Inside The Huskies

Huskies Make scholarship Offer to Fresno Quarterback, Who's Just 15

JJ Howard has started two seasons with two more to go at his California high school.
Dan Raley|
JJ Howard visits BYU and coach Kalani Sitake.
JJ Howard visits BYU and coach Kalani Sitake. | BYU

Who knows where everyone will be once he graduates from high school in 2028, but quarterback Jamar "JJ" Howard Jr., just 15, has a University of Washington football football scholarship offer in hand.

When Howard becomes ready for the college game, current Husky signal-caller Demond Williams Jr. likely will have just completed his Montlake run and left town.

This much is certain: Howard is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound passer from Clovis West High School in Fresno, California, and will provide someone with a highly mature player when it's time.

For now, the young kid is learning his football trade while armed with a dozen scholarship offers that have come his way, with Miami, Oregon, BYU and Arizona State among the others.

"I just try to keep a level head -- stay humble, stay God-kept, stay prayed up -- because I know that stuff can really go away if anything happens, even just a little something," Howard told WestCoastPreps.com.

Things have come fairly quickly for this tall, athletic QB with decent arm strength. He has a chance to get significantly bigger and better, too. Otherwise, he takes every opportunity to make something happen in the bl in his hands.

In 2024, on his first varsity play as a Clovis West freshman starter, Howard threw a 71-yard touchdown pass to teammate Jonovan Darrington, now a Fresno State defensive back, on a double-reverse, flea-flicker play call.

For a 3-8 team, he completed 171 passes in 282 attempts for 2,006 yards and 15 touchdowns, with 11 interceptions, hanging in there without much help.

"[It was] a lot of growth, for sure, a lot of ups and downs," Howard told the BarkBoard site that covers Fresno State football, referring to his first year. "I learned how to get through the lows. Just learning and growing after being in those situations plenty of times. Now I know what I'm supposed to do."

This past season for an 8-4 Golden Eagles team, he connected on 150 of 293 passes for 2,251 yards and 32 touchdowns, with 10 picks.

Showing off his playmaking ability, Howard brought Clovis West back from a 21-0 deficit to city rival Clovis East by throwing for 308 yards and 4 scores in a 28-21 comeback victory.

Early in the season, he let fly with a 5-touchdown passing performance in a 43-14 win over Liberty High from Bakersfield, California.

Howard took an unofficial visit last weekend to watch the UW-Oregon football game and he's definitely a quarterback to keep an eye on.

An offer from Husky offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty was presented to him five days following the rivalry match-up, with plenty more pursuers expected as Howard continues at an accelerated rate.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Recruiting