The inside look South Carolina has at North Carolina’s freshman starting QB Howell

There’s a sense of unknown with North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell, the recently named Tar Heels starter the South Carolina football team is set to take on to open the 2019 season.

They superficial stuff is apparent. He’s a four-star recruit, ranked among the top-100 players in his class. He can move well at 6-1 and 225 pounds. As a high school senior, he posted 3,240 yards passing yards, 1,392 rushing yards and 54 total scores. His more than 17,000 total yards is a record for the state of North Carolina, while he sits second on the state’s passing yardage chart, behind Chris Leak and ahead of former Gamecock Connor Mitch.

But his first college snap will come Saturday. He’s in an offense that has been in place less than a year, in a program making a massive culture shift. As said, a lot of unknowns.

But the Gamecocks staff has a little inside info and feel for him.

“We recruited Sam,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “We think Sam is a fantastic player. We offered him here at South Carolina. He’s got arm talent. He had all kinds of records there in high school. A guy that’s got the ability to run the ball. He’s a competitor. He’s a battler.”

The Gamecocks offered Howell in September of his junior season. He took unofficial visits for games twice in the following two months.

Howell, who ended up picking up offers from the likes of Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and Oregon, didn’t make his choice until just after spring practice. He was first recruited by then offensive coordinator Kurt Roper.

But in early April, Howell picked Florida State, days later, Ryan Hilinski announced his pledge to USC. It wasn’t until signing day when he flipped from a drifting Seminoles program to the Tar Heels, becoming the jewel of coach Mack Brown’s first class.

Howell and Gamecocks starter Jake Bentley haven’t crossed paths in quarterback circled, but USC has a player who did.

“I think Ryan knew him a little bit,” Bentley said. “Just because they’re the same age, obviously.”

The pair were at Elite 11 together and at the same all-star game.

Muschamp also has a little experience with a rather notable first-time starter. In 2012, his second-year defense held Texas A&M’s starter to 173 yards on 30 passes and 60 yards on the ground. That was his worst passing day of the year. Johnny Manziel went on to win the Heisman Trophy, throwing for more than 3,700 yards and running for 1,410 more.

Muschamp said this challenge is similar to that one in that the staff is piecing together the intel it has, looking back through different schemes and figuring out a plan.

But a staff also knows it has to be flexible, and it can’t hurt to have a little extra knowledge about the signal-caller on the other side.

“He can make all the throws as far as the types of throws, and he can zip it,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for Sam.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 11:04 AM.