Tulane names Keon Howard starting quarterback

NEW ORLEANS – Tulane football head coach Willie Fritz announced today that he has named redshirt senior Keon Howard as the starting quarterback for the 2020 season.

“I think he has had a great camp,” Fritz said of Howard. “He has taken charge and he has command of the team and the offense. He is running the ball with authority, when he does tuck it and run it. I have been very impressed with him. We have always known that he has the great leadership skills. He was just looking for an opportunity and he’s got it right now and it seems to me that he is taking advantage of it.”

Howard is entering his third season in Uptown. He spent last season as the backup quarterback and sat out the 2018 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

“Keon Howard has worked extremely hard,” Tulane offensive coordinator Will Hall said of Howard. “He has put a ton of time in it. He is at the office as much as the coaches are. He has done a great job of understanding the offense. He is a really good passer. He has great touch on the ball. He is really accurate, and he is running with a lot of force. He is in great shape, so he has had a great camp so far.”

Howard has stepped up as a leader in the locker room for the Olive and Blue this season. Both sides of the ball believe in him to lead the Green Wave.

“Keon is our guy,” senior defensive lineman Cameron Sample said. “He is a great leader. I consider myself a workaholic coming up here and getting extra film and extra work and just about every time I am up here I see his car parked outside. He is either in here in the training room or on the field working. I just know that every day after practice he’s asking me how the defense is looking and what I saw out there. We just bounce ideas off each other. He is really a football guy. He has bought into the system and I am excited to see him work whenever we play.”

Graduate transfer wide receiver Mykel Jones has also been impressed with Howard throughout camp.

“There is a lot of talent in that quarterback room right now, but Keon Howard is for sure the leader,” Jones said of Howard. “We can tell by how he is coming out there. He is really practicing hard and really leading the guys. Like Coach Hall said, he has really been accurate and on point. He’s doing everything he has to do to be that guy, that number one guy.”

Howard is ready to step up to the challenge and lead Tulane’s offense.

“I am really, really blessed after going through everything I went through,” Howard said. “It was just a lot of unprecedented situations. But it is my senior season and I am super ready. I am ready to lead the team in a positive and productive way and try to make sure we keep going each and every day to be the best we can be as a team.”

The Laurel, Mississippi, native began his collegiate career at Southern Miss in 2016. In his first season in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Howard started two games after redshirting all season long. He was the team’s leading rusher against Old Dominion with 28 attempts for 98 yards and a touchdown. Howard added 230 yards on 12-for-24 attempts through the air.

In 2017, the 6-1, 215-pound quarterback started seven games and made nine appearances. Howard threw for 2,010 yards on 96-of-170 for eight touchdowns. He logged a career-best three touchdown passes against UTSA and Louisiana Tech.

The redshirt senior made four appearances last season for Tulane. He completed four passes for 120 yards, including an 88-yard touchdown pass at home against Missouri State.

Tulane is set to kickoff the season in Mobile, Alabama, against South Alabama on Saturday, September 12. The Green Wave are coming off a record setting 2019 campaign that was highlighted by a win in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl to give Tulane back-to-back bowl victories for the first time in program history. The Green Wave captured the AutoNation Cure Bowl in 2018.

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