When legendary head coach Bill Belichick makes his debut as a college football coach on Monday — after a career in the NFL that included a historic 24 seasons coaching the New England Patriots, and five before that with the Cleveland Browns — he will have already made his first controversial coaching decision.
Rather than go with veteran quarterback Max Johnson who already has two years experience at LSU and two more at Texas A&M, Belichick named redshirt sophomore Gio Lopez as his starter for Monday’s clash against Texas Christian University.
Lopez signed with UNC on a reported $4 million name, image and likeness (NIL) deal after two seasons at South Alabama, a Sun Belt Conference school where he completed 206 of 312 passes for 2,559 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions last year.
Why Isn’t Max Johnson Starting?<.h2>
But what about Johnson, who transferred to UNC where he hoped to become the natural successor to Drake Maye, who left to be drafted No. 3 overall by the New England Patriots in 2024? In the first game of the season last year, Johnson suffered a severely broken leg that required multiple surgeries.
Though Johnson says he has fully recovered, Belichick chose to go with the healthier Lopez — a decision perhaps reminiscent of his move to replace an injured New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe in 2001 with a young unknown named Tom Brady.
‘Never Quitting’ Runs in Johnson Family
In addition to four years playing the position in the SEC, generally considered college football’s toughest conference and the one closest to the NFL in level of talent, Max Johnson is the son of retired NFL quarterback Brad Johnson, who spent 15 seasons with four different teams.
The elder Johnson started as a Minnesota Vikings ninth-round draft pick in 1992 — a pick so low that NFL doesn’t even have a ninth round in its draft anymore.
As a result, according to an ESPN report on Max Johnson’s recovery, “Never quitting is part of the Johnson family mythology.”
So Johnson will wait for his opportunity to finish his college career as a starter as Belichick sees what the team has in Lopez.
In the meantime, the 24-year-old Johnson continues to have the support of his girlfriend, Adrienne Jane Davis, 21, a YouTube content creator who also boasts more than 140,000 followers on Instagram.
Davis’s YouTube channel, which she runs as a collaboration with her sisters, currently boasts about 21,000 followers. and has posted 50 videos.
The online influencer is clearly protective of Johnson, as evidenced in one recent, if lighthearted, Instagram video.
Couple Goes Public in January, 2024
In the video, when a friend mentions Johnson, Davis responds, “You’re going to mention my man again? Are you trying to get popped, or are you trying to get along?”
Though when and where Johnson and Davis first met has not been made publicly clear, he first appeared on her Instagram feed in a January 2, 2024, post.
At the time, Davis did not fully explain why the UNC quarterback was appearing on her IG timeline, captioning the photo only “2024” with two smiling emojis. But as Johnson made more frequent appearances, it became clear that the couple were in fact, just that, a couple.
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