Three Things: What does Koby Howard’s commitment mean for Penn State?
Penn State picked up its 23rd commitment in the Class of 2025 on Sunday afternoon, as Florida wide receiver Koby Howard pledged to the Nittany Lions. It’s a decision that’s been a few months in the making, and now the program has three receivers in a pivotal cycle at the position.
What does Howard’s decision mean for the Nittany Lions? There are a few ways to look at it. Let’s dive in with three things coming out of the announcement.
What does Koby Howard’s commitment mean for Penn State?
1. How does Howard fit in Penn State’s receiver room?
Penn State’s wide receiver room rebuild continued on Sunday with a third commitment in the Class of 2025. Truth be told, Howard tried to jump in at the end of June, but the Nittany Lions had others ahead of him on the board. The rollercoaster since has landed us here.
Howard brings something a little different than previous commitments Lyrick Samuel and Jeff Exinor. What the Penn State staff likes here is Howard’s abilities with the ball in his hand. Like a lot of high school receiver highlights, a lot of Howard’s clips are him winning deep balls on the outside simply by running past the cornerback. Those are fun to watch, yes, but they’re also not tremendously helpful in evaluating how a high school receiver will translate to the next level.
What is good, however, is his stuff closer to the line of scrimmage. He’ll need to be a route savant at the next level to make up for a lack of dynamic athletic ability. He can be fast enough, but if he’s going to get it done at the college level, it will have to be with setup, balance and the ability to start and stop quickly. Watching his tape, he can play at this level, but there’s also an understanding of why this played out the way it did.
Penn State will keep recruiting receivers in this cycle. The Nittany Lions may be done for the time being, but they’ll keep chipping away at others. Lex Cyrus’ name isn’t going away, and there’s a potential fall official visit for Jerome Myles out of Utah. While the latter remains a long shot, it’s a long time until December.
2. Howard’s backstory is an interesting one
Two years ago, Howard attended the Legends Camp at the University of Miami as a rising sophomore. It was a memorable day for a few reasons. First, Howard showed out and impressed the Hurricanes staff enough to earn an offer from Miami. Unfortunately, though, Mario Cristobal delivered the news to Howard in the hospital.
During the camp, Howard broke his tibia, an injury that onlookers described as “horrific.” Cristobal went over to the hospital after the camp and checked in. It was a pivotal point in his career for a few reasons. Unfortunately, Howard missed most of his sophomore season at Pensacola Catholic. He was uber-productive as a freshman for the school, catching 70 passes for 808 yards and eight touchdowns. His sophomore year finished with just 13 catches for 176 yards and two scores in a couple of games.
He then transferred to Davie (Fla.) Western for his junior season, where he got back on track with 65 catches for 1,065 yards and eight touchdowns. In January, he announced that he would be transferring to Chaminade-Madonna for his senior year. That’s a heck of a step up. Chaminade-Madonna had two Top 50 overall prospects, both wide receivers, in the Class of 2024. We’ll find out pretty quickly how Howard stacks up as he tries to help replace Jeremiah Smith and JoJo Trader.
The thing that I keep going back to with Howard is that he’s been productive. I think there are athletic questions that we still have, even after testing fairly well at Penn State last weekend. Penn State hasn’t found a perfect formula for recruiting the position, but polished and productive are a start.
Of course, the back side of this is that Howard will attend a third school in four years. How does that transition go when he gets to college and he has to take some time to catch up in the weight room? That’s another wait-and-see.
3. The way this one went down
Given how all of this has played out, Howard seems caught in the crossfire. He came for an official visit on the final weekend in June. Of course, there were others higher on the board for the Nittany Lions. Some chips fell, not in this direction, and eventually Howard surfaced as the top available option. He still came back to campus to earn it, as Penn State stuck by their process of evaluating before taking.
In the interim, Penn State missed out on Cyrus, Matthew Outten and Taz Williams. Many, including this site, questioned how things were operating with Marques Hagans leading the charge. In the process, Howard was weaponized as proof of Hagans’ shortcomings. That’s not fair to the kid. Being forthright, we’re guilty of it, too. Howard is a good player with potential.
As we’ve seen in the past, there aren’t any certainties when it comes to recruiting the position. Receivers may be a dime a dozen, but predicting those that will hit and those that won’t isn’t that simple. It’s why you see so much churn in the Transfer Portal at receiver every year. It’s also why guys can have no success at one program and then find a better fit at another.
I don’t know how Koby Howard will work out at Penn State. He has talent and also has some areas to get better at. But that scouting report is universal for high school prospects. Given the way this one has played out, though, I think a lot of fans in our atmosphere have already written him off. I don’t suggest that for any prospect, personally. Howard wanted on board, he came to campus and earned the green light. There’s something to be said for that, and I hope that fans can appreciate it before diving back in to the endless Hagans offseason discourse.
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