UNC Football squeaks past Minnesota 19-17, Max Johnson leaves the game with injury

right now let's talk UNC squeaking by Minnesota and it's it's squeaking by I say squeaking by because I mean it's a missed field goal at the end of the game from from Minnesota being much happier than they they are right now right winning the game the story of this one for UNC is it safe to say that m brown maybe overthought the quarterback competition thing a little too much and made it difficult for either quarterback to be successful because it was obvious that the offense for UNC had a tough time finding a rhythm a tough time stringing together good plays they they were not afraid to get the ball to amarian Hampton and he's always going to be good 100 plus yards 30 carries five catches he's always going to be good but the offense as a whole appeared disjointed appeared out of rhythm and I can't help but think could that be something to do with the fact that you were practicing for a whole bunch of training camp with two very different quarterbacks running things it's almost as if and this goes for Conor Herold too when he came to the game it's almost as if they didn't trust either quarterback to throw the ball really a lot in the game and when they did it was it was hesitant yeah it was hesitant now I will say the JJ Jones tipto grab on the the first third down on the first drive was was phenomenal but after that he he went kind of Silent well even even you know little things like that where it's you make a play in football and I know that that there's scientists out there that say momentum isn't real in football momentum is real somebody makes a big play you want to get on the line you want to build off it you want to make another big play if if my Defense Forces a turnover and I'm an offensive play caller you want to call a a a shot pretty quick in the drive and see if you can't get that snowball rolling down Hill JJ Jones makes a play or or the defense makes a play and they made a bunch of them it's like when does the next thing just it was disjointed ma Brown used the term uptight after the game when dis discussing his offense in the first half we felt like that U he hadn't been in this offense before and um we felt in general that the offense was uptight the first half and and Minnesota's a good defense we knew that we knew this would be a line of scrimmage game and we were having protecting so we felt like that we would adjust to things at halftime I thought the coaches did and and and gave him some better opportunities and then I thought Max settled down and and and would had more confidence in that third quarter and really hated to to see him get hurt but we've talked about needing two quarterbacks and we talked about Connor was probably going to play in this game at some time um so thank goodness Connor was ready here's here's what I've been talking about with ma Brown and how they handled this quarterback position for weeks and weeks and weeks now right we've been we've been harping on it and I hate that it did rear its ugly head in the game it is just really really hard to have two separate guys ready to play quarterback in a big non-conference game it's just hard it's I'll put it this way it's hard to have one quarterback ready to play in a big non-conference game they the to get one quarterback ready every rep with the ones right if if you need more reps you ask for them it's it's so I'll again I I did not play at UNCC I did not play in the power power four I played FCS football at the University of Delaware but as a backup quarterback I used to get so mad uh when the starter would ask for some of my plays and what I mean by that is when we were in seven on seven when we were in 11on 11 when we were in any any team drill in practice our rotation was the starter gets six plays the backup gets two the starter gets six the backup gets two and there would be times during a week where the starter would say hey let me grab these two and the coach would say fine because there was something he wanted to get another look at there was something he wanted to work at with a particular wide receiver and I remember be as a as a backup being so unbelievably mad like come on man you get six I'm just I'm just trying to get better over here you're going to take my two but then when I became the starter guess what I'm asking for those two because I'm I'm realizing oh for me to be ready on Saturday I need to get that look one more time I need to see it done right I need to talk to my wide receiver about how I want that route run and then we need to do it again and you realize like oh that's what he was doing he needed certain weeks every rep during those drills to be ready on Saturday now imagine what UNC was trying to do for these two quarterbacks they were splitting reps not like six- two not seven- one even and imagine what that does for the rest of the team because Max Johnson is 65 pocket passer Connor Harrell 61 runs around a bunch that's different requirements and it looked like it Max Johnson this is no disrespect to ma Johnson the player because I think he's a very talented player and I hate to see him hurt he didn't look ready not from like oh his arm wasn't strong enough or oh he wasn't accurate enough he didn't look ready like he looked timid he looked like he didn't trust to the offense like the back of his hand he looked like he wasn't willing to pull the trigger quickly he the the early interception there's a panic interception back foot nah yeah first and 10 at Midfield I don't know why you're trying to take a shot that far almost feel like he was trying to force it to Bryson nesb it it looked like a a uh we used to call something that's you're not allowed to call it anymore but I've heard it called Rumble fumble the game uh and what that is is you play it as a kid it's very very barbaric somebody has the football everybody tries to tackle that person once they're on the ground they throw the football and then somebody else picks it up they're the new Target and you just keep doing that but there was always somebody that didn't want to get hit so they'd pick up the ball they'd be running and as soon as they're about to get popped they go ah and throw the ball away right someone else take it Max Johnson's throw looked like it was ah ah just