Heel Tough Blog: Max Johnson Expected to Start Against Clemson

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After a week full of question marks at the quarterback position for the Tar Heels, the team appears as if they have a lean for what they will do on Saturday.

According to Inside Carolina, their sources are telling them that senior quarterback Max Johnson is trending towards being the starting quarterback for the team against the Clemson Tigers. This would be Johnson’s second start for the team, along with his start in the opener last season against Minnesota.

Johnson enters this game having thrown for 170 yards and two touchdowns on 66.7% completions and has yet to turn the ball over. In that start last year, Johnson completed 63.2% of his passes for 71 yards and an interception before suffering a severe leg injury that cost him the remainder of the season.

Prior to his time in Chapel Hill, Johnson spent two years at Texas A&M, playing in twelve games and starting eight. In his time with the Aggies, he threw for 1,969 yards, 12 touchdowns, and five interceptions, going 4-4 in the games that he started. Prior to that, Johnson played in 18 games and started 14 of them at LSU in the first two years of his career. He posted an 8-6 record as the starter there, throwing for 3,884 yards, 35 touchdowns, and seven interceptions in those two years.

Going to Johnson is the right move for a lot of reasons. With how ineffective starting quarterback Gio Lopez has been, the Tar Heels needed to make the move to give them a chance to evaluate the rest of this roster. Johnson might not be someone who is going to put up some of the numbers that we saw guys like Sam Howell and Drake Maye put up, but it is hard to imagine the offense won’t be more efficient, which is all you can really ask for with the style of offense that this staff is running this season.

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