story by Sam Spiegelman
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Walker Howard is three games into his starting tenure at St. Thomas More, and so far, no task has been too tall.
Howard, a Rivals250 quarterback who committed to LSU back in June, has accounted for 15 total touchdowns through is first three varsity starts. He is five yards shorts of 1,000 on the season thus far with 14 touchdowns through the air and another on the ground.
Before Friday, Howard had played only one series in the second half of games. Against Baton Rouge Catholic, the Louisiana Division I state runners-up, Howard led St. Thomas More on an eight play, 67-yard drive capped by a second touchdown pass to four-star tight end Jack Bech to take the lead with about six minutes to go.
It was Howard's first fourth-quarter deficit as a starter, but as he's shown in the past, very little fazes this quarterback.
"I've been waiting two years for this," Howard told Rivals after the 39-38 win at Baton Rouge Memorial Stadium. "I'm excited and I love when these opportunities come to me and when they do, I'm gonna make the play happen. It was a great win and I'm happy. It was a great team win."
"I want to be ready for these big situations," he continued. "I want people to look at me and to stay calm and do a good job. I have a lot of calls coming my way, but I got to keep my cool."
Bech, who was on the receiving end of most of Howard's attempts, finished the game with nine receptions for 196 yards and two touchdowns, including what wound up being the go-ahead score on an 8-yard fade in the back corner of the end zone.
Bech, a senior, spent the majority of the offseason developing chemistry with his quarterback. Now, he's seeing all the hard work pay off on Friday nights.
"He gets better every game, every day. He gets to work and there's a lot of motivation behind him. He never comes to a today of practice lousy. He's always coming in ready to work, to get better. He's so focused on his game and it means so much to him, to me and the whole team. He's a helluva player and I don't see anything stopping him from doing great things now, at the collegiate level and beyond in the NFL."
— Four-star TE Jack Bech
Before Friday's game at Catholic, Howard had played four meaningful quarters in the first two starts of the season with 605 yards passings and 10 total scores. He added another 390 yards through the air with five touchdowns in his first road contest, including two touchdown passes in the second half.
Howard has completed about 62-percent of his throws so far. More importantly, he's wasted little time finding a rhythm under center and no moment has proven too big for the four-star prospect.
"We did a great job, but we have work on some things," he said. "We had a couple of fumbles, drops and we'll work on it next week. We can always get better ... we'll be back in on Monday watching film and getting back ready for next week ... They (Catholic High) are probably one of the best teams we'll play this year, so it feels good to play them and if we can beat them, we can beat anybody.
"There's a couple of things I can do better. I need to learn more and more and more. They kept switching up coverages on me, so I got to keep my head down and make plays and take what the defense gives you."
Howard, whose father Jamie played at LSU from 1992 to 1995, committed to the Tigers in June over Texas A&M, Nebraska, Mississippi State and Alabama. He camped there and earned an offer the summer prior and made a visit back to Baton Rouge in March before the NCAA shut down for the remainder of the calendar year.
LSU, which captured a national championship in January, opened the 2020 season with a 1-2 mark. Myles Brennan threw for 430 yards and four scores in a loss at Missouri the last time the Tigers played and a freshman could be in line to make the next start at home on Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
Howard has been in regular contact with the coaches and is encouraged by the play of LSU's offense and quarterback early on.
"Myles Brennan is doing really well," he said. "There's been a lot of hate gong toward him, but 400 yards and four touchdowns -- he's doing great. The team is figuring it out ... It's awesome and there are great people, great positive, unbelievable coaches at LSU. I'm excited for the next two years of high school football and it's great talking to them and I'm loving playing football right now."
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Walker Howard is three games into his starting tenure at St. Thomas More, and so far, no task has been too tall.
Howard, a Rivals250 quarterback who committed to LSU back in June, has accounted for 15 total touchdowns through is first three varsity starts. He is five yards shorts of 1,000 on the season thus far with 14 touchdowns through the air and another on the ground.
Before Friday, Howard had played only one series in the second half of games. Against Baton Rouge Catholic, the Louisiana Division I state runners-up, Howard led St. Thomas More on an eight play, 67-yard drive capped by a second touchdown pass to four-star tight end Jack Bech to take the lead with about six minutes to go.
It was Howard's first fourth-quarter deficit as a starter, but as he's shown in the past, very little fazes this quarterback.
"I've been waiting two years for this," Howard told Rivals after the 39-38 win at Baton Rouge Memorial Stadium. "I'm excited and I love when these opportunities come to me and when they do, I'm gonna make the play happen. It was a great win and I'm happy. It was a great team win."
"I want to be ready for these big situations," he continued. "I want people to look at me and to stay calm and do a good job. I have a lot of calls coming my way, but I got to keep my cool."
Bech, who was on the receiving end of most of Howard's attempts, finished the game with nine receptions for 196 yards and two touchdowns, including what wound up being the go-ahead score on an 8-yard fade in the back corner of the end zone.
Bech, a senior, spent the majority of the offseason developing chemistry with his quarterback. Now, he's seeing all the hard work pay off on Friday nights.
"He gets better every game, every day. He gets to work and there's a lot of motivation behind him. He never comes to a today of practice lousy. He's always coming in ready to work, to get better. He's so focused on his game and it means so much to him, to me and the whole team. He's a helluva player and I don't see anything stopping him from doing great things now, at the collegiate level and beyond in the NFL."
— Four-star TE Jack Bech
Before Friday's game at Catholic, Howard had played four meaningful quarters in the first two starts of the season with 605 yards passings and 10 total scores. He added another 390 yards through the air with five touchdowns in his first road contest, including two touchdown passes in the second half.
Howard has completed about 62-percent of his throws so far. More importantly, he's wasted little time finding a rhythm under center and no moment has proven too big for the four-star prospect.
"We did a great job, but we have work on some things," he said. "We had a couple of fumbles, drops and we'll work on it next week. We can always get better ... we'll be back in on Monday watching film and getting back ready for next week ... They (Catholic High) are probably one of the best teams we'll play this year, so it feels good to play them and if we can beat them, we can beat anybody.
"There's a couple of things I can do better. I need to learn more and more and more. They kept switching up coverages on me, so I got to keep my head down and make plays and take what the defense gives you."
Howard, whose father Jamie played at LSU from 1992 to 1995, committed to the Tigers in June over Texas A&M, Nebraska, Mississippi State and Alabama. He camped there and earned an offer the summer prior and made a visit back to Baton Rouge in March before the NCAA shut down for the remainder of the calendar year.
LSU, which captured a national championship in January, opened the 2020 season with a 1-2 mark. Myles Brennan threw for 430 yards and four scores in a loss at Missouri the last time the Tigers played and a freshman could be in line to make the next start at home on Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
Howard has been in regular contact with the coaches and is encouraged by the play of LSU's offense and quarterback early on.
"Myles Brennan is doing really well," he said. "There's been a lot of hate gong toward him, but 400 yards and four touchdowns -- he's doing great. The team is figuring it out ... It's awesome and there are great people, great positive, unbelievable coaches at LSU. I'm excited for the next two years of high school football and it's great talking to them and I'm loving playing football right now."