CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina football coach Mack Brown announced Sunday afternoon true freshman Sam Howell is now the Blue Team quarterback, which is UNC’s terminology for first team.

Brown and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Phil Longo informed Howell, Jace Ruder and Cade Fortin of the decision Sunday morning before the Tar Heels’ brief practice at Kenan Stadium. They made the determination Saturday night following UNC’s second scrimmage of fall camp, which took place earlier in the morning.

“The difference right now is Sam’s just been more consistent than the other two…,” Brown said. “So, we’ve got the quarterback situation at least for now knowing who’s going to be working with each group.”

Howell was a 4-star prospect whom UNC flipped last December from his commitment to Florida State. The 6-foot-1, 225 pounder enrolled in January and participated in a full spring practice and offseason with the Tar Heels.

Ruder and Fortin, both of whom are redshirt freshmen, will take an even number of snaps with the White Team Team, which is UNC’s term for second team. Ruder missed the first scrimmage with a slight injury and Fortin has had some arm issues. But Brown didn’t say that was part of the staff’s factoring in this decision, one he said included input from the entire staff.

“We’ve got about 15 sets of eyeballs in a staff meeting, you take Kenny Browning, you take Darrell Moody, you take Sparky Woods, you take the recruiting staff with Billy (High), you take 10 coaches, there’s a lot of experience that are watching every little thing that we do," Brown said.

“We’ve got some very experienced analysts and quality control guys, and they’re watching every play, so we have pretty good evaluation of everybody on our team every day… We feel like that right now Sam’s a consistent runner and passer, so he’s doing both pretty well.”

Fortin (6-foot-3, 220 pounds) was injured last fall after playing well for almost a half versus Virginia Tech last October, which was his first start, and he also started the finale against N.C. State. He completed 32 of 65 pass attempts for 388 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He ran the ball 14 times for 76 yards and a TD.

Ruder (6-foot-3, 225) played 25 snaps versus Georgia Tech last season, throwing a touchdown pass three snaps after breaking his left shoulder. He as 4-for-5 with 80 yards and that TD pass while running three times for 21 yards.

Brown didn’t say Howell will start the opener versus South Carolina on Aug. 31, noting Howell still needs to continue performing, but he did say it’s possible the Heels will need all three quarterbacks at some point.

“We played four quarterbacks last year here, obviously we need all three of them,” he said. “They will alternate with the white team as we continue to go through.”

UNC broke fall camp Sunday and will hold an open practice Monday night at Kenan Stadium. The Heels are off Tuesday and then will have 11 days before the season opener.