In Monday’s press conference ahead of the Wofford game, Mack Brown announced the list of players that would be participating in Senior Day on Saturday for the Tar Heels. In doing so, he told the media that Saturday “would be his last game in Kenan Stadium” when announcing that junior quarterback Sam Howell would be taking part in the festivities. On Tuesday evening, though, Howell walked those comments back a bit.
In his meeting with the media just a little while ago, he seemed to say that things are still undecided regarding his future.
“Academically, I’m a senior,” Howell said. “I still have a lot of decisions to make.” Despite what Brown said yesterday, Howell is not committed to the NFL Draft right now. “I’m not ready to say that I’m declaring for the draft or ready to say I’m coming back or anything like that. It’s just something where I’m academically a senior so I’m graduating. This could be my last home game. It could not.”
This is a much different tone from what we heard from Brown on Monday, which made it seem as if it was all but official that Howell was heading for the NFL and would be playing his final game in Kenan Stadium on Saturday. The hope is that Howell will actually be able to play in the game against Wofford after he suffered an upper body injury against Pittsburgh that Brown sighted as a ‘day-to-day’ situation on Monday. Howell didn’t give much on his status, but did say that things are progressing. “It’s getting there. I’m making progress every day. We’ll see how it is come Saturday, but it’s something that I’m putting a lot of time into because I really want to get out there.”
Regardless of if he is active or not, Tar Heel fans should be treating Saturday like it will be the final time that they will see the best quarterback in program history in Kenan Stadium. He along with 20 other current players will be honored ahead of the game, the final one of the home slate for 2021.