CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo met with the media Monday for the first time since fall camp started, and the main topic was what most UNC fans are wondering about: The quarterbacks.

Longo is also the QB coach, so this was a terrific opportunity for the media to grill him about what is right now a three-way tie between redshirt freshmen Jace Ruder and Cade Fortin and true freshman Sam Howell to see who will take the first snap when the Tar Heels open the season versus South Carolina on Aug. 31 in Charlotte.

UNC Coach Mack Brown has maintained the players are even since camp opened Aug. 2, and Longo backed that up Monday, but he did offer some differences between the trip and also some insight into the process in camp thus far.

Note that Monday morning’s practice was the 10th of camp and the Heels scrimmaged for the first time this past Saturday. Ruder missed the scrimmage with a “lower body” injury, according to UNC, but he was back at practice Sunday morning.

Longo spoke about more than just the quarterbacks, which you can watch in the video, but the focus here is most of what he said about the QB situation.

Also note that Ruder is 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, Fortin is 6-foot-2, 220 and Howell is 6-foot-1, 225.

*Starting out the interview, Longo was asked, with respect to the trio being even, if they’ve steadily progressed at the same rate or if it’s been more up-and-down and evening out every few days.

“To be honest with you, I would have maybe we would start having a little bit of a pecking order but they’re competing their tales off right now,” he replied. “We’ve got a three-man race for the key spot, and that’s why you see everybody getting equal reps.

“I like where we are in day 10 progress-wise with all three quarterbacks.”

*How quickly did the staff install the air raid offense and what’s the importance of having it done quickly so the QBs can run it at its designed pace?

“Regarding the offensive installation, we put the system in the first four days,” Longo said. “You’re never good at it the first four days, so we re-installed it so it was kind of a second phase. Days five-through-eight we re-installed it and those are the four days where you get to go back and make the corrections, rehash and polish.

“So from, practice nine on we’re working on situational offense and we’re working on our game plan for our first opponent of the season.”

*Brown has said several times what he wants to see from the QBs to make an eventual decision, what about Longo?

“Of course, you want to them to execute the offense, you want them to make good decisions, you want them to grip and rip the football quickly because we don’t want to hold that and stress the offensive line,” he said. “We want them to make good decisions when we’re running the ball.

“And I think our quarterbacks are doing that. This is a very, very intelligent room that I have. I’m very fortunate all three guys are really bright, they grasp the offense, understand it, and I think ultimately, the thing that will separate one from the other will be securing the football and it will be the leadership piece to this whole package.”

*With the trio still equally splitting the reps and the Heels 11 practices away from the start of game week, are they getting enough reps to prepare to lead a team against the kind of schedule the Tar Heels will face out of the gate to start the season?

“That’s a great question,” Longo replied. “There’s actually a lot of time in camp, we’re not in school right now, we have a lot of meeting time, a lot of walk-through time, so we meet as a quarterback group and we do everything that we need to. But all three quarterbacks are different and you want to address their needs or the issues that they have separately.

“So, we’ll meet as a quarterback group and then I will meet with each one of them individually and we’ll address that as if they’re the starter.”

*In Longo’s view, what are the differences between the three QBs?

“Cade Fortin is probably our best pure passer, if you want me to differentiate,” he said. “Jace Ruder might be the best overall athlete of the three and Sam may be the best combination of the two. Maybe not as pure a passer as Cade or as much of a runner as Jace, but he can do a little of both. So that’s if you really want me to differentiate between the three, that’s how I would do it.”

*Longo wants his offense to move fast, not just its plays but in between plays, which is one reason the staff signals in the next play just once. With splitting reps between three quarterbacks, does that increase the challenge for the unit to meet his demands as they go through camp, or is the offense the offense and the whole of it effects the pace more than whoever is playing QB at the time?

“We’re getting enough reps right now that they get the work they need,” he said. “I don’t know how much practice you see, but the two of them that are not in are always behind the offense and they’re going through the rep athletically anyway. So they’re getting the mental rep even so far as to fake the throw.

“So, if we have 16 plays and we’re sharing the three guys, they’re still all getting 16 mental reps. And then the individual meetings off the field, I think are keeping us where we need to be mentally.”

*The staff told the quarterbacks not to put any stock into the order they went in drills during the spring, the mission was to simply learn the offense. Fall camp, however, has been a different story. Ten days in, though, and there’s still no pecking order, and Longo says the QBs aren’t talking about it, either.

“Not one guy has asked anything about it,” Longo said. “I think they know what our plan is, they know what the routine is and they know what reps they’re getting. So right now, they’re all just focused on trying to make the most of those reps.

“The time will come where we’re going to declare a starter and then we’ll address it one, two and three with all of them accordingly.”

*As we’ve noted several times since Saturday’s scrimmage, the offense moved the ball but also had some issues bogging down. Brown said Sunday the defense is clearly ahead of the offense. Longo, however, said the offense focused on areas it hasn’t done as well in practice to “in an attempt to polish them up and make corrections.”

So, while the offense may still lag behind the defense, there’s at least one explanation for why there were some troubles at times.