Former LSU QB Walker Howard Makes It Official, Will Transfer To Ole Miss To Play For Lane Kiffin

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BATON ROUGE - As far as LSU fans are concerned, former quarterback Walker Howard is going to Hell.

That is how LSU fans refer to where Ole Miss should go in chants about the border rival Rebels. And Howard is viewed in some circles as the worst kind of traitor, because he is one of LSU's own. His father, Jamie Howard, was the Tigers' starting quarterback from nearby Lafayette for four seasons from 1992-95.

But this is the NCAA Transfer Portal era in college football. And Howard - a five-star signee out of St. Thomas More High in Lafayette in 2022 - did not want to be a third team quarterback for a second straight year behind starter Jayden Daniels and current backup Garrett Nussmeier.

Howard announced his transfer to Ole Miss on his twitter account Wednesday morning. OutKick reported on Tuesday that is what Walker would do.

"Hotty Toddy" was his quote, which is Ole Miss' patented cheer.

LSU fans reacted with anger on Twitter.

Walker Howard Was A Five-Star Prospect

Howard was the No. 5 quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com in the 2021-22 recruiting cycle and a five-star prospect. He signed in LSU's 2022 class. That was the first class of coach Brian Kelly, who had taken over the previous December. Kelly had recruited Howard to his previous coaching stop at Notre Dame.

But Kelly would not guarantee Howard equal No. 2 snaps to Nussmeier during the upcoming spring drills when Howard and Kelly met after the 2022 season. Howard told TigerBait.com, a recruiting website based in Baton Rouge, last week he would enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. He then visited Ole Miss and TCU over the weekend and was offered lucrative Name, Image & Likeness deals by Auburn, but was not interested.

Howard was also not interested in Florida and coach Billy Napier, who offered Howard a scholarship two years ago when Napier was the University of Louisiana coach.

Howard will be a redshirt freshman at Ole Miss and enter the program as the No. 2 quarterback behind starter Jaxson Dart.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.