From One VHS Tape to the Ring of Honor
Jul 11, 2022 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Darren Howard was 8 when he began playing football. Over the years, he played linebacker, safety, running back, tight end, wide receiver, center, punter, long-snapper, but mainly he played linebacker. That's what South Carolina, Houston, Georgia Tech, and other Division I-A teams coveted in the 6-foot-4, 225-pound star at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida. He was named as one of the top 50 players in Florida by Bluechip's Preseason publication in 1994.
South Carolina head coach Brad Scott was entering his second season with the Gamecocks and defensive coordinator Wally Burnham was also in his second season in 1995. Although South Carolina, like several other schools, was deep at linebacker and Howard likely wouldn't break into a starting role for two or three years, he was so enthralled with the Gamecocks that he cancelled his final official recruiting visit to another school. Howard, a 1994 Bluechip All-American, knew he was headed to Columbia, South Carolina.
"Kansas State wasn't even on the map," Howard says. "No letters, nothing."
Then Jim Leavitt burst through the door at Boca Ciega High School and changed everything. Leavitt, 38, had that smile, that hair, and that unmistakable, fast, excitable voice that sounded like he swigged 10 Mountain Dews on the 30-minute drive from St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. Leavitt was the guy everybody heard at a dinner party. Leavitt never slept. Leavitt was entering his fifth year as co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at rising Kansas State, which came off back-to-back bowl games for the first time in history. Armed with stacks of VHS football highlight tapes along with a hard-charging, relentless pace, Leavitt was the Wildcats' ace-in-the-hole in recruiting, and he mined talent from the Sunshine State to the Sunflower State. He was a bulldog that wouldn't let go once he latched onto you.
Howard had piles of mail from schools that wanted him as a linebacker. Well, Leavitt found game film of Howard playing at defensive end. Howard moved up from JV to varsity football in the final four games of his sophomore season. Due to the team's experienced talent at linebacker, Boca Ciega coaches placed Howard at defensive end — for four games. As a sophomore. At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. And despite no experience playing defensive end. And he wouldn't play defensive end again in his high school career. However, Howard did enough to pique Leavitt's interest. Leavitt saw something in those dusty cut ups of Howard that led him to believe he'd look good coming off the edge in a purple-and-white uniform someday.
"That's the only footage of me playing defensive end that Jim Leavitt ever saw," Howard says. "I was a blue-chip linebacker. There's only four games of footage of me ever playing defensive end. It takes a gem of a coach to look at that tape and say, 'I like you better at this position.' And you know what? I was OK with that.
"His recruiting style was different. He was a lightning bolt. He was all over the place. His energy was at 1,000%. For a lot of other schools, especially the bigger schools, it was like, 'We're doing you a favor.' With Jim, it was, 'You come here, we're going to do this with you and you're going to be great, and we're going to win all these games and go to bowl games.' It was hyped. He said all the right things. I can still hear him in my ear saying all those things."
At around this time, the South Carolina assistant coach who had been recruiting Howard bolted to Virginia Tech. Nothing was the same. The new South Carolina assistant coach, who had his own recruits in mind, wasn't a fan of Howard deciding to visit K-State. It was a potential deal breaker. He told Howard, "Don't be surprised if a scholarship isn't here when you get back." Howard's mother, Cynthia, accompanied him on his other official recruiting visits. She didn't visit K-State. She felt there was no way her son would flip to the Wildcats.
"Kendyl Jacox was my host, and it was cold, but I went to a practice and got a feel for the campus," Howard says. "It was far from home and a small town without a lot of distractions and the team was going in the right direction. I came home and told my mother I was going to KSU. She didn't believe me."
Howard finished his K-State career No. 1 all-time in school history with 29.5 career sacks.
• • •
Darren Howard sat at his desk in his office in Tampa, Florida, when his phone rang one day in early May. It was a 785-area code. He never gets phone calls from 785. He picked up.
"Darren," the voice on the other end said, "it's Coach Snyder."
Howard hadn't heard the voice in more than 20 years — not since he finished his K-State career in 1999 as a Third Team All-American, then was selected in the second round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints, and then finished his 10-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles (2006-09). He finished his NFL career with 352 tackles, 67.0 sacks, 18 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries and three interceptions.
Howard, 43, has immersed himself in his real estate company since he retired. He began his real estate courses in between seasons in 2004. He began picking up property near the end of 2010. He owns 551 Properties, LLC and Mach 1 Productions, and says, "It has worked out."
