Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas: Takeaways from a snowy Day 2

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

MORE SHRINE BOWL: Takeaways from check-in day | Latest from Sam Howell

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Year 82 of the annual Shrine Bowl of the rolled along on Monday as players from North and South Carolina went through their first day of practice. While the action was mostly confined to walk-through activities, there was still plenty of notable happenings both in practice and in media availability. Rivals.com analysts Woody Wommack and Adam Friedman share their takeaways from the first day of the event.

Sam Howell spent the large majority of Monday's practices handing the ball off to running backs during the indoor walkthroughs but there was some time for him to get some passing in. His relationships with North Carolina wide receiver commits Khafre Brown and Emery Simmons were on display for everyone to see and, even though Howell said the commitments that any school holds won’t have an effect on his recruitment, the three of them seemed to get along well and it should at least help him feel like he won’t have to try hard to build relationships in Chapel Hill.

Howell may be at the Shrine Bowl but that hasn't stopped schools from scheduling in-home visits with his parents. Expect Howell's parents to host multiple schools later this week and they're hoping those schools will have new offensive coordinators in tow.

Keep an eye out for NC State in Howell's recruitment. The Wolfpack have been playing from behind for Howell pretty much from the beginning but his relationship with Wolfpack offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz is one of the best in his recruitment. It will be interesting to see how the rest of his recruitment plays out if North Carolina and Florida State continue to drag their feet on hiring offensive coordinators and quarterbacks coaches. Howell remarked that he feels like NC State is a very stable program that he could see himself jumping at if everything else is uncertain.

Howell is still planning on signing in the Early Signing Period but the odds of that actually occurring will decrease significantly if he doesn't know who the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach will be at Florida State or North Carolina.

Clemson’s lone commitment in this year’s Shrine Bowl is Greg Williams, a three-star linebacker who hasn’t receiver much fanfare. But Williams said he’s fine with flying under the radar and he’s confident that he can have a major impact when he arrives on campus next year. The 6-foot-4, 235-pound prospect said the Tigers coaches have told him that he reminds them of current starting linebacker and former five-star Tre Lamar. The lofty comparison is something Williams is embracing and he said the two have already developed a relationship. Williams is much rawer than Lamar was at this stage in his development, but Tigers fans are hoping he can have the same type of impact at the next level.

J.R. Walker pulled off one of the most surprising commitments of the season when he announced that he was choosing Virginia Tech over longtime favorite NC State. Most people believe that the Wolfpack will get him to change his mind at some point given the lengthy list of connections he has to NC State. Rivals250 NC State commit Savion Jackson, Walker’s teammate at Clayton, N.C., hasn’t been pressuring Walker but would like to play with him in college. Judging by the way Walker described his commitment to Virginia Tech, it doesn’t sound like the Hokies commit is wavering on his pledge but stranger things have happened during this time of year.

It was a roller coaster season for the Pitt Panthers, starting out slowly before winning the Coastal Division and making an appearance in the ACC Championship Game. Of course, things didn’t go well for the Panthers in the title game as they lost to Clemson while passing for only eight yards in the game. Despite that effort, newly-minted four-star quarterback commit Davis Beville said this week that he thinks the Panthers are primed to take the next step. Beville said the emergence of the team’s running game over the second half of the season will only help the team next year when it comes adding more of a passing element. The question is, will Beville have a chance to get on the field early? He said he plans on going in with a competitive mindset and will let the Panthers coaches decide how things shake out.

Practices on Monday were indoors but Rivals250 NC State defensive tackle commit Joshua Harris set the tone for the North Carolina team the entire day. Even though they weren’t supposed to be “live reps” today, the linemen were battling and none of them could slow down Harris. The interior offensive linemen were getting thrown around and pushed into the back field by Harris, who looked very quick 310-plus pounds. If his performance on Monday is indicative of what we will see the rest of the week, South Carolina running backs will be in for a long day come game day.