Ex-LSU QB Walker Howard transferring to Ole Miss

Former LSU QB Walker Howard is heading east.

Howard said Wednesday morning that he’d be transferring to Ole Miss. Howard chose the SEC school over TCU after he visited the College Football Playoff school over the weekend.

Howard was one of the first big recruits to sign with LSU after Brian Kelly was hired as the team’s coach. The class of 2022 commit was the No. 20 player in the country and the No. 2 pro-style QB in the class. The Louisiana native was a five-star recruit and ranked behind only Clemson’s Cade Klubnik among pro-style QBs in Rivals’ rankings.

But his tenure in Baton Rouge only lasted a season after the Tigers’ signed Arizona State QB Jayden Daniels as a transfer. Daniels led the team to the SEC title game in his first season at LSU and was one of the best dual-threat QBs in the conference. Daniels threw for over 2,900 yards and just three interceptions while rushing for 885 yards.

Daniels announced at the end of the season that he’d be back at LSU for the 2023 season. That was a decision likely to relegate Howard to the bench for another year.

But now Howard has a great chance to compete for a starting job at Ole Miss. While the Rebels started the season 7-0, they finished 2022 at 8-5 after losing five of their final six games. Opposing defenses figured out that Ole Miss wasn’t as good throwing the ball as it had been in previous seasons. Former USC QB Jaxson Dart had just two games with over 300 passing yards and failed to crack 200 yards on five occasions.

With RB Quinshon Judkins (1,567 yards) back for another season next year, the Ole Miss rushing attack is going to be very good again. And Howard could make the passing game as good as it was with Matt Corral at QB if he wins the starting job over Dart. Ole Miss rushed the ball 47 times a game in 2022 and threw the ball 30 times a game.