KNOXVILLE -- At this point a year ago, Pig Howard was absent from Tennessee's spring football practices, and the wide receiver's future with the Volunteers looked, at best, bleak.
Zach Azzanni, Howard's position coach, put a grimmer label on it after Thursday's practice.
"He was pretty much, for lack of a better term, left for dead as far as everyone was concerned," Tennessee's receivers coach recalled, "because they didn't see him around and he was struggling a little bit and had some issues.
"We gave him another chance, and he took it -- took it and ran with it."
Those off-field issues now look like a hurdle cleared for Howard, the rising senior who was on his last chance when he rejoined the Vols last May and became Tennessee's leading receiver last season. He's much more dedicated to his game and to his academics, and it's benefited both Tennessee and Howard, who admitted after Tuesday's practice he's aware he's entering his final season with the Vols.
"It hit me a little bit," the 5-foot-8, 187-pounder said. "Time flies. I can think about my first day on campus. It just shows take nothing for granted and make the most of every opportunity. I think I came far as far as just a mentality standpoint, academically, athletically.
"On and off the field in general, I think I've made a big step."
Howard led Tennessee with 44 catches during a 388-yard, three-touchdown 2013 season that included a potentially devastating overtime fumble against Georgia where memorably the ball slipped from his hand as he reached for the pylon for a would-be go-ahead touchdown.
He wasn't part of the team last spring, though, and earned his way back on the team only when, at the behest of head coach Butch Jones and the Vols' 13-man player staff, told him he had to stay on campus for mini-term classes last May.
Even after he returned to the team for summer workouts, there were specified checkpoints he had to hit.
"(There's) little things like that with all these guys," Azzanni said, "but it's our job to help them through life and (say), 'Hey, here's what happens, here's how you get back up.' It's never one day he flips the switch on and he's a mature guy. It takes some time. I think back when I was 18 and 19 and just the maturity level. Those guys fight through that same thing.
"He's gradually, from the time he was not doing well last spring to all the way through the season, you've seen him grow."
The experience taught Howard he had to do a better job of handling his business away from football.
"At the end of the day," he said, "I just have to take care of all the off-the-field issues as far as doing my work, (keeping) a positive crowd around me and just being with my teammates, doing what can help me set me up for success and doing what's best for my future."
While many of Tennessee's other receivers were dropping like flies with injuries last season, Howard was the constant, reliable target. He paced the Vols in catches (54) and yards (618) with one touchdown and chipped in 98 yards and two scores running the ball. He's caught a pass in the last 33 games he's played dating back to his debut against Florida in 2012.
The turnaround from where he was a few months earlier has been rewarding to both him and his coaches.
"That's why you coach. That's the best part of it, seeing a guy like that come from the ashes and not even on the team to leading the team in receptions and taking over the South Carolina game," Azzanni said, referencing Howard's 109-yard game in Tennessee's wild comeback win.
"It's very rewarding, and the football part is not the most rewarding part," he added. "(That) is to see him doing well in school and just changing his mentality and maturing and his mom being happy about his progress. Those are the rewarding things for me. If you coach the man, the player will come, and we coached the man and the player's coming along."
Howard's goals this spring include making the players around him better, providing leadership as the most experienced player in his position group and continuing to be a reliable wideout.
"Pig's never going to be the loud, vocal guy," Azzanni said. "He goes out there and you're never really going to know where he is on that field until you watch him play. He's not going to be loud and boisterous. He's just kind of going to do his work.
"I hate to use the term 'lead by example,' but he just goes out there and does the deal, and guys watch him and they want to do the deal like he does."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com