The Tar Heels are very much in the market for a new quarterback now that Mitch Trubisky has turned pro with the Chicago Bears. A plethora of options on the roster and a few more guys in the recruiting process doesn’t seem like a enough for them. They have also enticed quarterback Jace Ruder to decommit from the University of Tulsa this weekend.
Ruder, a native of Norton, Kansas, previously committed to the Golden Hurricane in December. During the recruiting process, he had previously only focused on west coast teams. Things were clearly beginning to change for him in 2017, and then UNC offered him a scholarship in May. That offer enticed him enough to decommit from the program and open up the recruiting process once again. Now the Tar Heels, Florida State, and Georgia are all in contention.
The six-foot-three, 215-pound dual-threat quarterback is a three-star talent. Ruder is considered the no. 527 player in the 2018 recruiting class. He is also the 18th-best dual-threat quarterback in his class, and he’s the top recruit out of Kansas this year.
Now that the recruiting process has opened back up for him, Ruder will be visiting with schools in a matter of weeks. He’s due to visit Chapel Hill, Athens, and Tallahassee in June and will host a coaching visit with Florida soon. Ruder has wasted no time getting back on the market.
The Tar Heels have, of course, found their likely starting quarterback in LSU grad transfer Brandon Harris, but he will be a senior in 2017. If the program is ever going to find a new leading man, they will need all the options they can get. North Carolina also has Nathan Elliot, Chazz Surratt, Logan Byrd, and Manny Miles rattling around the team roster, so you have to imagine they will find someone promising by next year.