UNC Football: Preseason honors piling up for North Carolina’s Sam Howell

UNC football’s Sam Howell is among the nation’s most talked about players, evidenced by his growing list of preseason accolades.

North Carolina junior quarterback Sam Howell is one of the nation’s most decorated college football players leading up to the start of the 2021 season. His high-profile offseason includes nominations to the majority of prestigious awards that a quarterback is eligible for. And the high expectations don’t stop there, as Howell’s Tar Heels are the No. 10 team in the country according to the first Associated Press top 25 poll of the season.

His latest honor, however, comes from The Athletic, which named him the top signal-caller in college football this season. Though a number of other publications have gone with Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler as the nation’s top QB, The Athletic has stuck with North Carolina’s leading man all summer. And there’s a lot to love about the third-year quarterback that is destroying the UNC record books one touchdown pass at a time.

Howell has already been named a preseason first team All-American by a number of other publications including Walter Camp. He’s also been selected to the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award and Manning Award watch lists this summer. And it goes without saying that Howell is among a select few players that are favored to win the Heisman Trophy Award this season.

And why all the hype for Howell? Well, consider his 68 TD passes in two seasons, which is already tied for an all-time North Carolina record, and the most ever for an ACC quarterback through his first two seasons. He’s thrown for 7,227 yards in the process, while surrendering just 14 interceptions in 770 pass attempts. Howell’s 38 touchdowns in 2019 are an FBS true freshman record. His 3,586 passing yards last season were most in the ACC, and fourth-best in all of college football. His 30 touchdown passes were good for sixth-best in the nation.

He’s looking to lead his team to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance this year, something that some are picking the Tar Heels to do over perennial ACC powerhouse Clemson. It’s for that reason — along with all of his incredible individual accomplishments to this point — that we’re getting a heavy dose of Howell-mania leading up to the season. If he can perform the way that many believe he will, and the Tar Heels put themselves in a position to compete in the postseason, Howell’s shot at taking home all of the hardware only increases.

For all the latest on Sam Howell and the UNC football program, check back with Keeping It Heel.