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CHAPEL HILL – Sam Howell will be back in the fire Friday night, and as each day passes, his body is getting closer to being fully ready for the enormous task at hand facing the North Carolina quarterback and his team.
The Tar Heels head to No. 24 NC State where a Wolfpack team still in contention to win the ACC Atlantic Division and its top-20 defense await Howell and the Heels. For a Carolina team that has been up and down all season, struggled mightily on the road, and its quarterback having not played this past weekend while nursing an injury, having Howell as close to full health is priority number one.
UNC’s record-setter missed the 34-14 win over Wofford this past weekend because of an upper body injury sustained at the end of the Tar Heels’ overtime loss at Pittsburgh on Nov. 11. In his place, redshirt freshman Jacolby Criswell and true freshman Drake Maye took the snaps versus the Terriers.
Howell is expected to start at 7 PM Friday night, but he continues on the mend.
“I rested last week, along with treatment and rehab, so it’s really a combination of all those things,” Howell said Monday about his daily regimen in getting better. “And I’m really just trying to put as much time into it as possible. I’m putting multiple hours a day into treatment and rehab.”
Howell has completed 63.5 percent of his pass attempts this season with 2,704 yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He has also run the ball for 727 yards and nine scores, and this in spite of being sacked an alarming 39 times. His injury occurred when getting clobbered as he attempted a pass on the final play of the loss at Pitt.
That game was on a Thursday night, so Howell had two extra days to rest up and heal for Wofford, but considering the Terriers were 1-9 overall and 0-8 in the FCS Southern Conference, there wasn’t much mystery within the program that Howell was going to sit out the game. It wasn’t worth the risk.
This week, however, is a different story.
“I’m getting there, I feel like I’m getting better every single day,” Howell said. “Making progress every day. So just keep working at it, getting treatment, and keep challenging myself in that area and see where I get at the end of the week.”
His head coach twice Monday said Howell “looked great” in practice earlier in the morning, which is good for Carolina, because NC State (8-3, 5-2 ACC) boasts the No. 17 overall defense in the nation, and it’s among the top 10 in getting off the field on third downs.
“They have a little change-up on third down,” Howell said about the Wolfpack. “On base downs, they live in a three-down package, and on third down they go into a four-down package, and they do some different things.
“I really think it’s how hard they play. You can kind of see it when they play, it’s kind of a mindset for them to get off the field on third down and you see it at every single position.”
Howell is only 69 yards from reaching the 10,000-yard passing mark for his career, in what will be his 36th college game Friday. Only seven other players have ever done this in ACC history. He has played 2,492 snaps at UNC in is career, and it was “weird” for him standing on the sideline during a game last Saturday.
But that won’t be the case this weekend. It’s Carolina and State, and Sam Howell will be on the field.
