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GamecockScoop Film Room: Grayson “Pup” Howard

When watching film, sometimes it’s easy to tell who the player being promoted is without the player being highlighted. It could be their size that stands out, how they move, or the intensity and violence they display on the football field. Regardless of the trait, some athletes just pop off the film and South Carolina has a number of those types of players in the 2023 class. Pup Howard is no different.

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For linebackers to be successful, an inherent instinctiveness is needed along with the ability to quickly diagnose plays after reading their keys. Howard demonstrates those traits while also possessing the physical tools needed to be successful - speed, physicality, toughness, and excellent technique.

In nearly every highlight, Howard exhibits an understanding of angles and proper tackling form. He arrives at the ball promptly, wrapping both arms around the ball carrier and coming across the football. Howard collected 157 tackles with 3 forced fumbles in 10 games last season. That amount of tackles at any level of football is impressive.

Howard flashes his strength and explosiveness at the 0:15 mark when he comes downhill, takes on the block from the center, and bulldozes the center right back into the running back for the tackle. Many linebackers would have attempted to go around the block and taken themselves out of position and any hope of making the play, but not Howard.

At the 0:41 mark, Howard demonstrates his excellent tackling form and punches the ball out from the ball carrier’s grasp as he wraps up going for the tackle. Howard does the same thing at 0:57.

Linebackers must be able to not only take on blocks but efficiently shed them. At 1:34 the center releases to Howard as Howard takes the block head-on, easily sheds the center, and finishes the play in the backfield for a loss of yardage.

Howard’s film hammers home the traits that make a linebacker successful. South Carolina has now landed three talented and physical linebackers in consecutive classes with Debo Williams in 2021, Stone Blanton in 2022, and Pup Howard in 2023. The linebacking corps has been flipped in a few years' time and the rest of the SEC will find out what that means in short order.

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