JUCO cornerback Antonio Howard makes pledge to Texas A&M

When you know, you know, and it did not take long for Independence CC 2017 cornerback Antonio Howard to know he was ready to be a Fightin' Texas Aggie.

Howard, who is originally from Miami (Fla.), received his scholarship offer from Texas A&M this spring, but even before the offer arrived, he knew College Station was where he wanted to be due to the connection he had with new Texas A&M defensive backs coach Ron Cooper

“I was sold on Coach Cooper when he was at FIU, so pretty much that was my guy from there,” Howard said. “Me and coach have had a good bond ever since then. He was recruiting me at FIU and he offered me at FIU, and he messed around and left and went to A&M. I never knew until I hit him up on Twitter and it said A&M. I said, ‘Oh, snap, let me hit coach up.’ So I hit coach up. I said, ‘Coach, I saw you got another job, and if you’re looking for another DB, I’m your guy.’”

From there, Cooper took Howard’s tape to the rest of the staff, and everything quickly escalated.

“So everybody was fired up about me, and once they offered, they put me on a flight for an official visit, so it was pretty serious,” Howard said.

“It seemed like they really wanted me. He said they don’t 'want' me – they need me.”

Once he got a feel for the environment, it only made his choice easier.

“It’s very comfortable. It feels like home,” he said. “The coaches – I like the coaches. The players – they’re cool. It’s a great environment. And the academics – I like the academics. They take that seriously. I really like that.”

Before making his decision though, Howard wanted to make sure he was ready. Plus, he had new attention and new options arriving every other day, so he wanted to discuss his options with his family. He also wanted to check out a few more options since he did not do that when he was coming out of high school.

On April 29, he took his official visit to UCF, and he promptly followed the trip with an official visit to Louisville at the first of May. However, the new attention only deepened his love for to the Aggies.

“That really hyped me up,” Howard said. “Coach Cooper gave me a shot, so everybody did. He pretty much gave me a shot before everybody did. That was before all of this hype and all that. I had FIU during the football season, and he had confidence in me. A lot of people weren’t confident in me and were hesitating, but coach did not play any games and I told him from the jump I’m his guy.”

Howard chose Texas A&M over offers from TCU, Ole Miss, Louisville, Iowa State and UCF. He joins the Aggies’ 2017 recruiting class and will graduate from Independence CC this summer with three years to play three seasons.

As a senior at Hialeah-Miami Lakes, Howard signed with Marshall. He redshirted his true freshman year before transferring to Independence.