Watching Jaye Howard rip through offensive linemen with his signature club move down after down, it’s nearly impossible to recall the player coaches once considered “lazy.”
As the senior defensive tackle powers through would-be blockers in pursuit of opposing quarterbacks, memories of his life before football, of his time trapped in the basement of Florida’s depth chart, of the inconsistent play that masked his true potential, seem minute and distant.
Over his five years in the Florida program, coaches have brought Howard from reserve, to enigma, to beast.
“They turned a pouting teenager into a man,” his dad, Jerry, said.
And now, with just two, maybe three, games left in his college career, Jaye stands on the precipice of his nearly lifelong goal: the NFL.
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Football was always Jaye’s first love, but initially the game wouldn’t have him.
He wanted to play Pop Warner, but size restrictions didn’t allow it. At age 10 he was 5-foot-7 and about 140 pounds, according to Jerry, which is approximately a foot taller and double the weight of the average 10-year-old.
“Always been a big boy,” Jerry said.
So Jerry turned his son to basketball, where Jaye, at age 9, played center in a league of 10-year-olds.
Thus began a career that lasted through Jaye’s tenure at Orlando Jones High, where he played under Jerry, the team’s coach.
Jaye was a force, a double-double player strong enough to earn a scholarship offer from Furman, Florida’s next opponent on the gridiron.
But when the opportunity presented itself during his freshman year, Jaye chose to play football.
Jones found room for the newcomer right away at tight end. But there was one problem: Jones ran a spread offense. Tight ends weren’t featured.
“He just wanted to get on the field, so he played defensive end,” Jerry said.
So began a new adjustment phase, as Jaye needed nearly his entire sophomore year to learn the nuances of his new position.
The rest of his high school career was smooth sailing, and he eventually earned a four-star rating from Rivals.com.
“Once they put him on the defensive side, he had a passion for it,” Jerry said. “He always had the instinct on finding the football.”
As well as he found the football in high school, he could hardly find the field at Florida.
He chose UF because he wanted a shot at playing defensive end, but the Gators were fully stocked at the position. His signing class had three other highly-touted ends — Carlos Dunlap, Duke Lemmens and Justin Trattou — joining a 2007 roster that already featured future NFL players Derrick Harvey and Jermaine Cunningham.
So Jaye, then a 230-pound defensive end — although Jerry said his son was closer to 260 — redshirted and began the transition inside to defensive tackle. In 2008 he was listed as a 270-pound hybrid. The next year, as a redshirt sophomore, the roster had him as a 296-pound tackle.
The physical transition was complete. The mental part, on the other hand, was still a work in progress.
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It’s spring practice before his sophomore season, and Jaye is pleased with himself after an impressive performance in the trenches.
As he walks off the field, coach Urban Meyer delivers a sobering message.
“Meyer said, ‘Jaye, you can’t play, but you had a good practice and you’re coming along,’” Jerry recalled.
Jaye is offended. He starts to pout. Won’t even make eye contact with Meyer.
“He thought he had a good day and the coach said, ‘Hey, you’re not that good,’” Jerry said.
After being the biggest and the fastest throughout his high school career, Jaye was a small fish in a large pond. The Gators were fresh off their 2008 National Championship — a win Jaye watched from the bench — and cracking the lineup was not a given.
He thought he was playing well and deserved more time, but the coaches and the film said otherwise.
Jaye had to battle for his spot. His ability to freelance was gone. It was the coaches’ way or the highway. Follow your assignment every single time, or you won’t play.
“That’s what the talk of the laziness, the pouting, came from,” Jerry said. “Jaye felt that he played well enough to play, and the coaches said he wasn’t ready.”
In the fall of 2009, as a redshirt sophomore, Jaye was a rotational player. He started four games and saw time in 12, amassing 29 tackles and one and a half sacks.
Then, in 2010, his opening finally came. With Dunlap and Cunningham gone, Jaye’s playing time increased. The newfound opportunity served as motivation, and Jaye capitalized in the first game of his junior season. Against Miami (Ohio), he had two sacks and five tackles.
“If you are lazy, good things don’t happen to you,” former Florida defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said the following week. “He’s starting to work hard, and good things are happening to him.”
Comments like these served as extra inspiration for Jaye.
“It motivated me to go out there and practice even harder today to prove people wrong day by day,” he said.
As a junior in 2010, Jaye recorded 28 tackles, including 10.5 for loss and 2.5 sacks despite missing two games with a right ankle sprain.
Still, he struggled to shake his “inconsistent” label.
“He’ll tell you himself, sometimes he didn’t go as hard as he should have,” junior defensive tackle Omar Hunter said. “This year, that’s one thing he’s stepped up. Every play, he’s not taking any plays off, any practice reps off. He’s going as hard as he can all the time.”
After not playing enough as a freshman and sophomore, Jaye said he played too much as a junior. But last year’s three-man defensive tackle rotation has grown to five, and that’s allowed him to “give it all I have every play.”
Coach Will Muschamp said he has demanded and received consistency from Day 1, and Hunter has seen new maturity in Jaye.
“He’s definitely grown up a lot since last year,” Hunter said. “He’s getting better each and every day.”
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Much of what Jaye has brought to the Gators this season can’t be measured in tackles and sacks.
“Leadership,” junior linebacker Jon Bostic said. “He’s seen everything. He’s been here through the good times, through the bad times. Basically, he’s the one that’s keeping everybody going, keeping everybody up.”
If any year provided an excuse for slacking off, it would be this one. Florida is 5-5. Once-lofty goals of Southeastern Conference titles and BCS bowls are long gone. Now, it’s just about getting to a bowl game and avoiding a losing season.
That hasn’t changed a thing for Jaye.
In his final year at Jones, he was the only senior returning to a state championship basketball team. Jerry said Jaye stepped up and made the most of the situation, leading his teammates with his words and by example, on and off the floor.
This year, Jaye is once again on a struggling team with championship memories, and once again he’s stepping into a leadership role.
“He’s still a vocal presence at practice,” Hunter said. “Every time he makes a play, ‘Omar, it’s your turn. It’s your turn. You’ve got to go make one.’ … We’re all talking to each other in the game, and Jaye starts some of that a lot of the times.”
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Jaye’s days as a student-athlete are numbered, but neither he nor Jerry is thinking about the NFL.
Jaye considered the jump to the professional ranks last year, but with the help of his family decided it would be best to come back to secure a degree — he graduates in December — and get another year of football under his belt.
Only time will tell if he finds a home in April’s NFL Draft, but defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said Jaye has many of the requisite attributes.
Jaye is “heavy-handed;” his punches have impact. At the snap of the ball, he bursts through the line of scrimmage. He can “play square” against the run and shed blocks to make tackles. He anchors double teams.
His bull rush is powerful. Against FAU on Sept. 3, he simultaneously pushed left tackle Samuel McRoy and left guard Andy Czuprynski — a combined 560 pounds of lineman — into quarterback Graham Wilbert for a sack.
Jaye has aspired to be in the NFL since he was 9 or 10, Jerry says, back when Pop Warner wouldn’t have him.
If he’s lucky enough to have his name called on draft day, Jerry predicts a simple reaction.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said. “He would never dream of being in that spot.”
Contact Greg Luca at gluca@alligator.org.
After laboring away at the bottom of the depth chart, senior Jaye Howard has become a fixture on the Gators’ defensive line. The boy who once was told he couldn’t play football is now a man on the verge of the NFL.
