Syracuse, N.Y. — A year before the pandemic hit, Jarveon Howard booked a flight home to Mississippi for spring break.
He was in his bedroom packing up when a family member called.
His father had died.
“That flight home was just tragedy,” said Howard, a former running back for Syracuse. “I was already leaving to go home the next day, and my flight was already made to go home for my dad’s funeral.”
It was a turning point in Howard’s life.
His dad always said: A diamond is always going to shine wherever it’s at.
There’s not a better time to tell Howard’s story of anguish, resilience and independence, strung together by separate interviews with Howard last year and earlier this week.
A year after his father’s death, Howard faced a difficult choice whether to play during the Covid-truncated 2020 football season. He was one of two Syracuse running backs to opt out before the season.
In an interview before he transferred from Syracuse last year, Howard revealed for the first time the personal reason behind that decision.
Needing a mental break from everything going on back home amid the pandemic, he shut off his phone and spent three months in Germany working out and completing 18 credits of online courses while his teammates slogged through a miserable 1-10 season.
He never explained why he stepped away from the team until he spoke with a syracuse.com reporter last year after returning to the field in the season-opener at Ohio.
Three weeks later, Howard entered the transfer portal, later enrolling at Alcorn State, an HBCU school located in his home state of Mississippi.
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He ranks second nationally in rushing at the FCS level and is coming off a career-high 299 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-21 victory against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He rushed for three-straight touchdowns in last week’s win, including a 24-yard run with 36 seconds remaining in the third quarter that put his team ahead for good.
Howard has rushed for 580 yards through four games, including 199 in his debut with Alcorn State on Sept. 3.
The change in scenery has given him a platform he did not have in Syracuse, where he was largely utilized as a short-yardage back early in his career before playing sparingly behind All-American Sean Tucker.
In a twist that has become a part of Tucker’s path to stardom as much as Howard’s, his decision to opt out in 2020 helped maneuver Tucker up the depth chart and into a starring role.
Howard knew the stakes of his decision, but he insisted he was not mentally or physically prepared to play that season. He said strict Covid rules limited how much he could work out in the offseason. He gained 20 pounds in two months.
Also weighing on his mind: the people closest to him back home. He lost a cousin and church members to Covid in the early months of the pandemic, he said.
His teenage sister, Caubrei, has sickle cell disease.
“If she would have got sick, I don’t care if we were in the national championship, I probably would have left,” Howard said.
“It’s family first. Before I met this school and knew that I would have an opportunity to play (at Syracuse), I only had my family, so I gotta stick with my family before anything.”
Howard told Syracuse coach Dino Babers before he left: “When I come back, be ready for what I’m bringing.”
Babers wanted him back to get his degree, Howard said.
“My competitive nature wasn’t going to let me just sit,” Howard said. “I’m a baller ... Coming from a guy that really wanted to go to the NFL, that comes off different or kind of weird. But now that I think about it, I thank him for that, and I can respond back to him now.
“I’m glad that he brought me back so I can get my degree and so I can redshirt and use my two years somewhere else. I really thank him for that.”
After he opted out, Howard spent part of the fall in Germany to work out and prepare for the next season. His girlfriend, a former field hockey player at SU, is from the country.
Howard said he was squatting in a weight room one day when a man approached him and marveled at his physique.
They got to talking, and Howard spent time training like a soccer player with the man’s son. The Meinckes treated him like family, and Howard visited them when he made a return trip this summer.
“It was like a guardian angel that was there,” Howard said of the Meinckes. “I still keep in contact with him. He’s a real mentor. I was blessed to be able to meet those people.”
Howard returned to Syracuse knowing he had to work his way up the depth chart.
Tucker proved too good to supplant.
Howard said he has no hard feelings for anyone in the SU program.
He has taken what he learned from the strength staff in Syracuse and paired it with his training at Alcorn State.
The coaches there recruited Howard out of high school, once envisioning him as a two-way player before he settled in at the position.
“They just let me be me,” Howard said about his hot start to the season. “They’re not trying to put me in the bubble of being a specific running back. They let me do everything. All the coaches around the board, they buy into what I wanted.
“They don’t let me slack. They don’t let me get comfortable. My coaches tell me every week like, ‘We’ve got zero yards. We’re going to come out and just beat yourself.’ ”
When Howard arrived, he didn’t look at it as going from the ACC to the SWAC.
He runs the stadium steps at 4 a.m., then heads to practice by 6. He’s appreciative of the ease at which he can set his own schedule and is driven to work even harder after seeing how good athletes have it at the Power-Five level.
His family, including Caubrei, can come to every game to watch him play. Another sister is at Alcorn State with him. His girlfriend attends school two-and-a-half hours away at Southern Miss.
His life, Howard said, took the course it needed to take.
He still remembers what his dad always told him: A diamond is always going to shine.
“Wherever you put a light on it,” Howard said, “if it’s a real diamond, it could be in the mud; it’s still going to shine.”
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