by Blake Largent

Beyond the Diagnosis

For sophomore Austin Howard, Type 1 diabetes is an advantage, one he’s using to show others what is possible

A person wearing a Vanderbilt hoodie and headphones stands on stairs, looking off to the side.A person wearing a Vanderbilt hoodie and headphones stands on stairs, looking off to the side.
Brendan Ross

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — “I'd say Type 1 diabetes is really a superpower,” Vanderbilt sophomore Austin Howard said with a grin. “It teaches you discipline. It teaches you consistency. It teaches you a lot of things that you can apply to the different phases of life.”

Howard, appearing in all 18 games for the Commodores in his career so far, has been playing with Type 1 diabetes for three years after being diagnosed in high school. And not only has Howard earned consistent playing time at the SEC level, but he is now one of 27 athletes nationally to receive an NIL deal with Dexcom, one of the global leaders in continuous glucose monitoring technology for diabetes management.

Howard’s diagnosis came while playing three sports – football, basketball and track – with aspirations of competing in NCAA Division I athletics. He was already chasing something that the vast majority of high school athletes never reach, and now was tasked with managing diabetes on top of it.

A football player wearing jersey number 30 raises a hand with three fingers extended while standing with teammates on a field.Austin Howard celebrates a Vanderbilt win with teammates and fans.
“A lot of times when you're in a hard position, I believe you have to look at yourself and ask what you are doing about it for yourself, instead of just pointing the finger and blaming other people.”

Austin Howard

“It was harder to adjust to,” Howard said. “And it was more so me not wanting to care about it or acknowledge it. My mom was constantly worried about me, always checking my blood sugar, always making specific meals. It was more of a hindrance at first because I wasn’t allowing it to be part of who I am. But once I started to understand it enough and embrace it, it got to a point where I didn't really let it negatively affect me too much.

“I never had a second thought about me going on to play college sports,” he continued. “It was never a doubt to me. Especially with some pro football players, I already knew about Mark Andrews making it to the NFL. That was inspiration I can go off of.”

Howard ultimately received multiple Division I offers to play football. This included other SEC programs, such as Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. But one school’s pitch stood out for Howard among the rest: Vanderbilt.

“The whole thing that it came down to was just seeing the vision that Coach [Clark] Lea, then Coach [Nick] Lezynski, had for me and seeing how realistic it was for them,” Howard said. “Because when I was coming into this, I didn't even know they were a 2-10 program in 2023. That's when I committed, but I didn't even know, and that was because of the mindset here. It was the belief that they had; I saw it, I felt it, I loved it. […] You really feel the brotherhood here; you feel the love. Especially with Coach Lea – he has helped me out through a lot, just getting adjusted here, getting acclimated with who I am as a man. I don’t know if I would have ever gotten that somewhere else.”

A football player in a gold and white uniform dives to catch the ball on a green field during a game.Austin Howard blocks a punt and recovers the ball for a touchdown against Delaware.

Lea, along with multiple student-athletes, has echoed the mantra “leave it better than you found it,” in relation to the Vanderbilt football program. And although Howard is just a sophomore this season, that saying has started to take shape for him.

“Leaving it better than you found it is really a mindset of growth and continuing in that; always pushing for more and more down the line,” Howard said. “As a freshman, I probably didn't understand that as much or understood it how I should have. But then once you see guys like Issa Ouattara, Bryan Longwell, Bryce Cowan, Nick Rinaldi, who have lived this out this whole time and helped this program build. You find love for them and start to ask yourself, ‘Okay, how am I going to buy into all of this?’ And figuring out how you are doing that over the next four or five years, not just being one of the guys in this new era where it's like, ‘Hey, if things aren't perfectly right for me, I'm going to go and leave.’

“A lot of times when you're in a hard position, I believe you have to look at yourself and ask what you are doing about it for yourself, instead of just pointing the finger and blaming other people.”

Howard’s coaches and teammates are not the only support system the linebacker has relied on during his time at Vanderbilt so far. Division I athletes already receive a multitude of guidance from medical, training and nutrition staffs; for Howard, playing with Type 1 diabetes makes those roles even more important.

“Alex [Peneston], our dietitian, she checks on my blood sugar constantly,” he said. “She stays around me and makes sure I have everything I need. Usually if I'm going low, I have a purple bag of Skittles; that's my snack of choice, that's what I go with. Alex makes sure I'm really on track with that. And then also Paige [Canfield], another big part of our nutrition team, has my blood sugar reading notifications on her phone as well. With our training staff, I go to them whenever I need new subscriptions, if I need somebody to make sure I'm stocked up with anything. […] It's amazing. It’s like I have my mom up here with me. I don't have to worry about anything, basically.”

 

A football player in a gold jersey with the number 30, wearing a black hat and holding a black electric guitar, smiles while on the field.After recovering his own blocked punt for a score, Austin Howard celebrates with the Vanderbilt turnover guitar.

Howard’s NIL partnership with Dexcom is part of a larger group of athletes, named ‘Dexcom U,’ whose goal is “showing what's possible with diabetes.” Out of the 27 total members, he is the only SEC football player. Dexcom is sending a handful of children with diabetes to visit Howard and attend Saturday’s home contest against Ole Miss, where they can see him take the field.

“The main focus of it is just bringing more awareness,” Howard said of the NIL deal. “We don't have to sulk over having diabetes in sports. One thing Coach Lea says a lot is, ‘The essence of life is that it is challenging.’ At the same time, in your soul, that place pain comes from is also where joy comes from. So having this challenge with diabetes is also another reason to be excited, because now I see myself as someone who can be an advocate for people with Type 1 diabetes and let them know that you can do anything you want to do.

"When I first got diagnosed with diabetes, it was the first thought in my mind to do something with it, to use it for good,” Howard continued. “So just being able to be a part of something that's going for the betterment of people, especially for kids. I had a kid come up to me with Type 1 diabetes at one of our camps and I gave him some gloves. His mom was taking pictures, he was smiling; it made his whole day. You don't know how long he's going to be thinking about that. He might end up thinking about this for the rest of his life, that one moment of just seeing somebody older than him who's doing well for himself, actually trying to go for it in life and not having diabetes as this negative focal point or anything that's hindering him from achieving his dream.”

Howard and the Commodores host the Rebels at 2:30 p.m. at FirstBank Stadium on Saturday with coverage available via ESPN and 102.5 The Game. For more information, updates and exclusive content from the Vanderbilt football team, follow @VandyFB on Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok.