Austin Howard, Bartlett linebacker, flips from Vanderbilt football to Mississippi State

Austin Howard, a 3-star linebacker from Bartlett, Tennesssee flipped from Vanderbilt football to Mississippi State, he announced on social media Sunday night.

Howard first said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, "I'd like to thank the entire staff at Vanderbilt, some of the greatest and realest people you'll ever meet and the relationship I had with the coaches was like none other, with that being said me, my family and coaches have decided it would be in my best interests to decommit from Vanderbilt."

Ten minutes later, Howard announced he was committing to the Bulldogs in a social media post.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker is the No. 712 player nationally by the 247Sports Composite. He also had offers from Ole Miss and Tennessee.

He had originally committed to Vanderbilt in April and was the third-highest ranked commit in the Commodores' 2025 class. He becomes the third linebacker commit for Mississippi State.

Shortly after Howard's decommitment, another Vanderbilt commit, cornerback Vanzale Hinton, said in a post on X, "We good over here on West End."

Vanderbilt's class, which has just nine commits so far, is ranked No. 63 nationwide.

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Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.