Miami makes impression on 6-foot-7 tight end-turned-tackle with promise of development
Logan Howland knows, above all else, he needs to find a college staff ready to develop him.
It’s because, even though he’s a three-star tackle, Howland has never played a down of offensive line in high school. Even though he’s up to about two dozen scholarship offers, Howland knows he’s going to be something of a project for whatever team he winds up picking.
After spending the weekend in Coral Gables for an official visit, Howland believes the Miami Hurricanes, with Mario Cristobal leading the way, could be the perfect fit.
“They can kind of mold me into the offensive lineman they want,” the 6-foot-7, 280-pound lineman said. “I’ll be fresh with all the technique, all the stuff they want to put in.”
As the No. 50 tackle in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2023, Howland is bursting with potential because of everything he hasn’t done yet.
He has never actually played tackle in high school, mostly sticking to tight end and defensive end at Hun in Princeton, New Jersey. Really, he hasn’t played much in high school at all after he mostly sat on the bench at New Jersey’s Westfield and lost basically all of his 2020 season to the COVID-19 pandemic. He even reclassified after the 2020 season, transferring to his new school and moving from the Class of 2022 to the 2023 class in hopes of giving himself more chances to catch college coaches’ attention.
Now, he will have a choice to make next month, after he wraps up his fourth official visit this weekend. Miami is one of those four finalists — along with the Oklahoma Sooners, Michigan Wolverines and Iowa Hawkeyes — and Howland said a commitment should come sometime in in July.
“Every school gets a little more convincing every time I go,” said Howland, who caught six passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns last year as a receiver, and added 21 tackles, four tackles for loss and four sacks as a defensive lineman. “I’m trying to schedule a commitment toward the beginning of July, right around the very beginning. Hopefully, that’s what we can do, if all goes well. If it changes, it’ll probably be the middle of July.
“I’m trying to develop a ranking system, and I wait a week after my visit, but then I’m at another school, so it kind of wastes my time because that school just jumps to the top.”
With the trip to South Florida still fresh in Howland’s mind, the Hurricanes are the team he’s feeling high on right now. The visit was his second to Miami — he also took an unofficial visit in March — and he said he “loved” it.
Part of the appeal is the area because, as he put it, “it’s hard not to love a city like Miami.” A bigger selling point is Cristobal and the hands-on approach he takes with his offensive linemen, often jumping into drills to provide individualized instruction alongside offensive line coach Alex Mirabal.
“From my experience, it’s kind of unique,” Howland said. “He’s always working with the offensive line. He’ll rotate. One day he’ll work with the tackles and tight ends, next day he’ll work with the guards and centers, and he keeps doing that. He builds such a great relationship and he builds such a great offensive line at the schools he’s been at prior to Miami.”
Since Howland’s top priority is finding the team best suited to develop him, Cristobal gives the Hurricanes a nice edge.
“Every school can develop players,” Howland said, “it’s just a matter of how quickly, so to speak, or who has the best relationship with the offensive line room, more than anything else.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 3:57 PM.
