The 2021 Heisman Trophy ceremony is 11 months away, and while North Carolina’s branding experts likely won’t launch a true campaign pushing Sam Howell for any awards until the middle of next summer, it’s certainly one of many things the program can look forward to as it takes the next step toward meeting Mack Brown’s stated mission of achieving national relevance.

Winning a lot, playing for the ACC championship and contending for something national next season are clear goals, but if the Tar Heels meet them, Howell must be even more sensational that he’s been his first two seasons at UNC. A byproduct will be plenty of hype for perhaps the most prestigious awards in American sports.

The Heisman Trophy.

North Carolina has never had a Heisman winner, but it did have the only two-time runner-up for more than a half-century, as Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice was the only player to finish second in the voting twice for 67 years until Arkansas’ Darren McFadden did it in 2007 and 2008. Justice came in second behind SMU’s Doak Walker in 1948 and Notre Dame’s Leon Hart in 1949.

Howell may not win it, but he most certainly will begin next season as one of the frontrunners.

“Sam Howell’s a superstar that gives us a chance to win every week,” Brown said. “And he should be up for every major award next year, just because he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country that will be returning.”

Brown knows what a Heisman winner looks like up close. He coached Ricky Williams in 1998, when the powerful running back won the award. He’s coached against a few, too, notably Florida State’s Charlie Ward in 1993, Jason White of Oklahoma in 2003, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma in 2008, and Robert Griffin of Baylor in 2011.

Howell carries many of the same characteristics as those players, but might be even more entrenched as a college football star before his campaign truly begins. In two seasons, Howell has passed 7,227 yards, 68 touchdown passes, just 14 interceptions, and he’s even run for six scores. Howell has completed 64.4 percent of his passes, and amazingly he’s thrown 18 touchdown passes with no interceptions in the fourth quarter and has never thrown an interception in the red zone.

The others?

Ward threw 17 interceptions the season before winning the Heisman. White completed 93 passes for his career before his Heisman year. Bradford was sensational in 2007 with 3,121 yards, 36 touchdowns and just six interceptions, but that was his only season as a starter.

Griffin had a big year for Baylor in 2010, but 22 touchdowns passes versus eight interceptions doesn’t match up with Howell’s numbers. Griffin was a more productive runner, but the Bears were just 7-6 and lost their last four games never scoring more than 30 points in that stretch.

Maybe only Williams was as productive as Howell before his Heisman season. Williams ran for 1,272 yards and 12 touchdowns as a sophomore and 1,893 yards and 25 scores as a junior. But the Longhorns went just 4-7 and fired their coach that season, which brought Brown on board.

Howell has been tremendous for two seasons and on a team showing significant upward trajectory. The push is there for the taking.

But Howell won’t talk about the Heisman now and won’t much next summer, though he acknowledged last July how great it would be to win the award. He’s well aware of everything that goes with it and might bone up even more over the next seven months.

But for now, his focus is getting better because that’s always Howell’s focus.

“I'm always just trying to get better mentally,” he said, following UNC’s loss to Texas A&M in the Orange Bowl. “I know one thing I definitely want to get better at is just being more comfortable in the pocket. Sometimes I move my feet a little too much. Sometimes I move my feet not enough, so just trying to be more comfortable in the pocket and trying to be a better quarterback from inside the pocket.”

And there’s that whole team thing.

The Tar Heels expect to challenge for the ACC Coastal Division championship next season as well as for a conference title. If that happens, they will be in the national hunt in Brown’s third year back. Howell has high expectations for himself and the Tar Heels.

“I expect big things,” he said. “For myself personally, I have two years under my belt now, so I expect for myself, I just want to be the leader of this football team and I want to take this team to great places.

“And I think we have a lot of potential in that locker room and a lot of younger players that are going to work harder than anyone in the country this off-season, and for this team I think we just keep going in the right direction. I know this program is going where we want it to go.”

So does Carolina, which is why the program’s official Twitter feed teased Howell as next year’s Heisman guy moments after Alabama’s DeVonta Smith wont the award Tuesday night.

The real push will commence next summer, and after that it will depend on how Howell and the Tar Hels perform.