UNC starting quarterback Gio Lopez left last Saturday’s game with an injury that he suffered in the third quarter. When the injury happened things looked pretty bad — he wasn’t able to put any weight on
his leg, and ended up being carted off the field, though was carted off in the front seat. Max Johnson entered the game and finished things out, but the big question was how serious the injury was to Lopez. It seems as though we now have an (unofficial) answer.
On3 reported that their sources were told that Lopez did not suffer a season-ending injury, which was what some people were speculating was the case. We do not know any details beyond that, but if we are to believe the report, we should see Lopez back in action at some point this season, but when we will see him again is a whole other question. Until then, it is expected that Max Johnson will take his place unless Bill Belichick has a change of heart. Johnson was able to do no worse or better than Lopez did, but fans would argue that him throwing a touchdown pass was some degree of progress. The conversation around both quarterbacks has been interesting, because it seems like Lopez keeps getting hurt against Power Four competition, and Johnson by virtue of playing clean-up ends up looking marginally better. We haven’t even seen a full game from Johnson since he became a Tar Heel, ironically, but depending on how long it takes for Lopez to recover, we may see that against Clemson next Saturday.
One final note regarding Lopez is that the school hasn’t officially said anything yet regarding his injury. I’d anticipate an update for Bill Belichick sometime this week, but for now we are to go by On3’s sources and hope that what they are saying is accurate. Regardless of how anybody feels about Lopez’s play to this point in the season, UNC can’t afford to be down a quarterback going into ACC play. We’ll have to see how everything plays out over the next few weeks, but more and more this is looking like a season where it is hard to expect a lot out of this team other than learning to find some kind of cohesion and hope for the best. Right now cohesion feels unreachable, but perhaps they will be able to figure some things out during the bye week.
