UNC Football: Sam Howell commits to Tar Heels

The UNC Football program completes the flip of quarterback Sam Howell who picked the Tar Heels on Wednesday afternoon

After months of speculation, quarterback Sam Howell has made the commitment flip official.

The four-star quarterback out of Monroe, North Carolina announced on Wednesday afternoon that he will sign his Letter of Intent to the University of North Carolina.

Howell is now the highest-ranked player in the Tar Heels’ 2019 recruiting class which began the Early Signing Period on Wednesday landing commitments from Tomari Fox and Triston Miller. With this commitment from Howell, the Tar Heels will now shoot up the rankings and start moving towards the top-30.

The 6-foot-1, 225-pound quarterback has been verbally committed to Florida State since April, but decided to flip on the first day of the Early Signing Period. There were several indications that a flip could be possible, including the Seminoles not hiring an offensive coordinator over the past few weeks.

Despite his verbal to the Seminoles, the Tar Heels, under the direction of Larry Fedora, continued to keep in touch with Howell. That didn’t change after Mack Brown was hired, and Howell even took a last-minute official visit to Chapel Hill on Sunday. With UNC bringing in Phil Longo and an air-raid offense, Howell is the ideal quarterback to fill the position.

Howell is ranked as a four-star recruit, and is the No. 3 Pro-Style quarterback in the class while being ranked No. 87 overall according to 247Sports.

He’s now the biggest recruit Brown has landed in his return to the Tar Heels’ program, putting together an impressive class despite being on the job for just a few weeks.

Howell will have the opportuinty to win the starting spot this Spring, and it wouldn’t shock us if he was the Week 1 starter against South Carolina, despite UNC’s depth at the position.

For more on Howell and other UNC football recruits, please check back with Keeping It Heel.