Morrison & Howell Discuss The Constant Changes & More

*Videos of Morrison's and Howell's interviews are posted below.

CHAPEL HILL - Trey Morrison and Sam Howell met with the media via zoom following Wednesday morning’s practice to discuss a variety of things, including last week’s game being cancelled and how the team is responding.

In addition, Morrison, a junior who was moved to safety now that Myles Wolfolk is ineligible, discussed his position switch and how safety is different from nickel or corner. He also offered his take on true freshman Ja’Qurious Conley, who is now the starter at nickel.

Howell, a sophomore quarterback, talked about the effect of timing when not playing games, what he and offensive coordinator and QB coach Phil Longo have refined and added, plus much more.

Here are videos of their interviews along with some notes and quotes:

*Morrison is now starting at safety but says he’s also still “getting reps everywhere on the field.” Morrison did say there’s a lot more communication required at safety and he’s more less the “quarterback of the defense” back there.

*He said the most challenging part of this transition is the communication. He’s not the most vociferous of the Tar Heels, but now his job is to bark a lot more than when at other positions.

“At nickel I didn’t have to talk that much and at corner I never had to talk at all," he said. "So just being back there and having to talk and let everybody know everything is a bit different for me.”

*The Charlotte game being cancelled was a big disappointment to the players, Morrison said. They were ready to go and preparing and then not playing can be discouraging, but he also said it won’t affect their practice and preparation moving forward.

“We’ll be ready for the next game,” he said.

*Mack Brown said Tuesday the team is looking at this situation as a reset to the season, so how challenging is that for the players?

“Our team is super mentally sharp, so it’s not hard for us,” Morrison said. “We come out here and prepare every day like it’s game week.”

*Preparing to play a game and it being cancelled two days before kickoff can be disconcerting to a team, but Sam Howell says there’s a clear reason why the Tar Heels are handling it well.

“I would say we have a pretty mature team and everyone’s in a good place mentally,” he said. “We know this season any game can be taken away from us at any time. We really just try to challenge ourselves to stay sharp and try to be consistent no matter if we have a game that weekend or not.”

*Even though the Tar Heels ended up not playing this past weekend, the frustration of going through a game-prep week is offset by recognizing the value in it, even without playing the game for which they prepared.

“I think there definitely can be value with it,” Howell said. “We prepared like we had a game – we had a really, really good week of practice, so for the younger guys to get that another week of experience of what it’s like to prepare for a game. We were very prepared for Charlotte.

“We didn’t play the game but mentally we were prepared to play a game so it was definitely some good experience for everyone on the team.”

*UNC AD Bubba Cunningham said last week that another team contacted UNC last Thursday and said it could be in Chapel Hill the next day and play Saturday. Of course, there was no game, but how much time would the Tar Heels need to get ready for a specific opponent if a game popped up on the schedule at any time?

“I would like to have a whole week to prepare, but I don’t know how much time we need,” Howell said. “As long as both teams have the same amount of time I think it would be a pretty good game. If we both have three days to prepare (then) we both have three days to prepare. I think we’d do a really good job in those three days and work really hard and be as prepared as we can be.

“I’m fine with playing however many days we have to prepare as long as it’s the same with both teams.”