Howard following in dad's footsteps

By Nancy Justis, correspondent

CEDAR FALLS - Like father, like son.

Red-shirt sophomore tight end Darion Howard is one of three players on the University of Northern squad this season who have fathers who also played for the Panthers.

Sherrod Howard played tight end from 1985-88 and ranks sixth on UNI's career receptions list with 129 catches.

“My dad, he's always in my ear telling me about the things that he did here (UNI),” Darion said. “Anything I can do to be better than what he did here will be great.”

It seems the son is off to a good start. Howard, who wears No. 80 like his dad did, caught a career-high five passes for 67 yards in last Saturday's 27-19 loss at third-ranked North Dakota State. He is the Panthers' fourth-best receiver this year with 14 catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns.

“Darion is getting better and better every week,” said UNI Coach Mark Farley. “The thing about Darion that has stood out the past (month), particularly the last (three weeks), from practice to (games) was we all knew he could catch the football, but he's really worked hard at his blocking. That's the way we've been using him.

“But more recently he's had to make some tough catches. I think you'll see Darion playing like a confident tight end that can block and catch rather than just being one-dimensional.”

UNI is not known for throwing to its tight ends on a regular basis, but the position has produced a myriad of very successful athletes. Howard played behind Schuylar Oordt and Ryan Mahaffey last season, both whom went on to NFL training camps. Ryan Helming played in the NFL for several seasons after graduating in 2002.

“If I can get five balls a game, that's more than enough for me,” Howard said. “I love catching passes, catching touchdowns.”

Howard admits learning the blocking part of the position was a struggle at first.

“I didn't have to do nearly as much blocking in high school as here,” he said. “At first it was definitely a struggle ... Just the technique and everything. The hittin' I don't mind, it's just that you've got some big cats you've got to block.”

Howard grew up in Cedar Falls with his mother, stepfather and sister. He played almost every sport, from soccer to baseball to basketball and football. He narrowed his participation to just football and basketball at Cedar Falls High School. A third-team all-state pick as a senior, he led the Tigers with 24 receptions for 334 yards and eight TDs. He caught a career 47 passes.

He also was a three-year starter in basketball as a power forward. When he started getting more looks to play football in college, he realized that would be his sport at the higher level.

“I don't think I could have played (basketball) here,” Howard said. “We've got a pretty good basketball team.”

As a  hometown athlete, attending and playing for UNI always was one of his options.

“It's close, my dad played here, he was a tight end, so that was attractive obviously,” Howard said. “But he was going to support me no matter what decision I made.”

The elder Howard has been to every home Panther game and his mother and stepfather have been to all games both home and away except for the game at Stephen F. Austin. His sister is a freshman volleyball player at South Dakota State, which was playing at NDSU last weekend, too, so she was able to see her brother play football.

The 6-4, 254-pound Howard said he played running back when he was young, “but then I got too big. I've always been a little bit taller and a little bit bigger than everybody else. Except for now. There are some big players out there. Basically, I was too slow to play receiver, but I still love running around catching balls.

“Tight end was a pretty good option for me.”