Beyond Blessed
Sam Howell and Tom Hager
In Partnership with Athletes For God
As our bus made the way to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, I still remember feeling like the moment was just surreal.
I had dreamed of playing college football for years, and now it was finally happening. On national television. Against an SEC opponent. And in front of more than 52,000 fans.
But as we made our way from the hotel to the stadium, it was obvious that most of those fans hadn’t arrived at the stadium yet either, because the sidewalks were all lined with North Carolina fans. I grew up only 30 minutes from Charlotte, so I knew how much the Tar Heels meant to this state, but on that day it struck me differently.
Kids across this state dream of playing for UNC someday, and now here I was, getting to live that out. But this game might have actually been a little extra special for me, because we were playing in the Carolina Panthers’ stadium. I was lucky enough to develop friendships with both Will Grier and Cam Newton, and now I was getting to play in the same stadium as them.
On the outside, it might have seemed like my UNC career started that day, but in reality the journey started long before then. A journey that included a lot of highs but a few setbacks as well.
In many ways, that moment was the culmination of a decade-long journey. My parents didn’t necessarily push me to be a football player, but they did push me to reach my potential. My mom was hard on me in a loving way, probably because she saw even more in my potential than I saw in myself at a young age. Whether it was in the classroom or on the field, she always wanted me to do my best.
My dad was the same way, and he showed me what hard work was all about. He led by example, because he basically worked multiple jobs when I was a kid. He was a probation officer in his main job, but he also had a landscaping business on the side. He also occasionally picked up work at the airport, but still somehow found time to be my football coach.
But of all the jobs he held, his favorite one was unpaid, which was being my dad. We always had a good balance between football and family, because when we went home we put sports to the side. At dinner time, he wasn’t coach anymore. He was Dad.
I tell people all the time that my parents are the main reason why I’m at where I am today. They were always more worried about me than they ever were about themselves, and they gave me every opportunity they could to be successful.
I had as good of an upbringing as any child could hope for, but just like everyone else, my path had its share of ups and downs. Everybody has adversities that they must overcome, and my life was no different.
The phone call I made in my senior year was one of the most difficult of my life.
It was December of 2018, and I had to call Florida State football coach Willie Taggart to tell him I would not be attending FSU. I had committed there earlier in my career, but when their offensive coordinator Walt Bell took the head coaching job at UMass, I decided to reconsider. I began the recruitment process again, and took a second look at UNC.
Mack Brown pitched me with the idea of becoming a Tar Heel, but at that point he hadn’t assembled his staff yet in Chapel Hill. He approached me again after he hired Phil Longo as his offensive coordinator, and the idea of playing for the state school started to seem more and more appealing to me. Phil ran a similar offensive scheme as my dad, plus the campus would only be a little over two hours from home.
However, I hadn’t completely decided against FSU either, and it wasn’t until a few days before my official signing that I had made my decision. I knew that I could have just let Coach Taggart find out on Twitter when the headlines came out that I would be signing with UNC, but I knew that wasn’t right. That also wasn’t how I was raised.
I picked up the phone and dialed the number, knowing that this wasn’t going to be easy news for Coach Taggart to hear. However, he had earned that phone call…FSU had been so good to me, and I wanted to make sure I thanked them for even giving me the opportunity to attend their school.
I was fortunate to have multiple options of where to play football, but it wasn’t all that long ago that I was like most high school athletes…trying to pitch my talents to schools rather than the other way around. I felt so frustrated back then, because I was trying to do everything right and I still wasn’t seeing the results. It didn’t matter that I was getting up before sunrise for workouts, or that I was giving it my all every Friday night. I still just couldn’t get a lot of schools to look at me early on.
But I knew that God had a plan for my life, even through the struggles. One of my favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 41:10, which says “Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will uphold you in my righteous hand.” I just kept trying my hardest, not knowing if the offers would come or not. But that’s kind of the point – you just do the best you can, not knowing what the results will be on the other side.
I did start to eventually gain the attention of coaches, and even though my recruitment wasn’t as easy as I had wanted it to be, I had finally put that phase of my life behind me.
I was going to be a Tar Heel.
I feel blessed every single day I walk around the campus here in Chapel Hill.
I try not to take for granted what a special school I attend, and every single day I feel lucky that my path led here. Plus, I get to play for a legend here in Mack Brown. He has more wins than any other active coach in the country.
With that being said, we both knew that we had our work cut out for us to help this program reach its potential. The team had gone 5-18 the last two years I was in high school, so when we rode that bus toward the Panthers’ stadium to take on South Carolina, we knew a lot of people were expecting us to lose that game.
Before the game started, I took some time to pray to God. I pray before every game, mostly for safety and to just give thanks to God for everything He’s given me in my life.
Those prayers put me in the right frame of mind, but once the game began, I was having a hard time moving the ball downfield. When the fourth quarter started, our team hadn’t scored a touchdown and we trailed 20-9.
We hadn’t played well, but we knew that if we were still in a position to win late in the game, we liked our chances. We scored early in the quarter, and after our defense forced a quick punt, we went right back down and scored. Our defense held strong again, and in South Carolina’s last five series, they had two punts, two interceptions, and a drive that ended when time ran out on the clock. We had beaten the Gamecocks 24-20 and just like that we were 1-0.
We then beat Miami 28-25 in front of a sell out at Kenan Stadium, and all of a sudden we looked like a real contender in our conference. But as hard as it is to find success in football, it’s equally difficult to keep it. We lost four of our next six games, all of which were decided by one possession. Some were more heartbreaking than others, including the 21-20 loss to Clemson when I was stopped on a two-point conversion with 1:17 to go. We also lost to Virginia Tech in six overtimes, a game that was draining both mentally and physically.
My parents were there through it all – both the wins and the losses, both home and away. That support system, as well as my teammates, helped me to keep believing what our team was capable of. We kept working, and by the end of the season, the results started to show. We brought that winning mentality to practice every day, and tried to take it one play at a time. It might sound cliché, but that’s because it actually works.
We rallied together to win our last two games over the regular season to earn a bowl bid, and then beat Temple 55-13 to finish 7-6. I had set out with the goal of making North Carolina a winner again, and in our first year we finished with more wins than losses.
But one of the biggest highlights for me actually came off the field. I had been so overwhelmed with time constraints in high school that I struggled to find time to attend church. If I’m being honest, I hadn’t been as strong in my faith as I wanted to be, and I just felt like I was missing something in my life. This past year, I decided to start attending church again, and even though I’m as busy now as I’ve ever been, people make time for the things that are important to them. And for me, my faith is at the top of that list.
The other thing I’ve done is use my platform to glorify God, and the response from fans has been awesome. I know that not many athletes these days are willing to be open about their faith, so when people see someone actually living that out through sports, it really resonates with them. I always dreamed of scoring touchdowns and winning championships, but I also dreamed of having a platform to inspire others.
And whether that means making someone believe in themselves, or the abilities God gave them, it’s all worth it.