North Carolina’s second run under head coach Mack Brown will get rolling with a freshman as the starting quarterback. Brown announced on Sunday he is moving forward with freshman Sam Howell getting the reps with the first-team offense moving forward. That is about as close to naming Howell the starting quarterback as they can get without saying it definitively, but we can read between the lines.
Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder, both redshirt freshmen, will split snaps with the second-team offense, Brown confirmed.
“We’ve been looking at our quarterback situation very closely,” Brown told reporters on Sunday, according to Inside Carolina. “We’re concerned about not having enough true leaders on offense. Sam Howell will now start taking the snaps with the blue team, our first team. Cade and Jace will be working more with the white team. We played four quarterbacks last year. Obviously, we need all three of them.”
It may not be a total shock to see the new head coach in Chapel Hill go with the quarterback he recruited to the program. Howell, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2019, committed to the Tar Heels in Dec. 2018 as one of Brown’s first major recruiting victories shortly into his return as head coach of the program. Howell enrolled at UNC for the spring semester to allow him to get started working out with the team. The early enrollment may have helped Howell get a feel for running the offense, as Brown noted he has been the most consistent option available in the offseason.
