Between The Eers: Who is Conner Harrell?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:09 It is between the ears, I'm Skylar Callahan.
00:12 And today we're gonna talk a little bit about Drake May and his backup.
00:16 As you know, the Tar Heels starting quarterback is going to skip
00:21 the bowl game against West Virginia and start his preparation for
00:25 the 2024 NFL Draft where he's most likely going to be
00:30 the number two overall pick behind Caleb Williams.
00:32 But he's gonna have a couple of months to try and scratch and
00:36 claw his way to that number one overall selection.
00:39 So we'll see what happens with that.
00:41 I think he's actually got a good chance with it.
00:43 But what does this mean for West Virginia?
00:47 What does it mean for North Carolina?
00:50 So the new quarterback playing in this bowl game for
00:57 the Tar Heels is gonna be Connor Harrell.
00:58 And I think a lot of times when you see starting quarterbacks
01:05 sit out a bowl game, we've seen it throughout the years.
01:08 West Virginia had it with Will Greer.
01:10 We know how that worked out against Syracuse.
01:16 But you see Sam Hartman's gonna sit out for Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl.
01:21 Caleb Williams, who we just mentioned, is gonna sit out USC's bowl game.
01:26 There's a ton of these guys that are gonna do this.
01:30 And the way I feel on it is, look,
01:35 I think you gotta protect yourself.
01:40 And I understand for the fans, it's probably not what you want.
01:43 You want the best players to be playing in these games.
01:49 But you have to put yourselves in their shoes.
01:53 And if you have a chance to go make millions and millions and millions of
01:56 dollars, you need to do everything to look out for yourself.
02:01 Be a little selfish for once.
02:02 And I know that's probably not a popular opinion.
02:06 But I mean, you're literally on the doorstep of being the number two,
02:11 potentially the number one overall pick if you're Drake Mayshoes or Caleb Williams.
02:17 To go out there and play in this, and I hate to use the word meaningless,
02:24 cuz it's not really meaningless.
02:26 But in the grand scheme of things,
02:29 it's a bowl game that years from now no one's gonna talk about.
02:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]
02:36 For them to play in these types of games, it's a huge risk.
02:41 And I think it really kind of started back when Jalen Smith,
02:46 the Notre Dame linebacker, had that really, really nasty injury.
02:52 He was a surefire first round draft pick, and it just plummeted his draft stock.
02:59 And it took him a long, long time to really get back to full strength
03:04 at the NFL level, but I think that's really what started it.
03:08 Christian McCaffrey, I believe he set up his bowl game at Stanford his final year
03:13 there.
03:14 But look, like I said, I can't blame the folks that do it.
03:20 And I get why some of them don't wanna skip it.
03:24 If Zach Frazier was healthy for West Virginia,
03:27 I think he'd probably play in the game.
03:29 He's a West Virginia kid.
03:31 And although he knows what's on the line for him, I think he also feels like that's
03:36 another opportunity for him to prove he's worth being first center taken in the draft.
03:41 Where it's maybe not as much of a certainty as Drake Mayer,
03:45 Caleb Williams is going one and two.
03:49 So that's my spiel on that.
03:52 For Connor Harrell, little background on him.
03:55 Two time state champion in the state of Alabama.
03:59 Very, very talented kid.
04:01 Dual threat over his last two seasons at his high school.
04:06 He threw 81 touchdowns to six interceptions.
04:10 And again, you're gonna see all these kind of crazy looking stats
04:15 when you get these power five or now power four kids that just dominate.
04:20 And that's why they're there.
04:22 But I mean, he was just absolutely phenomenal.
04:26 Extremely accurate with the footballs,
04:27 completed 72% of his passes through for 6,100 yards.
04:33 And then added another 680 on the ground with nine touchdowns.
04:37 Again, two time state champion.
04:40 Really electric player.
04:43 I thought I had remembered this name before or
04:46 became familiar with it at one point.
04:49 And I don't believe West Virginia got heavily involved, but
04:53 I know they did offer.
04:56 Harrell was offered by West Virginia.
04:59 And I believe he came in the 2021 class.
05:08 Actually, the 22 class.
05:10 Came in the 2022 class.
05:13 So you already kind of knew that quarterback situation in
05:17 Morgantown was gonna be Derek Green and Nico Markeo.
05:21 So they kind of already had that position somewhat figured out.
05:25 But they did offer him.
05:27 They did have some background on him.
05:29 They know who he is.
05:30 They know what kind of player he can be.
05:32 And I think that'll help a little bit.
05:34 And again, I don't think they scouted him extensively.
05:39 I'm sure they did enough to be able to offer him.
05:42 But I don't think they were deeply involved in conversations with him.
05:46 I could be wrong on that.
05:47 But I don't remember that being the case.
05:51 But for West Virginia's defense, I actually think this is, and
05:55 I might sound crazy saying this, but
05:58 I actually think this is more of a challenge than facing Drake May.
06:03 Drake May is a pocket passer type quarterback that can be mobile.
06:08 In some ways, he kind of reminds me of a Ben Roethlisberger a little bit.
06:18 Obviously, not similar build, but he's mobile, but not extremely mobile.
06:24 He's not a guy that you necessarily fear with your legs.
06:28 He's not the Garrett Green or Lamar Jackson or anything like that.
