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Gophers: Speed option was too good to pass up
Tim Brewster can't wait until Harold Howell, his 5-foot-7 blur of a return man, becomes a very visible impact player who opponents will fear.
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Gophers football coach Tim Brewster received a phone call from a high school coach/friend not long after taking the job in January asking if he would be interested in signing the fastest player in Florida.
Well, um, sure.
Naturally, there was a catch. The kid is not very big, his grades were suspect and Minnesota is a long ways from Florida. Brewster, who loves speed like Donald Trump loves money, wasn't deterred, though.
As signing day approached, Brewster pursued Harold Howell aggressively and upon signing him, immediately hyped the speedy receiver/kick returner as "one of the most electrifying high school football players I have ever seen."
Gophers fans who hadn't seen Howell's YouTube highlight video -- it's worth checking out -- got a glimpse of his speed in the season opener last week, most notably on a 22-yard kickoff return on which he actually covered twice as much ground after he reversed field.
Howell took over as the team's primary returner in place of Dominic Jones, who was dismissed from the team this offseason. In his college debut Howell returned three punts for 16 yards and two kickoffs for 36 yards against Bowling Green.
Brewster has made it clear he believes Howell will develop into a game-changing return man.
He also moved Howell up to the second team at wide receiver for Saturday's game against Miami (Ohio).
"He's going to be around here the next four years, and it's going to be exciting," Brewster said.
Howell landed at Minnesota, in part, because his grades caused some recruiters to pass. But he said he buckled down as a senior and became a full NCAA qualifier.
Howell admits he knew little about Minnesota's program, other than it produced former star tailback Laurence Maroney. He received a strong recommendation from his high school coach, J.D. Hall, a close friend of Brewster's who died of a heart attack this summer at age 35.
"[Hall] said coming to Minnesota would be a thumbs up," Howell said.
In return, the Gophers received an intriguing prospect. Two things in particular stand out about Howell: his size and his speed.
The media guide lists Howell at 5-8, 160 pounds. He said he's more like 5-7½ and 155. That ranks him among the smallest players in the Big Ten and possibly the nation.
Howell and Brewster simply shrug when his size is mentioned.
"To me, the size is a non-issue because he is really, really fast," Brewster said. "If you can't tackle the young fella, I don't care how big he is."
Said Howell: "The teams that were recruiting me never doubted my size. I can run."
But what happens if/when he takes a big hit? It's a legitimate concern.
"He's always played with bigger kids his whole life," said Howell's father, Harold II. "He's not big, but he's deceptively strong."
There is nothing deceptive about his speed. As a senior at Mandarin High in Jacksonville, Howell won the Class 4A state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. His winning time in the 200 was 21.05 seconds, which would have been good enough for second place in the Big Ten outdoor championships last season.
He won the 100 in 10.72, just ahead of Chris Rainey (10.73), a freshman running back at the University of Florida who some considered the fastest player in Florida. Howell's winning time would have finished just outside the top eight at the Big Ten meet.
Howell turned sheepish when asked if he considered himself the fastest player in Florida last season.
"Well, I didn't race every player in Florida," he said.
Howell also finished fourth in the state in the long jump (23 feet, 2 inches), even though he began competing in that event only two weeks earlier. And he ran the anchor leg on Mandarin's 4x100 team, which finished first.
Howell said he hopes to continue his track career at Minnesota.
"I've been running track since I was 7," he said. "I guess I've been fast for a while."
It's no secret, either. Bowling Green tried to kick away from Howell in his first college game.
"I think his reputation precedes him," Brewster said. "There are a lot of people who are aware of Harold Howell and the damage he can do."
Chip Scoggins • ascoggins@startribune.com
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