Fascinating factoids from Yahoo’s long-form story on Sam Howell.
Howell has accumulated “a couple of thousand dollars” of parking tickets by leaving his Jeep Cherokee in reserved service spots near Kenan Football Center, where he spends every hour away from classes, studying and sleeping preparing for practices and games.
He has a very limited social life away from football. Mack Brown remembers Howell telling him last February that “Madden is my Valentine,” referring to the software he uses to study plays.
Howell is of Korean heritage. His grandfather Bruce Howell and grandmother Han Howell met while Bruce was stationed in South Korea in 1960 after the Korean War. On Howell’s early bucket list is to visit Korea and explore the country, first learning the language.
“Just the fact that I don’t know a whole lot about it is why I’m so interested,” Howell told Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. “There is so much to learn and see. I’m super excited to go over there at some point in my life.”
Howell is understated around the team but plans to take his behemoth offensive linemen to Stoney River Steakhouse every week during the season. His new NIL deal with Bojangles should be enough to cover those all-you-can-eat checks.
Well aware that he hasn’t won anything yet on the college level, Howell says, “At some point, I think someone has to take Clemson down in the ACC, so I definitely want to be part of that.” Howell grew up a lifelong UNC fan, but committed to Florida State because Larry Fedora’s staff didn’t think he was big or fast enough.
He kept an NC postcard on his mirror in high school with the sub par physical stats, like height and hand size. “Ever since they told me they weren’t really interested,” Howell said, “I wanted to prove them wrong. I don’t like being told ‘No’ or I am not good enough.”
Howell was the first recruit Mack Brown visited upon taking the job in late 2018. “He’s been the most significant difference to me from when we first got here,” Brown said of the turnaround from Fedora’s last two teams that went 5-18. “I don’t think it would have happened as quickly without him.”
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