"When Coach called, I forgot I was 43 years old for a second," Howard says. "I was immediately a 19-year-old kid again. It kind of took me aback."
Snyder's news floored Howard.
What was the news?
He was in.
He was in what?
The news shook Howard.
He will join linebacker Arthur Brown (2011-12), running back Larry Brown (1967-68), quarterback Collin Klein (2009-12), wide receiver Tyler Lockett (2011-14) and quarterback Ell Roberson (2000-03) in the 2022 induction class.
Howard immediately phoned his wife, Lyani, and his mother, Cynthia. Then he broke down and had to go home.
"I don't know if I ever expected to have the honor," Howard says. "I don't think I could do any work that day. I was speechless. There aren't many guys in the Ring of Honor. After the surprise settled down, I got emotional thinking about it, because, you know, it's something that's legacy building.
"To be immortalized at a place that I was supposed to be, to be honored, that's the cherry on top, and it's like, 'wow.' I'm blessed. Seems like yesterday, but it wasn't.
"So many years ago."
• • •
Darren Howard reported to K-State just barely over 200 pounds, although he was listed at 225 pounds on the 1995 roster. As for first impressions, here's what he remembers: He remembers that he was a freshman watching with intrigue and slight concern as fullback Brian Goolsby, a fellow freshman, ran the ball over, over, and over again on a drill in fall camp. Each run concluded with defensive stars such as Percell Gaskins, DeShawn Fogle and Nyle Wiren taking turns tackling Goolsby. Howard remembers the clap of loud, hard hits. He remembers the guys were intimidating. Those hardened defenders seemed to wear the biggest shoulder pads in the world. And they hit anything that moved. And they walked away with bloody noses. And they didn't care.
"I was like, 'Man, this is a madhouse,'" Howard says. "Then you got used to it. Then they kept going. They'd take your head off and they didn't care who you were. That was my introduction to the Mob mentality. We didn't just stop you from scoring, we stopped you from scoring and sent a message with every hit and every tackle. We dominated the game. I couldn't see how a group of guys could be more intimidating than those guys were."
K-State ranked No. 1 in Division I-A in total defense in 1995.
It ranked No. 16 in total defense 1996.
It ranked No. 4 in 1997.
It ranked No. 3 in 1998.
It ranked No. 2 in 1999.
Four of five seasons Howard was on roster, K-State finished no worse than No. 4 in total defense in the country.
"The nastiness was there," Howard says. "We stepped on the field thinking we were going to win a game by 50 points. That's not real life. We came onto the field on Saturdays in Manhattan, and we've been through practice, and we knew we'd win by 30, no hesitation, just because of the guys around you. That's not normal. If you're Miami in the 1990s, OK. If you're Nebraska, OK.
"But coming from a program where guys before me hand-built the program, that doesn't happen."
Except it did. And Howard grew to become 275 pounds. And he played for some of the best defensive minds in college football — Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Jim Leavitt, Bob Fello and Phil Bennett.
Howard's first-career sack came against Rice on September 21, 1996. His last-career sack came during a three-sack performance against Marques Tuiasosopo in a 24-20 win over Washington in the 1999 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, California. He showed his vast potential when he posted a career-high four tackles for a loss and three sacks against Iowa State en route to Second Team All-Big 12 Conference honors in 1997. He had four tackles, including two sacks for a loss and one sack of Donovan McNabb in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl. That campaign propelled him to a Big 12-leading 10.5 sacks in 1998. He went on a tear with 7.5 sacks over the final five league games.
He's humble. He's quick to credit his coaches.
"They're all legends," he says.
He's quick to credit his teammates.
"They were highly intelligent," Howard says. "These were great athletes."
A sampling of some of the defensive backs opposing quarterbacks had to throw against during that time: Chris Canty, Terence Newman, Mario Smith, Clyde Johnson, Monty Spiller, Joe Gordon, Lamar Chapman, Dyshod Carter, Jarrod Cooper, Gerald Neasman and Jerametrius Butler.
A sampling of some of the linebackers opposing quarterbacks had to contend with during that time: Percell Gaskins, David Damon, Deshawn Fogle, Jeff Kelly, Mark Simoneau, Travis Ochs, Ben Leber and Travis Litton.
