After the first day of fall practice, every Michigan football fan wants to know one thing: Which quarterback took the first snaps?

When asked the question during a press conference after the team’s first practice on Monday, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez decided to have a little fun.

“It’s a secret,” he said.

Later Rodriguez said he had four quarterbacks and four centers lined up and they all took the first snap at the same time. After that, he said he wasn’t sure who was taking snaps with which team because he was rotating them in and out.

All three quarterbacks are competing, and while sophomores Denard Robinson and Tate Forcier have a much firmer grasp of the offense, Rodriguez said freshman Devin Gardner is very competitive and looks to be in great shape.

“It’s going to be fun to watch them,” Rodriguez said. “The hard part for us is to limit their contact, because we don’t want to get them beat up in August, but still get them ready to play. So we got to balance that throughout camp.”

Regarding reports published in the Daily indicating some players were miffed by Forcier’s lack of attendance during voluntary offseason workouts, Rodriguez said he didn’t have a problem with players voicing their opinions on it.

“I’m glad our seniors are taking some ownership and leadership of this team,” he said. “They want everybody to work as hard as they have and I don’t blame them for that. Tate knows he’s got a lot of work to do to prove himself, not just on the field but off the field.”

Up front looks in shape: Rodriguez also wanted to dispel what he believes to be a myth about the kind of linemen he wants in his system.

“I think there has been a misnomer that we wanted these little linemen running around, grabbing onto people,” Rodriguez said. “Really, we just want all our linemen to be able to move — big guys who can move.”

He said he felt like he has some guys up front who have gained some mass but can still move. In general, Rodriguez said the linemen entered their first practice in pretty good shape.

“I think the first guys you look at are the big guys up front,” Rodriguez said. “Judging by the way they played today, and looking at the size of them, our offensive and defensive linemen look pretty good.”

Rodriguez did mention that the team’s first practice wasn’t all that taxing and there were no pads, but he said he liked the way his linemen look right now.

He said it appeared they’re “growing up.”

“Some of them are actually shaving now, for the first time, so that’s a good thing,” he said.

New system for picking captains: When he first arrived in Ann Arbor, Rodriguez introduced a new way of picking captains for the football team.

Instead of picking captains at the beginning of the season, Rodriguez instituted a system of picking different captains for each game, as a reward to those who stood out during practice that week.

Now, the seniors on this year’s team have come up with a system of their own.

According to Rodriguez, the seniors collaborated and decided to vote on two permanent team captains for this year, while still keeping the tradition of voting on two individual game captains each week.

“It was the seniors’ idea,” Rodriguez said. “I thought it was a pretty good idea.”

The two permanent captains are seniors Steve Schilling and Mark Moundros.

Notes: Every player who was injured in the spring is back practicing besides Will Heininger, who tore his ACL … Friday will be the first practice in pads while Sunday will be the first day of two-a-days … There will not be any practices without Rodriguez while he’s in Seattle to meet with the NCAA at the end of this week.