Walker Howard is following in his father’s footsteps.
The St. Thomas More junior quarterback announced on social media Friday that he was committing to play collegiate football at LSU — his father Jamie’s alma mater.
The 6-foot-1, 183-pound Cougar quarterback released a video on Twitter with the tagline “Legacy Continues… Go Tigers.” In the video, Howard announced his decision and is seen leaving a No. 4 LSU jersey (the jersey his father wore) on the grave of his late mother (whom he thanked) and then said “Geaux Tigers” before walking off.
Walker is the fifth prospect to commit to LSU for the 2022 signing class as he joins cornerback Khamauri Rogers of Lexington, Mississippi, wide receiver Decoldest Crawford of Shreveport, safety Bryce Anderson of Beaumont, Texas and safety Bryan Allen Jr. of Aledo, Texas.
Despite receiving little playing time as a freshman and sophomore (25 pass attempts as a backup to Caleb Holstein), Howard has been collecting scholarship offers from Power 5 conference programs for some time due to strong performances at summer camps held across the country.
In addition to the offer from LSU, Howard also had offers from several other Southeastern Conference schools including Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
In addition to the SEC offers, Howard had offers from the Big 10 (Michigan State, Nebraska and Penn State), the PAC-12 (Arizona State, Colorado and USC), the Big 12 (Baylor and TCU), the ACC (Boston College and N.C. State), the American Athletic (Houston and Tulane), Conference-USA (Florida Atlantic) and Sun Belt (University of Louisiana).
The elder Walker, who also quarterbacked STM, was a four-year letterman and three-year starter at LSU and still ranks fifth in Tigers’ history in career passing yard (6,158) and seventh in touchdown passes (34).
Walker’s commitment gives LSU head coach Ed Orgeron and his staff yet another high-profile quarterback commitment.
For the recently-signed 2020 class, LSU grabbed four-star prospect Max Johnson (son of Super Bowl champion Brad Johnson) out of Georgia and three-star T.J. Finley from Ponchatoula High. For the 2021 class, LSU received a commitment in May from four-star prospect Garrett Nussmeier out of Texas.
LSU also has offered Zachary High quarterback Eli Holstein (younger brother of Caleb) for the 2023 class.