06:33 And I'm not sure I put Garrett Green in Lamar Jackson's bucket, but
06:37 you get the point.
06:39 Drake May is a mobile quarterback when he needs to be.
06:43 And he's more of just a tough guy to bring down to the ground.
06:47 He likes to stick in the pocket if he can.
06:51 Harold, on the other hand, is a little bit more of a challenge because it's
06:56 hard to caress him.
06:58 He's very good on the move.
07:02 He's very good just when plays break down.
07:08 And I think that's what Caroline's probably gonna wanna do in this game,
07:12 is get him on the move.
07:13 Whether it's on play action stuff, RPO.
07:16 I feel like you'll see a lot of RPO in this game to kinda help him out and
07:21 get quick reads and not have to worry about going through progressions.
07:24 But very big on, I mean, he's not a big kid.
07:30 Six foot, six foot one, 185, 190 pounds, but he can sling it, man.
07:37 He's got very limited playing time, as you could imagine, sitting behind Drake May.
07:43 But he did get in against Campbell, and I know it's just Campbell.
07:46 But he was four for four against Campbell, had a couple of touchdowns,
07:51 and just unleashed a deep ball.
07:55 That was a beauty.
07:56 And you can see the arm talent on this kid.
08:00 There's a reason why Mack Brown feels pretty good, I would assume,
08:04 about their chances still in this game with Harold under center.
08:07 He's gonna be their quarterback of the future.
08:10 And at least I would think.
08:12 I don't know the recruiting situation coming in, but
08:15 from what I've seen from him on tape, he's got the makeup to be that kind of a guy.
08:19 And throughout the season, we've kinda learned that Jordan Leslie and
08:25 what he's had to work with, with this defense and
08:29 the depth issues that they've had.
08:32 This is a team or a defense that does much better with pocket
08:38 passer type quarterbacks.
08:41 We saw it against Pitt with Phil Jakovic.
08:44 We saw it in the Texas Tech game with Tyler Shuck.
08:48 And then it kinda got away from that a little bit when they faced TCU to some
08:54 degree, Houston especially, Donovan Smith and John Rice Plumlee.
09:01 Even though they kinda figured him out as the game went on,
09:04 they still had some issues.
09:07 But when they face these quarterbacks that like to stick in the pocket,
09:11 they do a really good job and find a way to get off the field and
09:15 get to the quarterback.
09:16 So I think this is actually, sounds crazy like I said, but
09:21 I think it's actually gonna make for
09:24 a tougher defensive assignment for West Virginia.
09:28 Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Drake May is somebody that they could get to.
09:36 And you have Beanie Bishop, you have Malachi Ruff,
09:41 who's been playing really good football for the most part.
09:46 I think you would feel pretty good about your chances, and
09:48 those guys are winning man to man coverage with Drake May.
09:55 And if you can just get home and get pressure in his face,
09:58 I think you'll like your chances.
09:59 You have a kid like Harold who can beat you with his legs and
10:04 if you can do so on design plays, that's gonna be a little bit more tricky.
10:11 There may be a couple of design quarterback runs with Drake May,
10:17 but it's very, very rare, they do not wanna run him.
10:22 Mac Brown has said it throughout the season,
10:25 like every time he takes off he's telling him to get down, get out of bounds.
10:29 And just make a smart decision.
10:33 He's not trying to make a big play with his legs, but
10:36 he's a competitor, he's gonna do that.
10:39 So with this, West Virginia has now moved up to a five and
10:43 a half point favorite against Carolina.
10:46 Tess Walker, North Carolina's number one receiver,
10:52 is also sitting out in this game.
10:53 Carolina's got, I think, like six or seven guys that are gonna be sitting out in
10:58 this game, Corey Gaynor, the center, he's gonna be sitting out.
11:02 Cedric Gray is another one that's gonna be skipping, so
11:06 they've got some key pieces that they're gonna be missing.
11:08 Now West Virginia, they don't have the key pieces necessarily
11:14 outside of Zach Frazier and potentially one other.
11:18 But the depth is kinda where their issues lie because of the portal.
11:23 But Carolina's got some portal entries too, so
11:27 it kinda cancels itself out to some degree.
11:29 Most West Virginia's transfers are not guys that, I mean,
11:33 outside of maybe Mike Lockhart and Hershey McClure,
11:37 that they were surprised by, by any means.
11:39 So maybe they're not even surprised by that, but
11:42 I feel like they're in pretty good shape heading into the bowl game.
11:47 Carolina, on the other hand,
11:48 that they're gonna have some more to do here in these next two weeks.
11:52 So no Drake May for North Carolina, it'll be Connor Harrell getting the start,
11:57 his first ever collegiate start against West Virginia in the Dukes Mayo Bowl,
12:02 December 27th at 5.30 PM down here in Charlotte,
12:05 North Carolina Bank of America Stadium.
12:08 So we'll continue to talk more about this matchup as we get closer to it.
12:13 Let me know what you guys think about the matchup in the comment section on YouTube
12:18 about what this means for West Virginia's defense.
12:22 Let me know all of your thoughts.
12:23 Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube.
12:26 I'm out in years now and hit that follow button as well on X at the same handle.
12:31 I'm Skylar Callen, you've been watching Between the Years.
12:33 We'll be back tomorrow with another episode.
12:34 [MUSIC]