"We had some really good linebackers through the years," Howard says. "Jeff Kelly was all over the place and Mark Simoneau was highly intelligent and that just trickled down. Ben Leber started playing when I was about to leave, but I saw high intelligence and playmaking in him also."
Howard had 53 tackles, including 14 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks to go along with two interceptions and a school-record six forced fumbles as a senior. He earned Third Team All-America honors. He finished his career with 191 tackles, including 54 tackles for a loss and 29.5 sacks to go along with two interceptions, 19 batted passes, nine forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
He didn't last long in the 2000 NFL Draft. The Saints took him with the 33rd overall pick.
"When I first got to K-State that was my introduction to defensive line, so I had to soak in everything that was going on around me," Howard says. "I learned a lot from Nyle Wiren and learned a ton from Andrew Timmons and his pass-rush technique. Obviously, we had the coaching. But I had to make it my own thing because I didn't know any better. I had to learn hand moves. I played basketball in high school, and I figured if I could cross over a dude in basketball, I should be able to cross over a 300-pound offensive lineman.
"So, I made the move and got my hands up and crossed guys over and that's how it started. Then I started to pick up techniques. It wasn't easy. It took some time."
One day during Howard's early career stands out the most.
"I had a particularly good day of practice my freshman year and Coach Snyder had me stand up in front of the team," Howard says. "He told me, 'If you keep your head down and keep working, you're going to be a hell of a player.'"
Howard's thoughts trail back to how this all began.
"It's an odd thing when I think about it, the course of things that happened for me to end up at that school with that coach and those teammates," Howard says. "I know I had to make a decision, but there's a part of it that I had nothing to do with, especially when you consider the guy that came to recruit me and what small piece of data he found in those days when it was just a VHS tape, he found that little piece of footage and saw something.
"The chances of that happening are so small there's no conceivable way that I can say that I made this happen or he made this happen. It was something else. It's like I was supposed to be at that school. I was supposed to be there.
"I think it was the best decision I made in my life."
Darren Howard was 8 when he began playing football. Over the years, he played linebacker, safety, running back, tight end, wide receiver, center, punter, long-snapper, but mainly he played linebacker. That's what South Carolina, Houston, Georgia Tech, and other Division I-A teams coveted in the 6-foot-4, 225-pound star at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida. He was named as one of the top 50 players in Florida by Bluechip's Preseason publication in 1994.
South Carolina head coach Brad Scott was entering his second season with the Gamecocks and defensive coordinator Wally Burnham was also in his second season in 1995. Although South Carolina, like several other schools, was deep at linebacker and Howard likely wouldn't break into a starting role for two or three years, he was so enthralled with the Gamecocks that he cancelled his final official recruiting visit to another school. Howard, a 1994 Bluechip All-American, knew he was headed to Columbia, South Carolina.
"Kansas State wasn't even on the map," Howard says. "No letters, nothing."
Then Jim Leavitt burst through the door at Boca Ciega High School and changed everything. Leavitt, 38, had that smile, that hair, and that unmistakable, fast, excitable voice that sounded like he swigged 10 Mountain Dews on the 30-minute drive from St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. Leavitt was the guy everybody heard at a dinner party. Leavitt never slept. Leavitt was entering his fifth year as co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at rising Kansas State, which came off back-to-back bowl games for the first time in history. Armed with stacks of VHS football highlight tapes along with a hard-charging, relentless pace, Leavitt was the Wildcats' ace-in-the-hole in recruiting, and he mined talent from the Sunshine State to the Sunflower State. He was a bulldog that wouldn't let go once he latched onto you.
Howard had piles of mail from schools that wanted him as a linebacker. Well, Leavitt found game film of Howard playing at defensive end. Howard moved up from JV to varsity football in the final four games of his sophomore season. Due to the team's experienced talent at linebacker, Boca Ciega coaches placed Howard at defensive end — for four games. As a sophomore. At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. And despite no experience playing defensive end. And he wouldn't play defensive end again in his high school career. However, Howard did enough to pique Leavitt's interest. Leavitt saw something in those dusty cut ups of Howard that led him to believe he'd look good coming off the edge in a purple-and-white uniform someday.
"That's the only footage of me playing defensive end that Jim Leavitt ever saw," Howard says. "I was a blue-chip linebacker. There's only four games of footage of me ever playing defensive end. It takes a gem of a coach to look at that tape and say, 'I like you better at this position.' And you know what? I was OK with that.
