MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — On Skyler Howard’s second visit to Darrell K Royal Stadium two years ago, he was a bystander for West Virginia’s 33-16 loss.
His first trip, many years earlier, wasn’t exactly sanctioned.
“I snuck on the field once when we were driving through Austin,” he said. “I was young. Me and my best friend Dylan hopped the fence and got on the field somehow.”
The trespass remains a vivid memory: Imagining those 100,000 empty seats fully occupied on a gameday afternoon. What a rush for the wide-eyed kid whose bedroom in Fort Worth was “covered in burnt-orange with white trim and a white longhorn on the wall.”
Howard’s heroes were Vince Young, Colt McCoy and the Shipleys. But nowadays the fanboy has matured into a Big 12 rival, and Texas exists in the pile of programs who ignored the quarterback out of high school.
Howard’s 16-7 record as a starter includes a 4-2 mark against teams from the Lone Star State. Unless No. 16 West Virginia returns for one of the four bowl games there, Saturday’s trip to Austin will become Howard’s final college game in the Republic.
“It’s going to be fun. I enjoy any chance I get to go back to Texas,” he said before clarifying, “The state, not the school.”
Howard top 20 in passing efficiency
Howard attempted a career-low 12 passes during last season’s 38-20 win over the Longhorns in Morgantown, ceding to a ground attack that ran it 51 times.
In the 11 games since, Howard has averaged 37 attempts and he ranks 19th in NCAA passing efficiency this season — ahead of Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Baylor’s Seth Russell.
He should get chances to exploit a Texas secondary that has been victimized most of the season, ranking 123rd out of 128 teams in pass-efficiency defense.
Then again, the Longhorns have posted back-to-back wins while holding Baylor and Texas Tech below their averages.
“The DBs are chill,” said UT cornerback Kris Boyd. “We just are chill about every situation. We know one minute everybody will love us and the next minute everybody will hate us. So everybody sticks together. We know what we have to do.”