The season’s yet to start, and Texas Longhorns locker room chemistry has already hit a bumpy road. Although the players are working hard in fall camp, an angry social media post from a freshman’s father is creating an awkward distraction just weeks before the big kickoff.
“@orangebloods_@CJVogel_OTF A LOT OF BULL S—GOING ON AT TEXAS AS A PARENT, I’M VERY DISAPPOINTED I DID NOT PLAY THE POLITIC GAMES MY SON PLAY FOOTBALL IN HE DOES IT VERY WELL !!! ITS A LOT OF SHIT GOING ON YALL DONT KNOW IN IM ABOUT TO EXPOSE THIS SH—”
On August 22nd, the Longhorns fell victim to a classic case of family frustration spilling onto social media. Hayward Howard Sr., the father of true freshman defensive back Hayward Howard Jr., went completely rogue on X with a rant threatening to “expose” the program.
He tagged a couple of major Texas media handles to make sure everyone saw his irritation clearly. The main trigger for this outburst seems to be good old-fashioned college football politics and playing time.
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The angry post dropped right after the Longhorns wrapped up their second major closed scrimmage of fall camp. Howard Jr., who is a super talented four-star freshman cornerback out of New Orleans, didn’t get any snaps with the starting units during that high-stakes practice.
In the eyes of Howard Sr., his son plays football “very well” and shouldn’t have to deal with what he calls political games. Because he’s a former college athlete himself, having played defensive tackle at Ole Miss back in the day, he expected his son to ball out and make an impact.
Seeing his kid buried on the freshman depth chart during a crucial preseason scrimmage was clearly too much for him to handle silently.
Despite the heavy threats to blow the whistle on the program, team insiders and sports analysts are urging fans to take a deep breath. Some are saying his pops is only making it worse for Hayward.
Then again, true freshmen rarely walk onto an elite program and get first-team snaps right away during fall camp. Howard Jr. actually flashed some good potential during the spring game with multiple pass breakups; coaches are naturally leaning on experienced veterans for the early season grind. He is no slouch whatsoever.
Back in his high school at Edna Karr in New Orleans, the Louisiana native led his defense to an undefeated season and a big Louisiana state championship title. He is a 4-star prospect across all recruiting services and a top-30 cornerback in the entire country according to 247Sports, and a top-ten player for Rivals in his home state. The Longhorns had to fight LSU for his recruitment.
Apparently, this social media noise couldn’t have come at a worse time for head coach Steve Sarkisian, who is already dealing with some real locker room shifts.
Just a day before this online explosion, the team announced the permanent dismissal of veteran linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith for conduct detrimental to the team. Fans initially connected the two events, but insiders confirmed no relation between the linebacker’s departure and the freshman cornerback’s situation.
So far, the Texas coaching staff is completely ignoring the dad’s internet drama and treating it as outside noise. Coach Sarkisian has his hands full cleaning up what he called a “too sloppy” performance from the offense during that exact same scrimmage. The team is trying to lock in because their highly anticipated season opener against Texas State is just around the corner on September 5.
At the end of the day, college football experts agree that parent outbursts like this rarely go well for the actual player. Instead of forcing the coaches to give his son more playing time, Howard Sr.’s public rant mostly just serves as an awkward distraction for the locker room.
Howard Jr. remains a stellar piece of the Longhorns’ future secondary, but he will have to put his head down and earn his spot despite his dad’s online fireworks.
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