CHAPEL HILL – Chazz Surratt threw the football before Tuesday morning’s practice, something he’s regularly done for close to the last decade of his life.

That’s what quarterbacks do. Only that Surratt is no longer a quarterback, he’s now a linebacker and will start North Carolina’s opener Saturday versus South Carolina just nine months after moving to the defensive side of the ball.

Still, Surratt found himself with a ball in his hands, tossing it around with that same zip teammates used to talk about when praising the lefthander’s gifted skill set.

But there he was, doing the QB thing even though he’s no longer a QB.

“I still throw sometimes after practice with the quarterbacks because that’s what I love to do,” he said. “I threw today (before) practice just in the beginning in warmups but nothing like (in) practice or anything like that.”

Surratt admittedly misses playing quarterback but also quickly notes he’s embraced the new role and the disposition that comes with it. He hadn’t played linebacker since his freshman year in high school, so there was an obvious adjustment period.

“I would say the first day we ever put the pads on was the biggest challenge (with) the physicality being different, hitting all the time,” he said. “I didn’t used to get hit in practice. It (took) some adjusting to, but after a couple of days of being in pads, I got used to it.”

Surratt’s athletic ability has always been an asset. He set receiving records as a freshman in high school and later set state records for passing yards and touchdowns while earning Parade National Player Of The Year as a senior. Oh, Surratt was an all-state basketball player at East Lincoln High School in Denver, NC, too, averaging 19.4 points per game over his 90-game career.

So, he’s obviously plenty athletic enough to play another position and knew in time he’d be fine with the physical nature of fending off blockers and initiating contact when tackling guys. Maybe a more challenging transition was viewing the game from a completely different perspective. Or so it would seem.

Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman’s theory is Surratt’s experience studying defenses on film and applying it to real-life execution helped speed up his education process.

“I think the thing that’s helped Chazz is, believe it or not, coming from quarterback where you have to have a picture of what the whole thing looks like,” Bateman said. “If you move from running back and all you’ve been doing is cutting A gap to B gap and blocking this guy – Chazz is really smart and understands defenses, understands offenses.

“So, I think that’s sped up his learning curve, but he still needs reps.”

The reps and that curve are indelibly intertwined. Putting Surratt’s ascent into perspective, Bateman described the 6-foot-3, 230 pounder’s process as going from an 18-month-old toddler holding on to the arm of the couch while trying to walk back in the winter to a burgeoning elite athlete fueled by the new lease on his football life.

That’s Surratt the linebacker.

“I feel really confident he’s going to play really well,” Bateman said Monday. “That’s not a concern of mine, is Chazz Surratt.”

But how did Surratt go from a ballyhooed prep quarterback to a junior trying to learn the ropes of a position often manned by snarling brutes with nasty inclinations? It’s not exactly a common landing spot for quarterbacks who switch positions.

Most have moved to wide receiver with success, such as Julian Edelman, Antwaan Randle-El and former UNC star Ronald Curry. But going over to defense at this stage of a QBs career is extremely rare and going to linebacker is almost unheard of.

As a redshirt freshman in 2017, Surratt started seven games at quarterback completing 107 of 183 pass attempts for 1,342 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He also ran for five scores, including a pair of 56-yard touchdown runs.

But things went South last season.

Surratt was suspended for UNC’s first three games because of his role in what became known as “Shoegate” and struggled in his only appearance, throwing three interceptions – two of which were returned for touchdowns – in a 47-10 loss at Miami. He dislocated his thumb diving for the Hurricanes’ defender who snared the third pick racing 83 yards the other way into the end zone. Surratt actually ran the ball for 69 yards and a touchdown in the game.

Surratt was down and the Tar Heels were losing. Head coach Larry Fedora was growing increasingly distant from the media, and in some respects from elements of his team, Surratt included.

It was a difficult time, one in which Surratt wasn’t sure when he’d see a light at the end of the tunnel, or if it would even occur at UNC. But he opted to stick it out when many kids would have transferred. He was already close to earning his first degree and simply wanted to be a part of his state’s flagship university, a school he always loved while growing up.

“I definitely could have went that route, but I wanted to stay here at North Carolina,” he said. “I’m from North Carolina, so I didn’t really want to leave. I knew I have a lot of athleticism so I could do other things on the football field, too, and help this team win.”

And here he is on the cusp of not only getting onto a college football field as a linebacker but starting in a game versus a team from the SEC. And no matter what happens from this point on, Surratt has already won inside UNC’s locker room.

Imagine how teammates might view a quarterback trying to transition into playing linebacker. Human nature doesn’t often let up, and it absolutely permeates locker rooms, so there likely were more than a few doubters. But instinctual spirit also plays a part here, and Surratt’s about-business work ethic made believers out of his fellow Heels.

“He told us during his speech he never really understood the camp grind at quarterback because there’s not too much beating on your body, (but) he understands it’s not a joke,” senior safety Myles Dorn said. “You hit, you’re going to wake up sore and you’re going to have to practice and you’re going to have to play sore and he did it every day…

“So, I think everybody just gained a lot of respect for him.”

That signifies the full transition Surratt has made. He’s going to play a lot against the Gamecocks and likely will make some mistakes but also display some flashes. His performance on the field is important, it’s why he’s even there. But the greater good of this experience will carry on much longer.

Surrat is going to keep throwing around the football because that’s what he loves to do. But he’s going to do so as a linebacker, not a quarterback.