The most recent time, before this summer, that North Carolina’s starting quarterback competition endured amid so much mystery, and secrecy, was in 2014, when Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky spent the entire preseason competing for the job. Or so everyone thought at the time.
After the Tar Heels began that season with a sluggish victory against Liberty, Williams, ever the personable showman, could no longer hide the truth. He tried to tell reporters that he’d learned the day of the first game that he’d earned the starting job, but his laughter gave away the fib.
“I found out, like, about two weeks ago, to be honest with you guys,” he said then of when he was named the starter.