A.J. Howard: DB · App State · #10.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
A.J. Howard
Plays like an extra linebacker near the line. Rated a two-star prospect, with three seasons of snaps at App State since. On tape: 11 tackles and 1 tackle for loss against Massachusetts, Week 9, 2017.
Play style
Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
66 tackles. 7 passes defended. 1 interception. 2.5 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2017 season · 13 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 10-31@ No. 15 Georgia | 11 | 4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 54-7vs Savannah State | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 20-13@ Texas State | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 3 | |
| Wk 4 | L 19-20vs Wake Forest | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 6 | W 45-31vs New Mexico State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 23-20@ Idaho | 7 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | W 37-29vs Coastal Carolina | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 9 | L 27-30@ Massachusetts | 11 | 8 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | L 45-52@ UL Monroe | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 27-6vs Georgia Southern | 7 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 31-10@ Georgia State | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 63-14vs Louisiana | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
 Bowl | W 34-0vs Toledo | 3 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 66 | 43 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 1 | 7 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
11%7 pass breakupsInterceptions
1interceptionsTackle volume
66tackles this seasonTFL rate
4%2 TFL66 tackles · 2.5 for loss · 7 pass breakups · 1 interception.
3 seasons under Scott Satterfield, all run-heavy offenses — 30-9 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 3.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Road6g | 7.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 4.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 5.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Scott Satterfield
Pass share
38.0%
353 pass / 576 run
Plays / game
71.5
13 games
Team sack rate
2.4%
375 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Player standing · 2017
66 tackles in 13 games, about as many tackles a game as a typical FBS defensive back who plays every week.
How it ended
Three seasons at App State, 121 tackles — the college career is complete.
Four or fewer games in the first season, then ten or more.
Coaching lineage · 2014–2017
1 coachPlayed every college season under Scott Satterfield.
