Lessons from past drive new Penn State football assistant
Feb. 24—Long before he arrived at Penn State's campus for the first time as a top offensive line recruit, Ty Howle learned the lessons that would get him where he wanted to be in life from his father.
David Howle coached football at tiny Bunn High School in North Carolina, a Class 1A school that doesn't garner much national attention. A place where the head coach and his 10-year-old son would cut the grass and line the football field so the couple dozen players on the varsity team would be able to play games under the Friday night lights.
"I messed (the lines) up a couple of times, and it didn't go over too well," Howle said. "I grew up with that, and I learned a lot from that, because I think a lot of times, especially at a place like Penn State, we have unbelievable resources here. But there's never a job too small. And I learned that from him."
Howle got the first big job of his career earlier this month, when Penn State head coach James Franklin tabbed him as the replacement for popular tight ends coach Tyler Bowen, who left on Feb. 1 to take a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Howle spent the 2020 season as an analyst on Franklin's staff, but before that he spent four seasons an assistant at Western Illinois.
Working his way through the ranks never seemed like a big deal for the former Penn State center, as long as he reached his goal of getting back to Beaver Stadium.
Now that he's there, he promises he won't stray far from the small-town values and straightforward ways he learned from so many along the way, namely his immediate predecessor, who didn't just develop an All-American, Pat Freiermuth, but found consistent success on the recruiting trail.
"I got to see how he taught things," Howle said. "I learned from him. ... I obviously know how they've been coached and what Tyler was teaching them, and I'll line that up with our offense and things that I believe in.
"The buy-in has been easy, because I know these guys, and I'm continuing to get to know these guys and their families. I think that's a big piece in getting these guys to play better for you, developing that big relationship where you trust one another."
Trust got Howle a captainship on one of the most beloved Penn State teams, the 2012 squad that stayed together in the face of NCAA sanctions levied that summer for the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.
When Penn State announced his hiring Feb. 5, former teammates flocked to social media to congratulate Howle for the promotion and Franklin for the decision.
"I can't think of a single better person for this job," former guard John Urschel tweeted.
"It means so much to me, because those guys mean so much to me," Howle said. "Obviously, the guys I played with, we went through ups and downs and twists and turns, and those guys mean the world to me. It is really special for me to be able to come back and represent my alma mater and a place that has done so much for me and in my life."
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