After Five Years Of Sam Howell/Drake Maye,
Carolina Quarterbacks Again In Spotlight,
Only For Much Different Reasons This Time
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
Somehow, during the first 90 years of the National Football League, which considers the 1920 campaign its inaugural season, the University of North Carolina failed to produce a single quarterback who played more than a handful of games in that prestigious league.
Just in the last 14 years, though, the Tar Heels have produced the four best NFL quarterback prospects in the history of their program: (in chronological order) TJ Yates, Mitch Trubisky, Sam Howell and Drake Maye.
Yates, signed by former UNC coach John Bunting and developed into a multi-year starter during the Butch Davis era in Chapel Hill, became a fifth-round NFL draft pick in 2011, after throwing for a school-record (since surpassed) 9,377 passing yards and 58 touchdowns for the Tar Heels. Yates, who played seven NFL seasons before retiring in 2017, is now the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons.
Trubisky, a product of coach Larry Fedora’s pass-happy tenure in Chapel Hill, already has left his mark on UNC’s record books in multiple ways. As the NFL’s #2 overall selection in 2017, he tied Carolina legends Ken Willard (1965), Lawrence Taylor (1981) and Julius Peppers (2002) as the highest draft picks in program history. For now, at least, Trubisky also has the most NFL starts (59) and the longest NFL tenure (eight seasons) of any former UNC quarterback. After four years as the starter for Chicago, the team that drafted him, Trubisky has been a backup for Buffalo and (currently) Pittsburgh.
Howell, the Tar Heels’ all-time career leader in passing yards (10,283) and passing touchdowns (92), was coach Mack Brown’s starting QB for the first three years of Brown’s second tenure in Chapel Hill. A fifth-round NFL draft pick in 2022, Howell was the Washington Commanders’ full-time starter last season. Earlier this year, he was traded to Seattle, where he’s the top backup to veteran Geno Smith.
Maye, of course, was Brown’s starter for the past two seasons in Chapel Hill, after backing up Howell while taking a redshirt season in 2021. (How’s that for a college QB depth chart?!) In 2022, Maye set the all-time UNC single-season record with 4,321 passing yards. After another stellar campaign for the Tar Heels in 2023, he became the #3 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft. A member of the New England Patriots, he’s now the top backup to veteran Jacoby Brissett, a former NC State star.
Two additional UNC starting quarterbacks in the modern era, Bryn Renner and Marquise Williams, also spent some time on NFL rosters (preseason, practice squad, etc.) and ultimately played professionally in other North American football leagues, such as the Arena Football League, the Canadian Football League and the Alliance of American Football.
Routinely, under multiple UNC football coaches, whenever the Tar Heels have had a future pro as their starting quarterback in recent times (see below), they have cranked out winning season after winning season.
At the same time, in the only two years since 2007 when the Heels did not have a future pro among their starting quarterbacks, they had their worst seasons in recent memory — 3-9 in 2017 and 2-9 in 2018. Indeed, those ugly back-to-back campaigns got Fedora fired, after his seven seasons on the job.
Yes, the quality of your starting quarterback can be that important.
Year — Starting QB (UNC Record) — Professional QB Tenure
2008 — TJ Yates (8-5) — 7 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2009 — TJ Yates (8-5) — 7 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2010 — TJ Yates (8-5) — 7 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2011 — Bryn Renner (7-6) — 3 professional QB seasons (AFL/NFL)
2012 — Bryn Renner (8-4) — 3 professional QB seasons (AFL/NFL)
2013 — Renner/Williams (7-6) — 3 professional QB seasons (AFL/NFL)
2014 — Marquise Williams (6-7) — 4 professional QB seasons (CFL/AAF/XFL)
2015 — Marquise Williams (11-3) — 4 professional QB seasons (CFL/AAF/XFL)
2016 — Mitch Trubisky* (8-5) — 8 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2017 — Chazz Surratt (3-9)
2018 — Nathan Elliott (2-9)
2019 — Sam Howell* (7-6) — 3 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2020 — Sam Howell* (8-4) — 3 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2021 — Sam Howell* (6-7) — 3 professional QB seasons (NFL)
2022 — Drake Maye* (9-5) — 1 professional QB season (NFL)
2023 — Drake Maye* (8-5) — 1 professional QB season (NFL)
*—active NFL player
NOTE: Surratt also is an active NFL player but as a linebacker.
Obviously, there’s a striking contrast between the star-studded list above and the players on UNC’s current depth chart at the most important position on the field.
With initial QB starter Max Johnson (broken leg) out for the season, the Tar Heels have turned to fifth-year senior Jacolby Criswell and third-year sophomore Conner Harrell, with very modest results in the passing game.
Together, in their combined eight seasons of college football, Criswell (one) and Harrell (three) have started only four games — and only one (Harrell versus Charlotte two weeks ago) that resulted in a victory over a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent. True freshman Michael Merdinger, a three-star prospect from Florida, is next in the revised QB pecking order.
If Brown, who’s 3-0 this season heading into Saturday’s home game against James Madison (an FBS opponent), can somehow manage a regular-season record of 8-4 or better here in 2024, with entirely unproven commodities on his QB depth chart, it will be an impressive accomplishment.
During the Tar Heels’ game last week against NC Central, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponent, Harrell played so poorly in the first quarter that he was yanked in favor of Criswell, who originally was expected to play this season only in case of emergency. Heading into the fourth quarter, Carolina led the Eagles by only a 17-10 margin, although All-American running back Omarion Hampton (25 rushes, 210 yards, three touchdowns) ultimately led the Heels to a comfortable 45-10 victory.
Although Criswell (14-for-23 passing, 161 yards, one touchdown) showed poise and confidence in UNC’s passing offense against NC Central, he is considered neither an exceptional runner nor a particularly accurate downfield passer. Harrell, who led UNC’s season-opening comeback victory at Minnesota after Johnson’s injury, is a superb athlete but hasn’t shown any ability to work through his progressions or throw accurately when his first passing option is well-covered or otherwise unavailable.
At just 169.7 yards per game, UNC’s passing offense is by far the worst in the recently expanded, 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference so far this season. Elsewhere in the ACC, for comparison, Miami, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Clemson and Virginia all are averaging at least 300 passing yards per game each.
On Saturday against James Madison, which is off to a 2-0 start largely because of its strong defense, the Tar Heels again are likely to utilize both Criswell and Harrell, for better or for worse.
“We’re going to watch them during the week, because we’ve got to have both of them,” Brown said Monday. “We’re so inexperienced there, we cannot say that we’re going to have ‘this guy’ play. We need both of them to play.
“And they’re very different, and what we’ve got to do is do a better job, as we go forward, of making sure we do what each one of them does best. We gotta have things that Jacolby does best and things that Conner does best and play them.”
