Pitt is less than a week away from a Thursday night primetime showdown with North Carolina. The game will carry plenty of implications for the ACC Coastal race, as Pitt needs to keep winning to have chance.

The Panthers are already starting to prepare for the Tar Heels and one player for Mack Brown’s team stands out above the rest, and that’s true freshman quarterback Sam Howell. The Monroe (NC) native leads the ACC with 2,472 passing yards and 26 touchdowns. He has only thrown five interceptions while attempting the fifth most passes in the league.

In other words, he is playing well beyond his years as it looks like North Carolina has a very good quarterback in place for the foreseeable future. So while it is not technically game week, the Pitt players and coaches are well aware of what kind of challenges he presents ahead of time.

“He’s got great touch on the ball,” Pitt defensive line coach Charlie Partridge said. “He’s clearly intelligent and he’s going to take what the defense gives him. In no way, shape, or form does he look like a true freshman out there and that’s from the beginning of the year because we’re going pretty far back in terms of what tapes we’re looking at because we have some extra time. So he’s been impressive since he took the job.”

North Carolina opened the year with a pair of surprising victories over South Carolina and Miami. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year, but the freshman quarterback played two steady games to give the Carolina fan base hope. The rebuild caught up with North Carolina with some close losses, including a near upset of Clemson, but throughout the season Howell has been solid.

He threw for four touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 38-31 loss to Virginia last week and kept his team in it until the end. When asked if Howell looks like an ordinary freshman, Pitt defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman could not disagree more.

“Not at all, not by a long-shot,” Twyman said of Howell. “He’s real good in the pocket. He’s like an NFL quarterback the way how he can step up. Like for instance if somebody is rushing him on one of his sides he can step up and make you miss, so we got to do a good job of finishing plays so if we get a chance to sack him and stuff like that, not just put pressure on him but finish the plays.”

The Pitt defense leads the country with 40 sacks on the season, so they know they will need to put pressure on him throughout the game. Equally as important, the secondary will need to be on its A-game, and they are also aware of Howell’s ability.

“He looks very poised back there and he makes some very accurate throws and all of his throws on the money,” Pitt senior corner Dane Jackson said of Howell.

Jackson, like every other Panther has yet to defeat North Carolina. In fact, Pitt’s last win over North Carolina was way back in the 2009 Meinke Car Care Bowl when Pitt was still in the Big East. Pat Narduzzi and his staff have instilled a one game at a time mentality throughout the team, but they even relented a bit that they’d like to finally win one over the Tar Heels.

“I mean every game is the same, but like you said we haven’t beat those guys since I’ve been here. You try to approach every game the same, but we definitely want to get one,” Jackson said.

Added Patrick Jones, “I definitely think this is a game we’re going to have to make a change, we’re going to have to start changing and get after them boys because we can’t keep losing to them if we want to accomplish our dreams. For our dreams to start, this is a step we’ve got to get over right here beating North Carolina.”