Sam Howell, a 4-star quarterback that has been committed to Florida State since last April, took an official visit to North Carolina this weekend, his second trip to UNC for a football game this season.
Howell, who is 6-1, 205 pounds and attends Sun Valley High School in Monroe, NC, has also drawn offers from Clemson, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State and many other big-time programs. And while he’s been committed to the Seminoles and has pledged to be a building block for first-year coach Willie Taggert’s program, Howell continues to show interest in his home-state school.
Incidentally, Howell recently broke North Carolina Tar Heels’ quarterback Chazz Surratt (East Lincoln) state record for all-purpose yards during a victory over Cox Mill this past Friday night. Howell passed for 351 yards and three touchdowns plus ran the ball for 73 yards and a score in the 30-14 win.
Tar Heel Illustrated caught up with Howell’s father, Duke Howell, to check in to see how the visit went. Duke Howell, who is also the offensive coordinator at Sun Valley, told THI they returned from UNC on Sunday evening.
“He had a good time in Chapel Hill,” Howell said at around 5:45 Sunday evening. “We just got home a few mins ago.”
The Howells have been to UNC numerous times, including most recently for the Pittsburgh game in late September. Coincidentally, both visits were for the Tar Heels’ only two victories on the season.
With so much history in their relationship with UNC head coach Larry Fedora and quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf, was there anything different other than the standard official visit stuff the Howells experienced?
“Really nothing new,” Howell said. “Fedora had recruited Sam for years and they’re going to keep recruiting him until signing day.”
One new experience for the Howells was they got a look inside the new indoor practice facility, which isn’t completed yet but isn’t too far from being finished inside.
“New indoor facility is really nice,” Howell said.
If any school is going to flip Howell it will be UNC, but there may still be some work to be done.
The early signing period runs from December 19-21 next month. National Signing Day is February 6.
