Eisenberg noted that the new coach had to make a decision regarding his new talent—while Fine was the team's best passer, "Hennesy feared putting a 5-foot-9, 135-pound freshman behind a patchwork offensive line."

[4] Despite his gaudy high school statistics, Fine finished his senior season without a single scholarship offer, largely due to his lack of size.

During a summer camp before his senior season, an assistant for Arkansas State pulled him aside, praising his arm strength and ability to escape a collapsing pocket.

This coach was not alone in his sentiment; Fine went without an offer even after sending out numerous highlight tapes and attending camps at four other FBS schools.

Rice showed strong interest after Fine's junior season, but went with a considerably taller prospect; Oklahoma State recruited him only as a walk-on, and did not make him an offer even after its main quarterback target rescinded a verbal commitment to the school; and when Hennesy called Kansas State's Bill Snyder about Fine, Snyder responded that he didn't recruit quarterbacks under 6 feet tall.

Fine caught a break when North Texas hired Seth Littrell as head coach shortly after the end of the 2015 season.

Littrell and his staff were sold on Fine's ability; he would tell Eisenberg,[3]There were local kids with Power Five offers who were calling us because they wanted to play in our system, but he was better than them.

[5] Fine started nine games for North Texas as a true freshman in 2016, throwing for 1,572 yards and breaking the school record for longest play from scrimmage with an 80-yard touchdown run against UTSA to earn a spot on the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

[6] Over his sophomore and junior years, Fine led the Mean Green to 9 victories in each season and threw for a total of 7,845 yards and 58 touchdowns.

He earned back-to-back CUSA Offensive Player of the Year awards and broke the school's career passing yards record along the way.

On October 19, 2022, it was announced that Fine would be the Riders' starting quarterback for their penultimate match of the 2022 regular season against the Calgary Stampeders.