"His recruiting style was different. He was a lightning bolt. He was all over the place. His energy was at 1,000%. For a lot of other schools, especially the bigger schools, it was like, 'We're doing you a favor.' With Jim, it was, 'You come here, we're going to do this with you and you're going to be great, and we're going to win all these games and go to bowl games.' It was hyped. He said all the right things. I can still hear him in my ear saying all those things."
At around this time, the South Carolina assistant coach who had been recruiting Howard bolted to Virginia Tech. Nothing was the same. The new South Carolina assistant coach, who had his own recruits in mind, wasn't a fan of Howard deciding to visit K-State. It was a potential deal breaker. He told Howard, "Don't be surprised if a scholarship isn't here when you get back." Howard's mother, Cynthia, accompanied him on his other official recruiting visits. She didn't visit K-State. She felt there was no way her son would flip to the Wildcats.
"Kendyl Jacox was my host, and it was cold, but I went to a practice and got a feel for the campus," Howard says. "It was far from home and a small town without a lot of distractions and the team was going in the right direction. I came home and told my mother I was going to KSU. She didn't believe me."
Howard finished his K-State career No. 1 all-time in school history with 29.5 career sacks.
• • •
Darren Howard sat at his desk in his office in Tampa, Florida, when his phone rang one day in early May. It was a 785-area code. He never gets phone calls from 785. He picked up.
"Darren," the voice on the other end said, "it's Coach Snyder."
Howard hadn't heard the voice in more than 20 years — not since he finished his K-State career in 1999 as a Third Team All-American, then was selected in the second round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints, and then finished his 10-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles (2006-09). He finished his NFL career with 352 tackles, 67.0 sacks, 18 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries and three interceptions.
Howard, 43, has immersed himself in his real estate company since he retired. He began his real estate courses in between seasons in 2004. He began picking up property near the end of 2010. He owns 551 Properties, LLC and Mach 1 Productions, and says, "It has worked out."
"When Coach called, I forgot I was 43 years old for a second," Howard says. "I was immediately a 19-year-old kid again. It kind of took me aback."
Snyder's news floored Howard.
What was the news?
He was in.
He was in what?
The news shook Howard.
Howard will officially be inducted into K-State's Ring of Honor the weekend of the Wildcats' season opener on September 3, 2022. It's the pinnacle achievement for a K-State football player. This is the fourth Ring of Honor class since the establishment of the honor in 2002, joining the 2008 and 2015 classes. Howard's name will be permanently displayed on the façade of Bill Snyder Family Stadium.48 school records
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) May 18, 2022
31 total All-America honors
4 Big 12 Champions
Introducing the Ring of Honor Class of 2022
📄 https://t.co/Y3UtY43oPV pic.twitter.com/VRqZtKqVzh
He will join linebacker Arthur Brown (2011-12), running back Larry Brown (1967-68), quarterback Collin Klein (2009-12), wide receiver Tyler Lockett (2011-14) and quarterback Ell Roberson (2000-03) in the 2022 induction class.
Howard immediately phoned his wife, Lyani, and his mother, Cynthia. Then he broke down and had to go home.
"I don't know if I ever expected to have the honor," Howard says. "I don't think I could do any work that day. I was speechless. There aren't many guys in the Ring of Honor. After the surprise settled down, I got emotional thinking about it, because, you know, it's something that's legacy building.
"To be immortalized at a place that I was supposed to be, to be honored, that's the cherry on top, and it's like, 'wow.' I'm blessed. Seems like yesterday, but it wasn't.
"So many years ago."
• • •
Darren Howard reported to K-State just barely over 200 pounds, although he was listed at 225 pounds on the 1995 roster. As for first impressions, here's what he remembers: He remembers that he was a freshman watching with intrigue and slight concern as fullback Brian Goolsby, a fellow freshman, ran the ball over, over, and over again on a drill in fall camp. Each run concluded with defensive stars such as Percell Gaskins, DeShawn Fogle and Nyle Wiren taking turns tackling Goolsby. Howard remembers the clap of loud, hard hits. He remembers the guys were intimidating. Those hardened defenders seemed to wear the biggest shoulder pads in the world. And they hit anything that moved. And they walked away with bloody noses. And they didn't care.
