Tar Heels rallying behind gunslinger Conner Harrell to lead offense

MINNEAPOLIS — The sophomore quarterback is taking the next man up mentality serious after leading North Carolina to a comeback victory at Minnesota Thursday night.

Coach Mack Brown listed Conner Harrell at No. 2 on his depth chart behind Max Johnson, who started against the Golden Gophers. Johnson struggled through the first half though, and and the Tar Heels found themselves down by a touchdown at halftime.

With just over three minutes left in the third quarter everything changed for North Carolina’s offense. Johnson went down hard on a third down pass attempt, and injured his right leg. He left the game, Brown inserted Harrell behind center and North Carolina’s offense started to execute plays more efficiently.

Harrell admitted he was somewhat nervous at first about going into the game in front of a hostile and sold out crowd on the road. However, Brown pulled Harrell to the side and let him know he had confidence in his abilities.

“He (Brown) said just to play confident, because I worked for it, know what to do, and the guys have confidence in me,” Harrell said. “I had jitters, but our defense was playing really well, the kicking game was awesome and I had to just go and play.”

Harrell led the Tar Heels on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter. The Alabama native completed two of his four passes for 34 yards. Harrell’s 32-yard completion to wide receiver J.J. Stones with under four minutes left in the fourth quarter was arguably the play of the game, because it put Noah Burnette in position to kick the go-ahead field goal.

What Brown admired about Harrell’s performance is the fact that he didn’t look like a deer in headlights in live action. After all, he handled himself like a seasoned veteran, instead of a wide-eye underclassmen, and never panicked.

“When he came off the bench, he was like ‘let’s go, I’m ready to play’,” Brown said. ”

The Golden Gophers played stout on defense throughout the night, and didn’t give up nothing easy. As a matter of fact, North Carolina (1-0) only finished with 252 yards of total offense. Brown understands the offense has plenty to work on leading up to the second game against Charlotte.

With Johnson now out for the rest of the season, a lot of that responsibility is going to fall on the shoulders of Harrell. There are 11 games left on the schedule, and the road only gets tougher from this point. The six-foot-two, 210-pound Harrell is planning on doing his best to navigate the Tar Heels through the gauntlet.

Building chemistry with the rest of the offense will be key. Not to mention Harrell has All-ACC running back Omarion Hampton in the backfield to take off some of the pressure. The big boys up front need to execute better at the point of attack too. As for now, he’s going to build off this win, and will officially approach practice as North Carolina’s starter.

“I just got to go out there and do what I know to do, and win the game for the guys.”