Chazz Surratt started seven times for North Carolina in the fall but will enter 2018 spring practice competing for the starting job
CHARLOTTE - After starting seven of North Carolina's 12 football games as a redshirt freshman quarterback, former East Lincoln High star Chazz Surratt enters the offseason knowing he'll again be in competition to be the Tar Heels' 2018 starter.
"I can only control what I can control," Surratt said of the prospect of again competing for the starting quarterback job. "So I really just focus on myself and what I can do to get better as a player. The talk about it is more for the media and people who don't have any control over that."
Surratt, the 2015 national and N.C. prep football player of the year at East Lincoln, finished with 1,342 yards passing with eight touchdowns and 210 yards rushing with five touchdowns in the nine games in which he played this past season.
Graduate transfer Brandon Harris started twice and sophomore Nathan Elliott started three games.
Elliott replaced Surratt early in a 24-19 loss to Miami and started the last three games of the season, including two of the Tar Heels' three wins this season.
"Looking back on it, we played a lot of teams close and things just didn't go our way," said Surratt, whose Tar Heels lost four games by 10 or less points to finish 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the ACC. "I think we're looking forward to turning it around next year."
Surratt came off the bench in the 35-30 season-opening loss to California and passed for 161 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 66 yards and one touchdown.
The next week, Surratt earned ACC rookie of the week honors after passing for 168 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for another touchdown in a 47-35 home loss to Louisville and 2016 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Surratt's second start resulted in 257 yards passing and two rushing touchdowns in the Tar Heels' 53-23 win at Old Dominion. Surratt later had a career-high 259 yards passing in the 27-17 home loss to Duke and would also start losses to Notre Dame (33-10), Virginia Tech (59-7) and Miami (24-19).
Since Elliott started the last three games, some have speculated that he would enter spring practice drills in March as the starter based on his late-season performance that included a 34-31 ACC win at Pittsburgh, a 65-10 home win over Western Carolina and giving the Tar Heels' a lead until late in the third quarter at N.C. State before losing 33-21.
"I just think I learned a lot about the ups and downs of the game and how important that can be in a game," said Surratt, a two-time state champion at East Lincoln who set a state record for total offensive yardage (16,593) and touchdown responsibility (229). "There's a lot of stuff I can work on. I can watch more film, get in the weight room more and work harder in practice."
Richard Walker: 704-869-1841; twitter.com/jrwalk22