How Sam Howell earned QB1 as a true freshman at Carolina.
There are stories this week that all three quarterbacks who competed for the job in the summer of 2019 are starting in their opening games this season. Don’t believe a single word of them.
From the moment Howell agreed to flip his commitment from Florida State and sign with Mack Brown, the position was his to lose. Not because he was Mack’s prize recruit, but because he was clearly better than Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder, holdover QBs from the Larry Fedora era and both dogged by injuries during their time at UNC.
Fortin will be the starter tonight for South Florida at N.C. State, which has quietly moved into the runner-up spot in the Atlantic Division pre-season polls. Fortin played a little bit last year after transferring to USF, which finished a dismal 1-8.
He actually had his best performance in Chapel Hill against N.C. State, completing 19 of 40 passes including a 37-yard TD strike to Beau Corrales and sneaking in for another in the 34-28 overtime loss to the Wolfpack, ending with the infamous brawl in the Tar Pit end zone. Fedora was fired the next morning after going 5-18 his last two years.
But in spring practice and summer training camp, despite two years in the program and four starts the previous season, Fortin could not claim the position and probably envisioned Howell’s name atop the depth chart. He left and transferred to South Florida.
Ruder, also a freshman in 2018, played in one game when he had a nifty option run before hurting his knee and missing the rest of the season. He stuck around after Howell won the job and got into five games in two years before transferring to North Texas, where ex-UNC assistant Seth Littrell is the head coach and named him co-starter for the Mean Green, which went 4-6 last season and opens Saturday night against Northwestern State.
The sheer measure of where these two QBs wound up, it is pretty clear that once Howell got ahold of Phil Longo’s offense, he would be the starter his freshman year. And he proved to be really good.
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community. Contribute today – every single dollar matters.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