let me get rid of it he wasn't settled and then he gets hurt and again bummer I I'm I'm to the point now I don't know if it's me getting older in my 30s I can't watch people get hurt no when I first watched the replay this morning during next up when it was on in the studio it was one of those things I was in the middle of asking David shoate play byplay voice of the blue Devil's a question I had to catch myself as I caught myself going oh it's it's I used to go like oh let me see what happened oh look it bent the wrong way now i i w like I'm like why are they showing the replay like I get a pit in my stomach because I feel so bad for these players so then Max Johnson gets hurt absolute bummer feel for him hopefully he makes a complete and total recovery um Connor Harold goes in complete completely different quarterback didn't play the whole first half and into the second half he didn't look ready and and that's again nothing on his physical ability or the type of quarterback he is he looked like he was questioning what he was seeing he runs a 4440 yard dash on a little read keep he kind of tried to cut it up when he should have taken the corner and go and and it's just that was instinctual we saw him play in the bowl game last year and he did make some quick decisions he wasn't perfect but he was out there more in control you could tell leading up to the game he had gotten all of the Reps and he was more prepared he made some questionable decisions they didn't trust him to do much it it's it's why I always say the moment you know who your starting quarterback is you name them and you give them the Reps and if you think these guys are completely even completely totally like they're the exact same quality of player pick one that's not fair but you have to because you can't have two guys ready now luckily UNC UNC fans are probably going why are you being so negative we won a game against the Big 10 I got you you won a game against the Big 10 luckily you have a defense that played lights out Minnesota made some mistakes that you capitalized on you have a kicker that wanted to to be the MVP of the game and you have Omari and Hampton in the Run game right Omarian Hampton 30 30 carries five receptions when you needed to to grind something out he was there you're lucky you have that but I'm looking to the Future in which case now the season is riding on Connor Harrell and and you may act actually stumble into a situation where the quarterback can be more successful right because m brown said two quarterbacks were going to play All Season he said he wanted two quarterbacks to play All Season it looks like a lie because he was only going to play Max Johnson but it now unless Max Johnson's injury is severely overblown in in kind of our initial reactions he's going to be out for a long time Conor Harold's finally going to get the opportunity to prepare like a starter now I will say to me I think the play of the game and also this is just when I was kind of able to really tune in when I got back from the NC State game the Conor Herald 32 yard completion to JJ Jones with 250 left in regulation not just because it was a throw on the run but because Tim I feel you can appreciate this how he was able to fake out the defend as far as tucking it and making it look like it was just going to be a run play and then end up being a run pass option and then at the last second finding Jo finding Jones along the sidelines it to to nerd out for a second I I geeked out over the play design I was like great play I was like let me re let me rewind this it is it looks like a true read keep keep not a RPO because it didn't look like there was a real pass option didn't look like he really considered it and then as he's running first of all shout out to the offensive line nobody went downfield no which uh tends to happen you saw it last night with State you you look at it and you see Harold tuck it and you're like cool let me go down field and help him they all stay Stayed back and then you're playing you know the the the children's game monkey in the Middle with that that corner if he comes at you dump it over the top you have a big gain if he stays back with the wide receiver pump fake it so he sticks with him even further tuck it and run up the sideline get your own yards great play design shout out to chip Lindsay ended up being one of the plays that won the game for him uh you need that kind of command of the offense from your quarterback every play even the basic plays you can't be hesitant you can't be timid you can't be koi you have to be decisive I didn't see that enough from uncc's quarterbacks but again that's why there's next week and your consolation prize is you beat a big 10 team yeah you want a non-conference game on the road to open your season with your quarterbacks playing timid that I mean that's the the unlocking the the top right unlocking the higher gear is what if our quarterbacks play decisive do that next week and build from there now can we talk about another positive though for North Carolina let's do it and I'm sure this is a lot of things that Carolina fans weren even thinking that they'd be saying was a big factor in the game the defense the defense looked a lot better I'm not going to say it looked Stellar because it also looked great against South Carolina last season when they got nine sacks but it does look like a different defense it's a Carolina defense that we haven't been used to seeing in previous years under Jeff Collins as far as that hit it and steal it mindset of you know go for the football every time you make a tackle yeah Jeff Collins had a good day I'll agree with you on that Minnesota's offense I'm I'm curious to see how they'll be as the season goes along but uh but Jeff Collins that defense definitely definitely had a good day and or a big reason why you were able to play so conservatively on offense and still win the game uh and and go for all those field goals and not feel like you had to go for it on Fourth downs and just keep kicking it and it's because you you had faith in your defense so credit to them a win is a win is a win that's that's one of the themes of the day a win is a win is a win inch or a mile uh that one may have been by just a couple of yards of of missed kick but hey inch or a mile win is a win