Heels On Bowling, Milestones, D.C., & Much More

CHAPEL HILL – Sightseeing and Christmas in Washington, D.C., goodies and gear, and another football game are the rewards North Carolina’s players earned this season, and they’re pretty stoked about the next two weeks of their lives.

With exams over and the next 12 days about football, holidays and fun, some of the Tar Heels met with the media Monday to discuss their preparation for the Military Bowl game versus Temple and plenty of other things associated with the postseason.

Myles Dorn, Sam Howell, Michael Carter, Aaron Crawford, Jeremiah Gemmel and Dazz Newsome fielded questions at the Kenan Football Center following UNC Coach Mack Brown’s press conference.

Here are their full interviews along with a transcribed quote from each:

Junior running back Michael Carter is 81 yards shy of 1,000 on the season, and it’s something he’s thinking about with an extra game to play. Carter is also well aware of a few ter similar milestones some teammates are approaching.

“I think it’s really cool,” he said. “If you didn’t know, Dyami (Brown) and Dazz (Newsome) are both like one big catch away and Javonte is like 150 (away), and that’s nothing to Javonte. We’re on the road to 1k. We’re pushing each other.”

Wide receiver Dazz Newsome took advantage of the rule that allows juniors to submit their names to an NFL advisory committee looking for feedback about their games. While he hasn’t yet heard back from the league, what does Newsome expect the NFL will advise he needs to improve?

“Maybe route running, probably hands and maybe blocking better," he replied.

Sam Howell’s amazing freshman season includes him setting a variety of UNC and national statistical marks for true freshmen quarterbacks, and he was one of only two major college quarterbacks this season to pass for 3,000-plus yards, 35-plus touchdowns and throw seven or fewer interceptions. The other is Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow.

In addition, Howell was named third-team All-ACC, ACC Rookie of the Year, ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year and he’s made a few freshman All-America teams. Less than a year after arriving to Chapel Hill, how is Howell taking all of the attention?

“I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it but it’s definitely pretty cool just to see all the hard work paying off," he said.

North Carolina was playing some winning football when Aaron Crawford arrived at UNC. The 2015 and 2016 UNC teams won a combined 19 games and played in two bowl games. But the following two seasons saw the Tar Heels win just five total times, and two of the wins were over FCS teams and another that had just transitioned into FBS.

Crawford sees this year’s 6-6 finish and spot in the Military Bowl as crucial to the program moving forward getting the vibe back to where it was.

“It’s definitely important,” Crawford said. “It’s something that we wanted to do. I talked about it a little while ago about how we’ve been unable to send our seniors out the right way… The Baylor game wasn’t ideal, (against) Stanford I think we lost by a touchdown. We lost to State on the last two, so it’s important for us to be able to keep the buzz going from the last two games and continue to build on that momentum.”

Senior Myles Dorn sees things as Crawford does about the importance of this bowl and the program re-establishing itself an annual participant in the postseason.

“This is the standard,” he said. “I want this to be the norm, a regular for every player that comes in to at minimum get to a bowl game. So, I think just to let the fans know to be prepared to travel at the end of the season before the new year to watch their team play in a bowl game.”

The Tar Heels started preparing for South Carolina about 10 days before the season opener versus the Gamecocks at the end of August. They’ve already started preparing for Temple, but with so much time before the game, is the approach the same to regular season games, or perhaps even the South Carolina game?

“It’s a little odd, but both teams have a greater edge for preparing,” Gemmel said. “So, this week, we’re focusing on first and second downs instead of just sweeping through the week. Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll do first down, second down and third down on both days… I think it’s helped us a lot.”