Howell, Longo On Same Page Despite The Shutdown

So what will Sam Howell do for an encore?

North Carolina is still nearly five months away from taking the field in Orlando for its opener at Central Florida when Howell’s second act will commence. But the player Tar Heels’ fans see that night and in the 11 games that follow witlldepend a lot on what he’s doing now.

The coronavirus-fueled shutdowns across the nation have Howell and the rest of his teammates at their respective homes instead of in Chapel Hill finishing spring football and working on their crafts together, but he’s still getting in his physical and mental workouts somewhat like he would if the pandemic never occurred.

That also means Howell and Phil Longo are in regular contact focusing on what the quarterback did wrong a year ago using cutups of every mistake to elevate his game to an NFL standard to leadership and everything in between.

“Me and Coach Longo, we have a meeting probably every single day,” Howell said, during a virtual Q&A session Wednesday. “With the cutup of the mistakes from last season, mainly it’s all mental. During this time that’s something I can really focus on, just being in the house so much. I can really just sit down and focus on every single mistake that I made last season and just try to figure out what I did wrong.

“I know I did wrong now at this point and I know what I need to do to fix it. Mainly it’s all mental. That’s kind of something that I’ve really been trying to get better at during this time, and just make sure I’m mentally 100 percent.”

On the surface, Howell didn’t make many mistakes. He turned in one of the best true freshman seasons ever in major college football completing 259 passes in 422 attempts (61.4 percent) for 3,641 yards, 38 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. Only Howell and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow of LSU passed for 3,000 or more yards, 35 or more TDs with seven or fewer interceptions.

Of Howell’s completions, 150 went for 10 or more yards, 33 of his 38 touchdown passes went for 20 or more yards, 14 went for 30 or more, 10 for 40-plus, five for 50 or more and three went for 60-plus yards. The average distance of his TD passes was 26.5 yards. He ranked third in the nation in throwing passes 20 or more yards downfield.

And, he had the highest passing rating in the nation in the fourth quarter at 92.8, which included headline-generating comeback wins in Carolina's first two games.

But there are still things Howell must work on to improve his game.

“There’s some areas where he really did a great job, there’s others where he did a good job and there’s some things that, individual plays, that I would be disappointed in that he is also disappointed in…,” said Longo, UNC’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “We go through all the things that he didn’t do well, all of the things that kept him from being closer to perfect. You’re never going to be perfect, but that’s what you’re striving for all the time.”

Howell had success with so many types of throws last fall but there’s much more to the position than just throwing the football.

“We’re harping hard on, he throws four verticals really well, we’re not working on a lot of that right now,” Longo said. “We’re going to do enough to maintain the level that he’s at at that play but there are other things that he can do right now, other plays that we can progress through faster, different things he can identify better.”

Such as?

“One small example is we had a couple free routes this year, seven of them to be exact, that he didn’t throw,” Longo said. “So we want the improvements from last year to this year to be, if they give us seven more this year, take them. I would want him to throw them this year.

“I don’t know that there are any major concerns with Sam but, playing quarterback, you can always get better at every aspect of play and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re trying to address the biggest weaknesses, take the weak link and move it forward and then what happens is your overall package just gets stronger.”

Tedious to some, it’s a way of life for Howell.

He works out twice a week with Dyami Brown, who also lives in the Charlotte area and who had 1,034 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns last fall for the Tar Heels, he’s sticking to the recommended nutritional requirements and is studying the game.

Howell has watched each of LSU’s games from last season three times focusing on what Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow did in leading the Tigers to the national championship. He’s also watching NFL defenses elevating his personal standard and to see the game at a higher level.

“It’s definitely something that’s been very good for me as far as my development,” Howell said. “My final goal is to end up playing in the NFL one day, so Coach Longo is going to do everything he can in his power to help me get there. This has been really good as far as just helping my understanding of defenses.

“In the NFL, they do a lot of different stuff, a lot more complex than what they do in college. He’s just trying to get me prepared for all that.”

And Howell is preparing for next season. Fans see what happens on 12 Saturdays in the fall, but each and every bit of that can be traced to the spring and other parts of the year, shutdown or no shutdown.