OSU & A&M Missing Out

[TexasAg1969]

They have had a chance to offer a player my son coached in 7th & 8th grade who wanted to go to OSU. I've done everything I could to let A&M know about this undersized "sleeper". Instead he has accepted an offer to the Air Force Academy and last night he broke the Temple Texas High School records both for career scoring and career TDs. Kid is superstrong, superfast (less than 2 seconds under the Olympic 200m dash record), great jitterbug moves and hands of a slot receiver with the ability to throw 60 yarders on the run since he played QB before conversion to RB. AF uses their RB's in multiple ways and he has the athletic talent to do it. Those prior records were held by Lache Seastrunk who had broken Kenneth Davis's records (Of TCU and many years with the Packers and Bills). PS-he's smart as a whip with a 4.0 GPA too. C0-District MVP last year and without a doubt will be District MVP this year since they are undefeated in that District. BTW Seastrunk starred at Baylor

Just keep an eye on his career. Samari Howard is his name. He reminds me a lot of Sproles though he is about 2 inches taller, but he can throw in addition to breaking tackles and flying on a dime like Sproles could do. A yeah, he's a track star too.

[mjp28]

It's nice to try and help kids out along the way,  a player to watch.

AND Ohio State is loaded every year with 5★ and 4★ players very hard to crack that lineup.  Same with Alabama and other P5 schools.

And BTW Ohio State 17-10 2nd.

[tiamat63]

On 11/6/2021 at 11:06 AM, TexasAg1969 said:

They have had a chance to offer a player my son coached in 7th & 8th grade who wanted to go to OSU. I've done everything I could to let A&M know about this undersized "sleeper". Instead he has accepted an offer to the Air Force Academy and last night he broke the Temple Texas High School records both for career scoring and career TDs. Kid is superstrong, superfast (less than 2 seconds under the Olympic 200m dash record), great jitterbug moves and hands of a slot receiver with the ability to throw 60 yarders on the run since he played QB before conversion to RB. AF uses their RB's in multiple ways and he has the athletic talent to do it. Those prior records were held by Lache Seastrunk who had broken Kenneth Davis's records (Of TCU and many years with the Packers and Bills). PS-he's smart as a whip with a 4.0 GPA too. C0-District MVP last year and without a doubt will be District MVP this year since they are undefeated in that District. BTW Seastrunk starred at Baylor

Just keep an eye on his career. Samari Howard is his name. He reminds me a lot of Sproles though he is about 2 inches taller, but he can throw in addition to breaking tackles and flying on a dime like Sproles could do. A yeah, he's a track star too.

His first step and change of direction are very good.  Not very big, 5'8...180ish-  Maybe? 

What all offers did he receive? 

[TexasAg1969]

49 minutes ago, tiamat63 said:

His first step and change of direction are very good.  Not very big, 5'8...180ish-  Maybe? 

What all offers did he receive? 

All the service academies, Columbia (4.0 GPA) and Tulsa is now interested. He was actually a very accurate and unselfish QB for my son 7th & 8th, but he had such great moves and acceleration that the HS coaches switched him to RB. We went to one of his games early in his soph year and he got tackled by a guy he could not juke. He asked my son on the sidelines what he should do. My son told him to start his moves earlier instead of waiting for the guy to close on him first. Sure enough the next time he came around the corner he faked the guy out of his jock for a 60 yd TD, ran over to my son and told him thanks for the advice. He would use it from now on. Sure enough he has and he's broken those records. But for me it's those hands that are most impressive. We were watching some highlights before the game and there was one where he reached back one hand on a pass coming over the top of his head, pulled it in with that hand and ran about 40 yds or so for the TD.

You are right about his size, but he holds records for his size in the weight room. Extremely strong kid. One of the reasons I compare him to Sproles. 

