East Marion senior Jarveon Howard has been in the spotlight as a highly touted gridiron recruit for years now and finally has found his home away from home.
The star running back will be making the 1,301-mile trek from Columbia to Syracuse University to play in the historic Carrier Dome for the Orange, committing to the New York school Jan. 21 just before leaving his official visit.
“What stood out to me was that even though it’s 17 hours away from home and I thought it wasn’t going to feel like home, it did,” Howard explained. “Just because you’re in state doesn’t mean you’re going to feel at home.
“(Syracuse) was a home away from home. The culture and the history they have in football is going to drive me to want to be great.”
While feeling at home is always a big deal to recruits, Howard’s biggest determining factor was the opportunity to carve out an early role. But it wasn’t the coaches saying he would get early playing time that pushed him, it was another running back on the team.
“What swayed me the most was when I heard the running backs say, ‘We need running backs.’ I wasn’t taking much from the coaches because they can be temporary,” he said. “I heard from a running back who told me, ‘I’m a running back, but I don’t play running back. I play special teams. We need a running back who can come run hard for us.’ I feel like it’s going to be a good fit.”
Howard’s recruitment has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride as several programs appeared as frontrunners throughout the process.
He held offers from three SEC schools — Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, who all went through coaching changes — along with Memphis, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Tulane and UAB. In the end, though, Howard made his choice between Syracuse and Purdue.
Syracuse, which plays in the ACC, finished 4-8 in 2017 in its second season under head coach Dino Babers.
“Another thing was how interactive the coaches were, and I know it’s going to be the same way on the field. It’s going to drive me to want to do more. If I went into a program that didn’t have many running backs, I could get complacent,” Howard said. “I have a hunger in me, and I don’t want to just get comfortable with my talent instead of trying to do more. I wanted to be somewhere I knew somebody could take my spot if I slip up.”
While playing in the Carrier Dome is a draw for Syracuse considering UT-San Antonio and Idaho are the only other FBS teams that play their home games in a dome, it doesn’t matter to Howard where he plays.
“Hail, snow, sleet, rain to hot and humid, every play you have to prepare for anything,” he said. “Every play is going to have something different to offer, and you have to feel comfortable in that point in time. It’s really a mindset.”
Howard has long been a dynamic threat every time he touched the ball for the Eagles and put up some monster numbers as a senior.
The 5-foot-11, 205-pound star rushed for 1,508 and 21 touchdowns on an absurd 12.8 yards per carry. He added 203 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver out of the backfield as well (stats for Stringer and Nanih Waiya games are unavailable).
While he posted huge numbers throughout his illustrious career donning the blue and red, they pale in comparison to the weight lifted from making his decision.
“It was like pulling 10 million wet monkeys off my back. The recruiting process is so stressful,” he said. “I wasn’t able to rest at night. The week before I committed I didn’t rest the whole week. As soon as I committed, it was like a shot — like I was replenished. I’m so glad I found a home now.”
Howard had several people he wanted to thank for helping him on his path to accepting a D-1 scholarship.
“I’d like to thank God first because He opened up an opportunity for me I never thought I’d be able to get. I’d like to thank my family, my mom (Corneathia), everyone who stood behind me throughout the recruiting process and the folks who believe in me from the beginning. I also want to thank the ones who didn’t believe because they drove me to work harder.”
Pictured Above: East Marion running back Jarveon Howard gains yardage last season against Mount Olive. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
