When UNC hired Mack Brown to replace Larry Fedora in late 2018 after two consecutive nine-loss seasons, the legendary head coach knew that he had a momentous task ahead of him in rebuilding the Tar Heels’ football program. And, while he probably could have put on a blindfold, thrown a dart somewhere in the UNC football facilities and guaranteed he’d hit a position room that needed an overhaul, any professional or collegiate football rebuild has to start with an elite quarterback.
That quarterback, to him, was Sam Howell. Not only because Howell was a highly touted prospect with exactly the archetype he was looking for (Brown’s teams have historically thrived with strong-armed, semi-mobile quarterbacks), but because Brown has always been a believer in recruiting locally.
“You’ve got to win at home in recruiting before you go out of state,” Brown said of his recruiting during his second run with the Tar Heels. “Because if the locals won’t come, why would an out-of-state guy that’s really good want to come?”
Unfortunately for Brown, Howell had committed to Florida State six months prior to the announcement that the “Return of the Mack” was in full flight in Chapel Hill.
The Indian Trail, N.C. product was the second ranked player in the state of North Carolina and a top-100 player nationally in the class of 2019 according to 247Sports. His commitment to Florida State seemingly gave the Seminoles their quarterback for the foreseeable future, but Brown wasn’t going to give up on getting his guy.
Before Brown was even announced as the new head coach, but it was clear Fedora was on his way out, Howell visited Chapel Hill twice. An unofficial visit in September to watch the Heels play Pittsburgh couldn’t have been better, as UNC beat the Panthers 38-35 in a classic high-scoring college thriller.
Then, just days before Brown’s hiring became public, Howell made an official visit to UNC. Although Fedora was still officially the head coach at the time, Howell surely didn’t go to Chapel Hill to meet with the coach he had turned down for Florida State six months earlier—he went to get the pitch from Brown to be his blue chip quarterback for years to come.
After his visit, he didn’t wait long to decide where he’d be headed in the spring.
On Dec. 19, Brown finally got his guy. Howell committed to UNC and immediately became the poster child for UNC football. After years of inconsistency, poor coaching and a fundamental inexistence of the “clutch gene” on the Tar Heels’ team, fans hoped that Howell and Brown would be able to flip the direction of the program.
Despite hearing all of the hype attached to the Tar Heels at the start of his first season, Howell knew that he had to prove that he deserved it.
The true freshman was immediately handed the reins in the Heels’ season opener against South Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The Gamecocks came into that season with high expectations, and although they would go on to lose more games than they would have liked, their signature win came in overtime against the number four ranked Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
Suffice to say, Howell wasn’t going to start his UNC career with a cakewalk.
ESPN gave the Tar Heels a 19.9 percent chance to win the game at kickoff, and as the third quarter wound down, that probability had dropped to below 10 percent. South Carolina led the Heels 20-9 as the fourth quarter began, but Howell kept calm and stayed the course (foreshadowing his personality that UNC fans would learn to know and love over the course of his career).
Down 11, with the expectations for his future at UNC hanging in the balance, Howell capped off a 98-yard drive with a 22-yard touchdown lob to wide receiver Dyami Brown to cut the lead to five with just over 14 minutes remaining. And, because coach Brown wasn’t sure how many more possessions his offense would have in the game, he sent them out to the two-yard line to attempt the two-point conversion and pull within a field goal.
Howell lined up in a shotgun formation with running back Javonte Williams to his right. On a read option, Howell decided to keep the ball himself and ran up the middle for a successful conversion.
After a quick stop on defense, South Carolina was forced to punt once again. A fair catch by wide receiver Dazz Newsome pinned the Heels inside their own five yard line once again, but Howell jogged on the field with his eyes on his first victory as a Tar Heel.
For the second consecutive drive, he took his offense more than 95 yards down the field and capped it off with a perfectly thrown ball to the back of the end zone, this time to wide receiver Beau Corrales. This time, the Heels opted to take the extra point, and his team took a 24-20 lead that it would maintain until the clock hit zeros.
Howell got his first win as a Tar Heel, and coach Brown began his second stint in Chapel Hill on the right foot.
The team would go on to finish the season 7-6—marking its first winning season since the Trubisky-era—and win the Military Bowl against Temple by 38 points. Howell continued his fourth quarter consistency throughout his storied career at UNC, managing not to throw an interception in the final 15 minutes of each game for more than two years after he led the fourth quarter comeback against South Carolina. He has racked up 91 passing touchdowns and 19 touchdowns from scrimmage so far in his career, combining to place him at number one in total touchdowns in Tar Heel football history. He also holds leads the UNC football program
Despite not having publicly announced his intentions as of yet, Howell participated in UNC’s Senior Day activities before their last home game this season and Brown has repeatedly stated that he believes Howell will declare for the NFL Draft and forgo his final year of eligibility. After showing significant improvement last season as opposed to his freshman year, he was expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy and lead UNC to another New Year’s Six bowl game as a Junior. Unfortunately for him, the Heels’ underperformance as a team and his individual woes leave his 2022 Draft status in limbo.
Howell has announced, however, that he will play—instead of sitting out to avoid injury before the Draft—in UNC’s bowl game against South Carolina Dec. 30 in Charlotte.
So, he will more than likely finish his career as a Tar Heel the same way he began it: with a chance to prove himself, this time with respect to his NFL Draft stock, against the Gamecocks in Bank of America Stadium.
Photo courtesy of Katie Dugan/Flickr