Plus he's very unselfish even in the spotlight now. There was a play when he was QB for my son he could have easily walked the ball in after finding a way out of a knot of about 5 defenders, but he threw it for a TD to the back of the endzone to a WR who had gotten wide open. I asked him after that game why he didn't just stroll it in himself. He answered, "Well my teammate had worked so hard to get that open, I thought he deserved the TD." When we saw him Saturday he needed one TD to break the record. It was hiked to him out of the shotgun. He could have easily scored the record breaker, but tossed it to the RB who scored from the outside walking in. Still the unselfish kid I met way back in 7th grade.

https://www.hudl.com/profile/11654455/Samari-Howard

[tiamat63]

5 hours ago, TexasAg1969 said:

All the service academies, Columbia (4.0 GPA) and Tulsa is now interested. He was actually a very accurate and unselfish QB for my son 7th & 8th, but he had such great moves and acceleration that the HS coaches switched him to RB. We went to one of his games early in his soph year and he got tackled by a guy he could not juke. He asked my son on the sidelines what he should do. My son told him to start his moves earlier instead of waiting for the guy to close on him first. Sure enough the next time he came around the corner he faked the guy out of his jock for a 60 yd TD, ran over to my son and told him thanks for the advice. He would use it from now on. Sure enough he has and he's broken those records. But for me it's those hands that are most impressive. We were watching some highlights before the game and there was one where he reached back one hand on a pass coming over the top of his head, pulled it in with that hand and ran about 40 yds or so for the TD.

You are right about his size, but he holds records for his size in the weight room. Extremely strong kid. One of the reasons I compare him to Sproles. 

Plus he's very unselfish even in the spotlight now. There was a play when he was QB for my son he could have easily walked the ball in after finding a way out of a knot of about 5 defenders, but he threw it for a TD to the back of the endzone to a WR who had gotten wide open. I asked him after that game why he didn't just stroll it in himself. He answered, "Well my teammate had worked so hard to get that open, I thought he deserved the TD." When we saw him Saturday he needed one TD to break the record. It was hiked to him out of the shotgun. He could have easily scored the record breaker, but tossed it to the RB who scored from the outside walking in. Still the unselfish kid I met way back in 7th grade.

https://www.hudl.com/profile/11654455/Samari-Howard

 

Sproles doesn't seem like a bad comparison.  Only thing to remember is that Darren was a mid 4.5 guy.  So while his top gear was lacking, he made up for it with that 10-20 yard split. 

If he has talent and work ethic, he'll find success.  Personally I would be considering tulsa (no offense to the academies)

[TexasAg1969]

1 hour ago, tiamat63 said:

 

Sproles doesn't seem like a bad comparison.  Only thing to remember is that Darren was a mid 4.5 guy.  So while his top gear was lacking, he made up for it with that 10-20 yard split. 

If he has talent and work ethic, he'll find success.  Personally I would be considering tulsa (no offense to the academies)

He is rethinking it. And you can see on his profile he says no one will ever outwork him. My son verifies that this has always been the case with him whether on the field or in the weight room. The other thing that colleges have failed to see is what a leader he has always been. He had scored 4 TDs in the first half the other night and was benched the second half with a huge lead. Other starters were actually sitting back on the bench. Not Samari. He was right up there talking with the 2nd & 3rd teamers on the sidelines encouraging, clapping on the back, talking to the RBs before they retook the field, etc. That is a leftover from his success as a QB/team leader. He is not a team captain just because he is a star. He earned it with his leadership.

And that 4.46 40 is legit. You can see it in his sudden acceleration on multiple plays.

[TexasAg1969]

In last night's playoff game Samari added 3 more TDs to his records and also caught a 40 yd pass to the two before running it in to make it 21-14. After stopping the other team the punt went inside Temple's 10. Just watch these two plays. The other team was fully aware that Temple's throwing QB had left in the first half due to injured throwing hand, so they know to expect runs out of the WildDawg from one or the other of these two backs. Samari is #8. This is what he does to salt games away late.