Syracuse Football: SU gains commitment from star back Jarveon Howard

The Syracuse football team continues to add star power to their recruiting class. ITLH breaks down the tale of the tape here.

Syracuse picked up another running back commit on Monday, as Mississippi native Jarveon Howard announced his commitment to Syracuse.

According to 247sports.com, Howard is rated a 3-star prospect and received an 86 composite ranking.

In addition to those rankings, Howard ranks as the 15th best prospect in the state of Mississippi and the 35th best running back in the class of 2018.

Just last week it was announced that former Oklahoma running back Abdul Adams transferred to Syracuse, however he will not be eligible until 2019. Howard announced his commitment via Twitter:

The Columbia, Mississippi native has received offers from the likes of in-state powers Ole Miss, Mississippi State, in addition to Tennessee and others. Howard checks in at 5-foot 11 inches and weighs 202-pounds. According to his twitter, Howard rushed for 38 touchdowns and 2,520 yards this past season.

Syracuse fans should expect to see a physical runner, who seeks out contact and can lower the boom.

We have already broken down

Akeem Dixon

and

Jawhar Jordan’s

highlights, the two other running back commits in the class of 2018. Now let’s look at Howard’s highlights:

The initial play that I want to look at occurs at the :22 second mark in the tape. Howard takes the handoff, and makes a nice jump cut to find a hole in the offensive line. He displays nice vision in doing this, and finds there is nobody home in the second level. He gets to the sideline and uses his speed to fly by a linebacker and a corner. One safety on the other team takes a nice angle and is able to catch Howard around the 10-yard line. But the DB makes a poor business decision and tries to bring Howard to the ground, that does not go well as he gets absolutely obliterated by the 200-pound back, and Howard walks into the end zone.

More tale of the tape…

At 1:04, there is one of the most unique plays that I have ever seen on a running back’s highlight tape. The Quarterback on Howard’s team fumbles the snap, and takes a while to regain possession, all the while a defensive player perfectly times a blitz, and looks like he is going to hit the QB. Howard recognizes the blitz and slides over in time to absolutely POP the rushing defender, who falls over. Howard plays the game of football with a mean streak to him.

As we’ve already seen, Howard is a hard runner and has a mean streak to his game. But the next play I want to look at occurs at the 3:53 mark in the highlight tape. Howard slips out of the backfield as a receiver, and catches the ball.

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We’ve seen how violent he can be in the open field, but here he chooses to put a juke move on a defender and he makes two men miss as he once again finds the end zone. In the Dino Baber’s offense, running backs do have a role to catch passes out of the backfield and Howard shows his game right here. The competition level that Howard played against has raised some questions, but the highlights are nonetheless impressive.