HOUSTON -- Tytus Howard's college football career began with a Facebook message.
His mom, Teresa Rivers, reached out to Alabama State head coach Reggie Barlow, asking him to take a look at her son, a high school quarterback. Rivers thought her son deserved a shot at playing at the next level, and she wanted him to do it somewhere close. She had just moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and had heard of Alabama State. So she sent a message to Barlow, telling him about Howard, and sent along a few highlight tapes.
“I told him if he gave him an opportunity to come in and prove himself, I know he would earn a scholarship,” Rivers said last week, after Howard was drafted by the Houston Texans with the No.