CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina made its three quarterbacks battling for the starting job available following Tuesday’s practice, which was the 11th of fall camp for the Tar Heels.

Jace Ruder, Cade Fortin and Sam Howell have not yet been available for interviews since camp opened until now, and THI was on hand to ask some questions and capture everything they had to say.

Above is Fortin's full interview and below are some notes and quotes from what he had to say:

Note: Fortin is a redshirt freshman even though he played in four games last season, starting versus Virginia Tech and N.C. State. He is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds.

*Fortin admits he was anxious when camp started nearly two weeks ago, but says his personal faith has been very important in helping him focus on the task at hand and compete in an environment where the quarterbacks can move up or down based on a given rep.

“One thing for me, I had a lot of anxiety coming into this,” he said. “Camp was a thing for me to reset and I really got into my faith and relied on God and said, ‘I have all these worries and I’m going to put it on you.’

“And that just took all of that away and I focused on taking it day-by-day and not worrying about tomorrow and not worrying about what’s going to happen later in the season. Just trust that God has a plan.”

To that, Fortin said he was relaxed the first day and has been comfortable ever since.

*Regarding a three-way competition, Fortin sees it as a positive, not a negative.

“It brings out the best in everyone,” he said. “Whether or not somebody becomes the starter, you’re getting the best out of out of yourself and you’re competing at the highest level you can. And you can’t take anything for granted.”

*Mack Brown has consistently said leadership will play an important role in whoever ends up winning the job. So how has Fortin gone about making himself more of a leader?

“I’ve really focused on taking guys away and getting to know them more off the field and really give attention to the guys that lack the knowledge of the offense…,” he replied. “That’s something that coach has really harped on for us and something that we’ve taken advantage of and I think it’s really going to help our receivers this year so we’re getting better chemistry and getting on the same page.”

*The objective for the three QBs, aside from getting better each day, is to separate themselves from the other two. What is Fortin trying to do to distance himself from Ruder and Howell?

“For me, I’m really just trying to build up the offense, trying to create chemistry with myself and the team, bring guys along – the young guys, we’ve got a young receiver corps,” he said. “So one thing I’ve focused on is getting guys, encouraging them, taking a young kid and saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to play, if we have a guy that goes down you’re going to have to step up, we’re going to need you, we’re going to have to rely on you.’”