Brown says UNC won't restrict Fortin's transfer; has already taken calls for QB

Brown wishes the former Carolina QB well in finding his next opportunity

USA TODAY Sports

Mack Brown gave Cade Fortin his blessing before the redshirt freshman decided to look for another opportunity.

Discussing how Sam Howell has adjusted to the starting job, Brown confirmed Fortin was indeed transferring, as first reported by Inside Carolina last week.

Brown said that by moving Howell to the first team two weeks ago, he wanted to give Fortin and Jace Ruder an opportunity to evaluate options if that’s something they wanted to explore.

“If you want to leave, you should be able to leave and Cade did that, obviously,” Brown said.

Fortin is already drawing plenty of interest in the transfer portal, with several schools reaching out to Brown.

“The conversation that we had, he said he wanted to start and he wanted to play in the NFL and he felt like he would look elsewhere for better opportunities,” Brown said. “I said, ‘I wish you’d stay,’ he’s a great young man, ‘Wish you best of luck.’”

Fortin asked if Carolina would seek to limit his transfer options and Brown said that isn’t the plan.

“I said, ‘No, go where you want and we’ll try to help you,’” he said. “We’ve had some calls from different schools and been very, very positive about him with all of them. He’s a really good player and a great young man, so we just wish him luck.”

Playing in four games last season, Fortin completed 32 of 65 attempts for 388 yards with one touchdown and one intereception.

Offensive coordinator Phil Longo said it was a tough situation because all three players are in the same class after Fortin and Ruder redshirted last season, leaving no clear opportunity to move up the depth chart over time.

When the staff made the decision to elevate Howell to the starting job, no delineation was made between Fortin or Ruder as the backup because Longo didn’t want to create a false separation.

“Because the race was so close, there wasn’t a huge difference between 1-3 which is a great problem to have,” Longo said. “You’ve got to manage it; we really didn’t want to relegate anybody to a three spot because they’re all good enough to play here.”

Ultimately though, Fortin decided to move on and Longo made it clear he’d rather have had him on the roster.

“I can’t read their mind,” Longo said. “This is my opportunity to say that I think the portal is not a great thing for college football, but that’s just the atmosphere that we have right now. Guys have an opportunity, a little bit easier than it was before to leave.”