The 2025 Carolina football season feels like a fresh start in a number of ways. There are the obvious things, like a complete overhaul in the coaching staff, but the other way that this team feels like a fresh start is because of the roster. There are a number of Mack Brown era survivors that we will see suit up in Carolina blue this season, but there are also a decent amount of new faces. When it comes to arguably the most important position in football, we will see mostly new faces come out of the tunnel
at Kenan Stadium, but there is one familiar name that will join them.
With no further delay, let’s take a look at this year’s quarterback class for the Tar Heels, but first, we have to discuss the players that are no longer with the program.
Key Departures
The most obvious key departure from last year’s team is Jacolby Criswell, who actually had two separate tenures with the Tar Heels. After transferring from Arkansas, Criswell managed to land the starting quarterback job after Max Johnson went down with an injury. There was a guy that took the starting job before he stepped into the role, but we will get to him in a second. Criswell finished his season completing 58.1% of his throws for 15 touchdowns and six interceptions. I would classify his senior campaign as steady, with no extreme up or downs in his game. After having to fill the massive shoes Drake Maye left behind, Criswell’s expectations for me was to be a net positive for the team, and not try to do too much. I would say that he accomplished that mission.
The other key departure was Conner Harrell, who immediately took over as the starter when Johnson got hurt. He started a few games for the Heels, but wasn’t able to have a whole lot of success. He ultimately finished his season completing 56% of his passes for two touchdowns and a pick before getting benched in favor of Criswell. Following Mack Brown’s departure, Harrell decided to transfer to Charlotte for his junior season.
Key Returnee
The only key member of the quarterback room that returned from last season was Max Johnson, who went down with an injury rather quickly against Minnesota in the first game of the season. To be perfectly honest, it was really hard to get a fair evaluation of Johnson since he got injured so quickly, but the draw for fans going into last season was that he was a SEC quarterback that perhaps could bring some juice to what was a questionable situation. It’s unclear if we will see him much this season, but as we know from 2024, anything could happen.
Key Additions
When looking at the new faces at quarterback for UNC, we have to start with Gio Lopez. Hailing from Madison Alabama, Lopez started in 11 games for South Alabama, and was very impressive in those games. He finished the season completing 66% of his passes for 2,559 yards, 18 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Considered a dual-threat quarterback, Lopez also ran 73 times for 540 yards. The overall feeling is that Lopez will be starting for the Tar Heels, which tracks if you are looking at college experience and talent.
Another newcomer for the Tar Heels is incoming freshman Bryce Baker. The North Carolina native is a four-star prospect out of East Forsyth High School, and was ranked as the 11th-best quarterback in the 2025 class. Baker is quite the athlete, who played football, basketball, and ran track & field in high school. He finished his senior season completing 74.8%(!!!) of his passes for 3,523 yards and 40 touchdowns, while also running for 536 yards. There’s no doubt that Belichick has a promising young talent that could likely step in if needed, and if I were to expect any sudden change during the season, I wouldn’t be shocked if it involved Baker.
Outlook
While it’s really hard to know how to feel about UNC as a team going into September, I do feel like the quarterback room is pretty solid, though I say that cautiously. I have mostly heard positive buzz about Gio Lopez, but there’s the obvious increase in difficulty that comes with joining a Power Four team. Should Belichick not get the warm fuzzies about him after a couple of games, I do feel like Max Johnson or Bryce Baker could step in, but then it becomes a question of what do you want from your quarterback? Do you want an athletic guy who may be too young to make the mature plays, or do you want the experienced SEC veteran who a number of us were skeptical of going into last season because it didn’t seem like Texas A&M fans loved him all that much? Thankfully I do not get paid to answer such questions with any kind of authority, but given the fact that we’ve had to deal with the Chazz Surratt / Nathan Elliott season, all I can say is: I’m just thankful that there are options if the initial starter doesn’t pan out.
The thing that I am the most curious about with this group is whether or not they will be the biggest factor in whether the team wins or loses this year. I don’t say this because I think they are weaker than the other groups — if I’m being honest, I don’t really have an opinion one way or another at the moment — but I say it because none of the guys that I have discussed in this article are of Drake Maye or Sam Howell quality…or at least that we know of. It’s hard for me to have specific expectations with how different this team looks, specifically at the quarterback position, but I at least feel like this is a serviceable group that probably will be more of a positive than a negative. Let’s just hope that I am right.
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