"I was like, 'Man, this is a madhouse,'" Howard says. "Then you got used to it. Then they kept going. They'd take your head off and they didn't care who you were. That was my introduction to the Mob mentality. We didn't just stop you from scoring, we stopped you from scoring and sent a message with every hit and every tackle. We dominated the game. I couldn't see how a group of guys could be more intimidating than those guys were."
K-State ranked No. 1 in Division I-A in total defense in 1995.
It ranked No. 16 in total defense 1996.
It ranked No. 4 in 1997.
It ranked No. 3 in 1998.
It ranked No. 2 in 1999.
Four of five seasons Howard was on roster, K-State finished no worse than No. 4 in total defense in the country.
"The nastiness was there," Howard says. "We stepped on the field thinking we were going to win a game by 50 points. That's not real life. We came onto the field on Saturdays in Manhattan, and we've been through practice, and we knew we'd win by 30, no hesitation, just because of the guys around you. That's not normal. If you're Miami in the 1990s, OK. If you're Nebraska, OK.
"But coming from a program where guys before me hand-built the program, that doesn't happen."
Except it did. And Howard grew to become 275 pounds. And he played for some of the best defensive minds in college football — Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Jim Leavitt, Bob Fello and Phil Bennett.
Howard's first-career sack came against Rice on September 21, 1996. His last-career sack came during a three-sack performance against Marques Tuiasosopo in a 24-20 win over Washington in the 1999 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, California. He showed his vast potential when he posted a career-high four tackles for a loss and three sacks against Iowa State en route to Second Team All-Big 12 Conference honors in 1997. He had four tackles, including two sacks for a loss and one sack of Donovan McNabb in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl. That campaign propelled him to a Big 12-leading 10.5 sacks in 1998. He went on a tear with 7.5 sacks over the final five league games.
He's humble. He's quick to credit his coaches.
"They're all legends," he says.
He's quick to credit his teammates.
"They were highly intelligent," Howard says. "These were great athletes."
A sampling of some of the defensive backs opposing quarterbacks had to throw against during that time: Chris Canty, Terence Newman, Mario Smith, Clyde Johnson, Monty Spiller, Joe Gordon, Lamar Chapman, Dyshod Carter, Jarrod Cooper, Gerald Neasman and Jerametrius Butler.
A sampling of some of the linebackers opposing quarterbacks had to contend with during that time: Percell Gaskins, David Damon, Deshawn Fogle, Jeff Kelly, Mark Simoneau, Travis Ochs, Ben Leber and Travis Litton.
"We had some really good linebackers through the years," Howard says. "Jeff Kelly was all over the place and Mark Simoneau was highly intelligent and that just trickled down. Ben Leber started playing when I was about to leave, but I saw high intelligence and playmaking in him also."
Howard had 53 tackles, including 14 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks to go along with two interceptions and a school-record six forced fumbles as a senior. He earned Third Team All-America honors. He finished his career with 191 tackles, including 54 tackles for a loss and 29.5 sacks to go along with two interceptions, 19 batted passes, nine forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
He didn't last long in the 2000 NFL Draft. The Saints took him with the 33rd overall pick.
"When I first got to K-State that was my introduction to defensive line, so I had to soak in everything that was going on around me," Howard says. "I learned a lot from Nyle Wiren and learned a ton from Andrew Timmons and his pass-rush technique. Obviously, we had the coaching. But I had to make it my own thing because I didn't know any better. I had to learn hand moves. I played basketball in high school, and I figured if I could cross over a dude in basketball, I should be able to cross over a 300-pound offensive lineman.
"So, I made the move and got my hands up and crossed guys over and that's how it started. Then I started to pick up techniques. It wasn't easy. It took some time."
One day during Howard's early career stands out the most.
"I had a particularly good day of practice my freshman year and Coach Snyder had me stand up in front of the team," Howard says. "He told me, 'If you keep your head down and keep working, you're going to be a hell of a player.'"
Howard's thoughts trail back to how this all began.
"It's an odd thing when I think about it, the course of things that happened for me to end up at that school with that coach and those teammates," Howard says. "I know I had to make a decision, but there's a part of it that I had nothing to do with, especially when you consider the guy that came to recruit me and what small piece of data he found in those days when it was just a VHS tape, he found that little piece of footage and saw something.
"The chances of that happening are so small there's no conceivable way that I can say that I made this happen or he made this happen. It was something else. It's like I was supposed to be at that school. I was supposed to be there.
"I think it was the best decision I made in my life."
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