat code so yeah I also subbed in Connor at the beginning yeah I think I think when that game first came out uh some people have called me a mobile quarterback Merchant where I'm just I'm sorting by the fastest quarterbacks and those are going to be the teams that I'm normally picking but when for for this upcoming Max Johnson season I would say Max Johnson actually gives Carolina the best chance to win and when you're talking about Max Johnson I I think it is is easy to forget that this was a quarterback that was good enough to to be a multi-year starter in the secc and in 2021 you look at his stats he threw for 27 touchdowns to only six interceptions and I think it's so easy to forget that because that LSU team didn't really have success and now you're a couple of Seasons removed from that and when he when he threw for 20 plus passes in conference Play That season in 2021 LSU was three and four so they had a sub 500 record in conference play on paper you see that and you're you're probably not that impressed and it's not that overwhelming but when you kind of dissect those four losses they were on the road at number 16 Kentucky they were on the road at number 12 Old Miss they were on the road at number two Alabama and then the fourth loss in in that conference slate was a home loss to number 22 Auburn Carolina isn't asking Max Johnson to go into Bryant Denny Stadium and and beat Alabama they're not asking them to go to the Grove and beat all Miss what we're talking about from this North Carolina team and getting to places where maybe they really haven't been to since m brown has come back or or Reach the the that same level of getting to like a an orange ball type appearance we we love to talk about the the SEC media bias but Carolina the hump that Carol is trying to get over is hey can you can you consistently beat Virginia can you consistently beat the Georgia Techs and the Dukes and and Pittsburgh and NC State it's it's not exactly Murderers Row And the fact that Johnson comes in with that much experience over 1,600 snaps in the SEC it's a huge plus and because of that it would seem like at the moment he's a more capable passer what what I do like with Connor Harold essentially is he's giving you a completely different playing style and while while Johnson is more of a a prototypical pocket passer with Harold you can Implement more of the QB Run game and you give defenses more things to think about and it opens up the Playbook a lot more and you have the chance to beat more defenses with play fakes so so for me it's kind of like a a tie goes to the runner in baseball where if these two guys are Level I go with Connor Harold just because of what he does provide for for the Dual threat ability but if if they're not level and Johnson has kind of separated in training camp I would give it to him but I'm interested to hear hear who you got yeah that that Connor Harrell last point you made is kind of where my head's at um the experience part is definitely a factor I mean like you said max Johnson's got over 1600 snaps in the ACC Conor Harrell has 93 career snaps um but I think by what we've seen and what we've heard is and this is not world breaking news is that neither one of these guys passing wise are in the Drake May samow Echelon of the world I mean these aren't your Elite top tier passers they're both average to you know a little bit above average passers and you've got two quarterbacks that are in that average to above average passing range why not take the quarterback that gives you the extra Dimension I mean I think for UNC to have success this year they're going to have to rely on amarian Hampton a lot and I think the biggest thing you're going to have to do for am Marian Hampton's sake is prevent defenses from collapsing on him stacking the box and all those sorts of things and if you're not going to be able to do that with an elite passer who's maybe going to stretch the field like a drake May or Sam H did maybe you can do it with a mobile quarterback you know one who can get outside the pocket or just stretch the defense as far as they can so I I would go with Connor harell as my guess right now um I I do believe we are going to see both of these quarterbacks throughout the year whether that is you know an injury pops up or or just something along those lines I mean I I do think this is going to be a season where there are going to be packages and scenarios where both quarterbacks can kind of Thrive of what their strong points are um and it's going to be a matter of identifying when they use them at the right time and and really just trying to maximize most out of this room because I do think in totality it is a capable room it's not a room that lacks Talent it's just a room that doesn't lack it's just a room right now that lacks a top dog and I think they'll figure that out when the season comes along I thought it was interesting too at ACC kickoff they brought Max Johnson and Connor Harold and I think it kind of speaks to the fact that Carolina is going into this training camp with it being a a legit quarter quarterback battle we've heard at times like Carolina goes into a quarterback battle and it's Drake May and jacobe Chiswell but everything kind of pointed that Drake May was pulling away and Drake May was going to be the guy or or that first year when it's Sam Howell and Jace rder and Kate foron that that Sam Howell was always the guy but you want to present it as a a quarterback battle and I kind of mentioned him he's kind of the Forgotten person in this quarterback battle Kobe Chiswell coming back I think there is a little where there's smoke there's fire when when he when he does come back I don't think Kobe Chiswell is coming back and saying like I'm coming back to just finish my degree here I think he's coming back here because he looks at this qub back room and he he sees a path to playing time and it wouldn't surprise me with with the injury history that Connor Harold has had at times and Max Johnson being guys who who play in a in a style where where they are prone to get banged up that jacobe Chiswell is entering this training camp thinking he has just as good a chance to be the starter as those first two guys