By Steve Irvine
November 7, 2026 - BIRMINGHAM, AL
Technically, it’s a road game for Charlotte quarterback Conner Harrell on Saturday afternoon. But this road trip comes complete with a lot of a familiarity for the former Thompson High standout.
The last time that Harrell was in Protective Stadium he helped Thompson win its second consecutive Alabama 7A state championship. In the stands on Saturday, just as they were that chilly December night in 2021, will be his family and a ton of familiar faces. He’ll recognize the roads that the 49ers take to get to the stadium. Heck, even Saturday’s opponent is familiar considering his older brother Kyle played at UAB from 2017-22.
“That’s pretty cool having the opportunity to play there,” Harrell said. “My last high school football game was in Protective Stadium. I’ll have a lot of family and friends at the game.”
One of those family members will be his older brother, who played an important role in the most successful tenure in UAB football history. He was part of two Conference USA championship teams and three C-USA West Division winners. He played in 46 games during his time in the program, which began as a walk-on in 2017.
“I went to a lot of their games, mainly at the old stadium,” Conner said. “I traveled to as many games as we could. It was fun watching him play.”
Now that Conner is on the other sideline, an intriguing question is which team will Kyle Harrell root for on Saturday in Protective Stadium?
“Oh, he’s rooting for Charlotte,” Conner said with a laugh.
Conner was making his name on the football field at Thompson about the same time his brother was finishing up his college career. Over his final two high school seasons the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Harrell threw for more than 6,100 yards and 81 touchdowns with just six interceptions. The Warriors were 27-1 in those two seasons with the lone loss coming to Hoover in the final regular season high school game of Harrell’s high school career. Thompson came back to beat Hoover in the playoffs and won the championship with a 38-22 victory over Central Phenix City. The previous season, Harrell led the Warriors to an undefeated season but he was forced to leave the state championship game in the first half after breaking his collarbone in the wacky 29-28 come-from-behind win over Auburn.
He began his college career at the University of North Carolina, where he played in 11 games over three years before deciding to enter the transfer portal. Harrell stayed in state and won the starting job at Charlotte to begin the 2025 season. Harrell started the first four games at his new home, including against North Carolina, and threw for 737 yards with four touchdowns. He set a Jerry Richardson Stadium record with 382 passing yards against Monmouth but his season ended the following week against Rice when he suffered tears in the ACL and MCL in his left knee while trying to gain a few extra yards.
“It was a long year,” Harrell said. “It kind of taught me how football can be taken away and not to have my identity rooted in football. It was something I knew before but I got to really, really practice it last year while really growing my faith.”
He wasn’t fully ready to go when fall camp opened this season and Western Carolina transfer Cole Gonzales was the quarterback starter in the first five weeks. Harrell earned his first start against North Texas on Oct. 10 and he led the 49ers to their only win of the season thus far in the following week at Temple. He was 23-of-31 from 281 yards with two touchdowns through the air in the win over Temple and he also rushed for two more scores. In the three games overall, Harrell is 61-of-89 for 738 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions.
On Saturday, he’ll try to make his return home memorable.