As if Will Howard needed any more motivation to perform well on Friday...
Former Texas LB and current Fox Sports analyst Emmanuel Acho said that Will Howard is the worst remaining quarterback in the College Football Playoff. He says he can say that "confidently.".
This seems like an idiotic statement on so many levels. For one, why in the world would he freely provide bulletin board material to the team facing his alma mater at a time when there is so much rat poison swirling around from the Texas players and the media? The only explanation I can think of is that he thinks he can make Will Howard overly pumped for the game and force him into a stupid mistake, similar to his pick-six against Penn State. Most likely, this isn't the case.
Secondly, this is a terrible take. How in the world is Riley Leonard a better quarterback than Will Howard? He just threw for 90 yards and 3.8 yards per attempt against Georgia, while Will Howard was throwing darts against Oregon. Also, his play throughout the season left a lot to be desired. He has never thrown for more than 229 passing yards in a game this season (he'd only thrown for 200+ yards in 5 games this season as ND relies heavily on his running ability), and he threw 2 INTs in the NIU loss, albeit in week 2. I understand Howard is playing with much better playmakers than Leonard, but I don't think anybody who has watched the two play this season could even argue that Leonard is a better quarterback than Howard.
Although Drew Allar has improved from last season and an argument could be made for Allar being better than Howard, I would still disagree. He struggled against USC and Ohio State, and even against Oregon he threw 2 INTs and had a low completion percentage. Of course, Howard struggled against TTUN, but he's been solid against quality competition otherwise (minus the pick-six against Penn State). While Howard is playing with the most talented playmakers in the country, are we also going to ignore that Allar is playing with Tyler Warren? I don't think too many Ohio State fans would trade Will Howard for Drew Allar given the chance.
Most people would probably take Quinn Ewers over Will Howard, and I wouldn't argue that too much, but he's struggled against most of the quality defenses he's played against this season as well (except TTUN early in the season).
I know Howard is playing with all-world WRs, so he won't get as much credit as other QBs, but he's still been solid for Ohio State all season except for one poor performance. Anybody who believes that Howard is the worst QB left in the playoffs hasn't seriously watched him (or the other QBs) play this season. There is a much stronger argument to be made for him being the best remaining QB, instead of the worst.
Go Bucks! Beat Texas Friday!
