Chazz Surratt or Nathan Elliott? UNC has no easy options at quarterback.

The biggest question heading into North Carolina’s bye week: Who will start at quarterback?

Based on the quarterbacks’ performances against Miami last Thursday, that decision may be difficult. The quarterbacks had six turnovers — three each — against the Hurricanes. Sophomore Chazz Surratt threw three interceptions, while junior Nathan Elliott fumbled three times.

Miami scored 24 points off turnovers, including three defensive touchdowns. UNC’s next game is against Virginia Tech on Oct. 13.

“It’s definitely not good,” Elliott said when describing the feeling after the loss. “Especially when you feel like you beat yourself. They have a great football team. We just gave them the ball too many times in every way. So we’ve got to be better than that.”

UNC coach Larry Fedora said the coaching staff will evaluate the film and the review process won’t be any different than in other weeks.

“It won’t change. They just made more mistakes this week than they needed to,” Fedora said. “So we’ll evaluate and make a decision on who we need to go with in the next game.”

Elliott has started each of the first four games this season. During the first three, Surratt was suspended for selling team-issued sneakers.

Fedora said the plan heading into the Miami game was to use both quarterbacks and possibly put Surratt in during the third series. It seemed to work. Surratt helped the Tar Heels drive down field with his feet and scored on a 17-yard touchdown run. UNC trailed Miami 14-10 with 2:11 left in the first quarter.

But everything went downhill from there. UNC turned the ball over five more times after the first fumble, and Miami scored 33 unanswered points. Neither quarterback could get anything going, and Fedora ended up switching both quarterbacks throughout the game after each would make a mistake.

“We didn’t plan on bouncing back and forth throughout the game, but we were looking for somebody to gives us some consistency and take care of the football,” Fedora said Thursday.

Elliott finished the game 16-25 for 104 yards. Surratt was 4-10 for 10 yards and had 69 rushing yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

“I was a little jittery at first,” said Surratt, who was playing in his first game since November 2017. “Their D did a good job forcing turnovers. They played a lot of different coverages than we’ve seen on film. So credit to them. They played a great game. We just didn’t play well today.”

This season, Elliott has 773 yards, is completing 58 percent of his passes, and has three touchdowns with four interceptions.

At 1-3, Fedora and his staff may have to explore all options. The problem is, outside of Surratt and Elliott, UNC has few choices. UNC’s third string quarterback is true freshman Cade Fortin.

Fortin, a 6-3, 210 pound right-hander, played for North Gwinnett High in Suwannee, Ga. He was rated a four-star prospect by ESPN, and the 17th ranked quarterback nationally. He was rated a three-star prospect by 247sports.

In 25 games during his high school career, Fortin threw for 3,555 yards, 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, according to MaxPreps.com.

Fortin has played in only one game this season and could still redshirt. He played briefly at the end of UNC’s game against ECU and was 3-6 for 15 yards, but looked good throwing the football.

New NCAA rules allow athletes to play up to four games in a season before redshirting, so it’s not impossible for him to be in the mix.

Prior to the Miami game, when asked whether he’d use a two-quarterback system, Fedora joked he could use three quarterbacks.

Looking back, that might not have been a bad option.

This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Chazz Surratt or Nathan Elliott? UNC has no easy options at quarterback.."