CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina will be lacking significant firepower on offense with the opt-out departures of three stars who have entered the NFL Draft, but play-caller Phil Longo won’t be asking quarterback Sam Howell to counterbalance those losses by taking on added responsibilities in the Orange Bowl.
As the 14th-ranked Tar Heels (8-3) have gone about regrouping for Saturday night’s assignment against No. 5 Texas A&M (8-1) in Miami Gardens, Fla., Longo, the offensive coordinator, has instructed Howell that, despite the considerable absences, North Carolina doesn’t need him striving to summon something extra.
“The only advice I gave him and the only coaching I told him was not to feel like he has to go and win this game himself,” Longo said this week. “The best thing he can do for our football team right now is to keep doing what he has been doing; manage the offense, make plays when he has the opportunity to make plays.
“The only time he’s ever gotten in trouble at all, it’s been when he tries to do more than he needs to do on a play, and I think he’d tell you the same thing. And he hasn’t done that in quite a while. So that’s really the only advice I gave him, ‘Look we need to stay focused and keep doing what we’re doing.’ ”
How has Howell, the strong-armed sophomore and record-setting frontman of the Tar Heels, received that message?
“He just gave me the nod that he always gives me,” Longo said, “and we go out and practice the way we always do. So it’s business as usual right now offensively.”
Business, of course, has been booming this season with Howell operating the controls, distributing touches to running backs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, and passes to wideout Dyami Brown, the featured weapons in Longo’s system.
North Carolina ranks fourth nationally and first in the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense with 556.6 yards per game — and is on pace to shatter the school record for a season by a substantial margin in that department — while scoring 43 points per game, the sixth-highest output in the country.
The Tar Heels twice set school records for total offense in a game during the season, first by amassing 742 yards in rallying past Wake Forest and then by piling up 778 yards in mauling Miami in the regular-season finale. Howell threw for school records of 550 yards and six touchdowns against Wake Forest, the third-most passing yards ever by an ACC quarterback.
“The guy that’s running the show,” Longo said, “the one that’s making the mental decisions, I want and we need him to be as focused as he has been, and to generate and execute the offense the way he has, and let the athletes go make plays.
“Wherever that level of responsibility from a decision-making standpoint is with Sam, will he have more to do this game? A little bit. But again, why dish up something completely different to a player who’s already one of the best at his position? We’re going to ask him to do what he’s always done. His job doesn’t change, it’s just the cast that he’s playing with will be a little bit different. Their strengths are a little bit different, and so we’ll play to their strengths.”
North Carolina has landed the program’s first-ever Orange Bowl berth and first appearance in a major bowl in 70 years, and will tangle with a Texas A&M team that has won seven straight games while coming up one spot short of reaching the College Football Playoff.
Howell will be making his 25th straight start Saturday night. He leads the ACC with 27 touchdown passes, and checks in second in the league with 304.7 passing yards per game.
Gone, though, with last week’s exits for the NFL Draft are a pair of 1,000-yard rushers and 33 total touchdowns this season in the form of the superb Carter and Williams, and a 1,000-yard receiver two times over in the deep threat Brown.
“For me, it’s nothing different,” Howell said this week. “I’m going to prepare how I’m going to prepare, and just execute the play that (Longo) calls. I’m not going to try to do any more than I usually do. I am who I am, I’m just going to go out there and play my game. But I’m definitely excited for these younger guys to have a chance to really show what they’ve got, because we really haven’t seen them play any snaps that really mean anything this year.”
British Brooks, Josh Henderson and Elijah Green are the running backs North Carolina will have available for the bowl game, coach Mack Brown said. They are reserves who have been plugged in sparingly on offense, as Carter and Williams have shouldered nearly all of the rushing workload. Green’s 12 carries on the season, while dwarfed by Williams’ 157 carries and Carter’s 156 carries, mark the most attempts among the backs remaining for the Tar Heels.
Emery Simmons, Khafre Brown and Antoine Green will figure more prominently alongside mainstay Dazz Newsome in North Carolina’s receiving corps, Longo said. Simmons, Khafre Brown and Green have combined on 31 catches for 535 yards and four touchdowns this season, while Dyami Brown supplied 55 catches for 1,099 yards and eight touchdowns on his own as Howell’s favorite target.
Simmons and Khafre Brown, Dyami’s younger brother, have produced some memorable moments at times.
Simmons climbed the ladder and snatched a highlight-reel catch over Notre Dame cornerback TaRiq Bracy for a jump-ball touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone on the day after Thanksgiving. On Halloween night, Khafre Brown’s explosive 76-yard touchdown catch became part of Howell’s 443-yard passing performance at Virginia.
“Those three guys are going to have to come up with some big plays for us to have a chance to win the football game,” Howell said of the lesser-used receivers. “Dyami’s due for a couple of deep-ball catches a game, at least one touchdown a game.
“So they definitely have to make some plays for us to have a chance to win. They’ve had a really good couple of weeks of practice. They’re all three really good receivers. All three of them are definitely talented enough to be starters here. They’re talented enough, they’ve put the work in, so I’m excited for those guys to be out there.”
ORANGE BOWL
Who: No. 14 North Carolina (8-3) vs. No. 5 Texas A&M (8-1)
When: 8 p.m. Saturday (ESPN)
Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.
Series: First meeting
Extra points: North Carolina is making its Orange Bowl debut, while Texas A&M is playing in the game for the second time and making its first appearance since 1944. … North Carolina’s Mack Brown and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher are two of the six active college football coaches who have won national championships. … The Tar Heels are 4-2 in bowl games under Brown, with victories in the 1993 Beach Bowl, the 1995 Carquest Bowl, the 1997 Gator Bowl and the 2019 Military Bowl.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC tells QB Sam Howell not to reach for more in Orange Bowl with weapons gone
