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Chapel Hill, North Carolina — Under Sam Howell’s black 2017 Jeep Cherokee’s windshield wiper, white parking fines of various kinds keep appearing. He is targeted in a variety of locations outside the University of North Carolina football stadium, which serves as his constant residence in his Jeep. Metered sites cost $15 or $20 for tickets. Service car spaces next to the building’s entrance may cost $50. Howell has so many now that he hardly ever looks at them.

The Cherokee, who shows up before the assistant coaches and stays long after they depart, will always be the defining feature of Howell’s football tenure at UNC. As Howell begins his third season as a Tar Heel, UNC parking enforcement has given him tickets worth “a couple of thousand dollars,” if you need receipts.

Howell has obviously paid his dues, even though he hasn’t paid the treasure trove of tickets. As he approaches a Last Dance junior season that might make him recognized as one of the greatest players in school history, the steadily mounting number of infractions represents his tunnel vision. He shrugs and says, “It is what it is, I got to come here,” at the UNC campus. “Parking is most likely this program’s biggest flaw.”

Sam Howell does not seek sympathy. Even after initially committing to Florida State, his heart remained Tar Heel blue, and the tickets are a little price for the dedication to a vision that started while he was growing up outside of Charlotte. Howell has been on a lightning-fast, straight ascent from being the cornerstone recruit of Mack Brown’s second act at UNC in January 2019 to becoming an instant college star, drawing comparisons to Drew Bree’s and possibly the school’s first overall No. 1 choice in the NFL draft.