CHAPEL HILL – This time a year ago, Sam Howell made a splash on the North Carolina football front.

Only that he didn’t do it throwing touchdown passes, driving the Tar Heels for another score or using his reassuring nature to lead his teammates through battle. He did it by simply becoming a Tar Heel.

Originally committed to Florida State, Howell flipped to Mack Brown’s program mere weeks after the Hall of Fame coach was hired for the second time and 21 years after he last held the post in Carolina blue.

An argument could have been made last winter that even if Howell never threw a pass for UNC he still would have a positive impact on the program. His commitment meant that much and has had a bit of a residual effect, as last week's signing day and No. 17 national ranking revealed.

A year later, Howell’s imprint on UNC football has likely exceeded anyone’s expectations. Even his, and few true freshmen are as self-assured as Howell. He’s a rarity indeed. And he was also a big-time need for Brown.

Carolina moving forward needed to send a salvo around the state and to the rest of the ACC that the old coach still had it. He could ride into town and swoop away a kid that had been a Seminole since the prior spring.

“Sam was a great player in this state that we felt like we had to have,” Brown said.

But the Tar Heels already had two highly touted young quarterbacks in Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder, both of whom had four years of eligibility remaining. But that didn’t matter one bit to Howell.

“He never even asked (about them), it wasn’t an issue,” Brown said. “He didn’t care who was here and he loves to compete. And his questions to me, along with his parents, were ‘what kind of offense are you gonna run and who’s going to be the offensive coordinator?’

“That was it. There was nothing else because I think he grew up wanting to come here.”

The offensive coordinator Brown hired was Phi Longo and he runs the air raid offense. Longo’s first assignment after being hired was to visit Indian Trail, NC, and show the Howell’s what they were looking for.

“When (Brown) hired Coach Longo, I knew what I really wanted to do,” Howell said.

And the rest is history, sort of.

Just one season is almost in the books for Howell. His freshman campaign will conclude Friday when the Tar Heels face Temple in the Military Bowl. But Howell’s impact on UNC and the growth of his game – the stuff one finds in box scores and not – carry a storybook tint.

He set a UNC record for touchdown passes in a season with 35 while throwing at least two in every game. Amazingly, 31 of his 35 TD passes have gone for 20 or more yards, 13 have been 30 or more yards, 10 for 40-plus, five 50 or more and three have gone for 60 or more yards. The average distance on Howell’s touchdown passes is 26.4 yards.

Of Howell’s 224 completions, a whopping 139 have gained 10 or more yards and 28 have gone 30 yards or longer. And if you remove the 31 dropped passes by UNC receivers and the 20 passes he’s thrown away, Howell’s completion percentage is 69.4 percent.

The offense he manages has more plays of 20 or more yards (81) than anyone else in the ACC followed by Clemson with 78. And Howell 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.

Third-team All-ACC, ACC Rookie of the Year, ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year and a few freshman All-America teams are now on Howell’s resume, as well. Big head syndrome? Not Howell.

“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," said the 6-foot-2, 225 pounder.

And if you ask the Heels how he’s changed the most during the course of the season, don’t expect any football skills talk.

“He got a lot more comfortable,” junior running back Michael Carter said. “It’s one thing to look comfortable, it’s another thing to be comfortable.”

And with that came leadership.

True freshmen aren’t usually attention seekers or loud voices in the locker room, even quarterbacks. It just doesn’t work that way.

Add Howell’s more laid back, quiet-in-the-corner demeanor and there was no way he’d vocally lead the Heels in year one. But he did lead. Calm and cool is how everyone in the program describes Howell, which is exactly the image he projects to the media and apparently to his teammates.

“Just like y’all see, we see the same thing…,” junior receiver Dazz Newsome said. “Nothing really gets to him.”

There’s a simple explanation, of course.

“It’s the way I grew up,” Howell said. “Playing the position all my life, it’s kind of how I’ve always been (and) it’s kind of how you have to be at times to play that position.”

But as the season went on, Howell got to his teammates more and more. It’s a requirement of the position he plays, and even though he turned 19 in September, Howell had to take on this role in some capacity. There was no escaping it.

Yet, it wasn’t pushed. That’s not the best way to allow something like this to become real.

“What I saw, more than anything else, was him starting to learn to lead,” Brown said. “He knew how to lead in high school, but you’re overloaded as the quarterback (in college), you’re trying to learn what to do and it’s hard until you’ve proven yourself to start leading everybody else.”

As the season went on, Brown saw Howell greeting guys who made plays on special teams, talking to the defense more and just showing more outward exuberance.

“He’s really matured as a leader, and I thought that was never more evident than they voted him captain,” his Hall of Fame coach said. “So, for a freshman to be captain is pretty cool by the vote of the players.”

Again, Howell has a handle on how this works.

“It’s just natural with the process,” he said. “It’s always going to get better every single day, especially when you get more comfortable with the team.”

The Tar Heels are certainly comfortable with Howell.

A year ago, it was a splash, this fall it was earth-shattering