Midweek: Corrales & Howell On Drops, Film & More

CHAPEL HILL – Only three Tar Heels were made available to the media Tuesday evening, as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech.

Aaron Crawford, Beau Corrales and Sam Howell answered questions about the bye week, their games and the Hokies. Below are the full interviews with Corrales and Howell plus some excerpts about what they had to say.

Note: Corrales talked a lot about his improvement, dealing with dropped passes, being from the Austin, TX, area and playing for Mack Brown and more; Howell discussed how he got better during the bye week, the team’s better practices of late, Corrales, Lane Stadium and more; and we are running a feature on Crawford Thursday morning, so we didn’t pull anything out of what he had to say.

Here are their interviews:

Corrales has developed a reputation for making catches with a high degree of difficulty, especially in the end zone, while also occasionally dropping what appear to be relatively easy passes. The junior has 18 receptions for 213 yards with three touchdowns and spoke about how he went from being inconsistent in the spring and fall camp to where he’s one of UNC’s most counted on receivers.

“They just wanted to see consistency from me, which I totally get, because there are days when I know I’m at my best, personally, and there are days when I feel like I’m not quite at that level,” he said Tuesday evening at the Kenan Football Center.

As for the drops, Corrales said it’s absolutely about concentration.

“I feel like I’m better when I am being contested because sometimes the ones when I’m wide open it’s a lot to just deal with focus and being in the moment,” he said. “There are times when there will be a wide open ball, a play I make all the time, and it will just slip through my hands.”

Corrales also said the drops are easier to move on from now than they once were.

“That’s probably what I feel like was my biggest problem through the spring and the fall is that a lot of times, if I had a drop I would kind of beat myself up a little bit too much on it. But Longo’s done a really good job with us of teaching us this don’t-blink mentality where if something does go wrong, it doesn’t do anyone good to hold your head over it.”

UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo also said Monday that Corrales shows up on game days. What does that statement mean to Corrales?

“It just means that I’m reliable to them, I guess,” he replied. “To me, I feel like it’s something that I have to keep my head down with and keep being consistent because it’s playing receiver; you’re depending on so many different variables in the game that you’re not going to get every single ball that’s thrown in the air… I have to be locked in mentally and be ready to make any catch that comes my way.”

Sam Howell spent his bye week healing, resting, studying and getting better. Howell’s appetite for the film room is well known within the team and media. He’s constantly going over his work looking for mistakes to improve on. He’s about a detailed as they come.

So, with the Tar Heels having an open date last week and practicing just three times, Howell dove into the first half of his first season trying to learn as much about himself as he could.

“I just went back to the first six games to see all of the bad decisions I made mentally and just try to learn from all of those,” Howell said.

Howell didn’t find many physical things that needed adjusting, noting as long as he stays with his mechanics he’ll be fine. He did note, however one thing: “Making sure I keep my feet calm.”

Happy feet hasn’t been an issue but for maybe a couple of times, but Howell is a bit of a perfectionist, so those times certainly stood out to him.

While looking to fix some things was the primary mission, Howell also noted what he’s progressively done better.

“I definitely recognize that,” he said. “I think I’ve come so far from when we started for South Carolina.”

The Tar Heels head to Lane Stadium this weekend to face Virginia Tech, a place Howell has been a few times for games. He was recruited by the Hokies, so he’s familiar with what game days are like there.

“I went to a lot of games there as a recruit, it’s an awesome place, it’s loud,” he said.