Will Howard still thinks about what he should have done differently on the final play of Ohio State’s regular-season game against Oregon.
With just five seconds left to play and Ohio State at the 38-yard line trailing by one point, Howard knew he needed to gain at least 10 yards – the goal was to gain 15 – to get the Buckeyes into Jayden Fielding’s comfortable field goal range. The initial plan was to throw a quick pass to the sideline, but when that didn’t materialize, Ohio State’s quarterback took off and ran for 12 yards up the middle. Technically, Howard slid to the ground with one second left on the clock, but the clock hit zeroes before the Buckeyes were granted a timeout, sealing a 32-31 victory for the Ducks.
IT'S OVER.
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) October 13, 2024
NO. 3 OREGON TOPPLES NO. 2 OHIO STATE IN EUGENE. WHAT A GAME. pic.twitter.com/pzrROxapap
Two-and-a-half months removed from that defeat in Eugene, Howard is still replaying that play in his mind. But he’ll have a chance to replace that memory with what he hopes will be a better one when the Buckeyes play the Ducks for the second time this season in Wednesday’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl.
“I still have nightmares about that play,” Howard said. “I still run it over in my head: What could I have done better? And I get a chance to go out there and right the wrong from that game. You don't get second chances a lot in life. It just doesn't happen. So I'm thankful that we even get a chance to go out there and play these guys again. And it really has nothing to do with me, man. It's about this team and the way that we lost that game, it still hurts. It still hurts all of us. So we're excited for another crack at these guys.”
Howard has been thinking about the possibility of avenging that loss from the moment it happened. Just minutes after the regular-season meeting with the Ducks concluded, Howard correctly predicted in his postgame press conference that the Buckeyes would “see them again.” At the time, the Buckeyes had hoped they’d be playing in the Big Ten Championship Game, where they would have played Oregon if they won the rest of their regular-season games; their loss to Michigan cost them a trip to Indianapolis, but they now have the chance to rematch the Ducks in the CFP.
Howard said he feels blessed and thankful to have that second chance, and coming up short the first time around has only heightened his sense of urgency to take advantage of the opportunity to beat the Ducks this time.
“It hurts me because I'm like, man, there were so many opportunities for us to win that game. And looking back at it, it's like, man, we just didn't play our best ball that day,” Howard said of Ohio State’s October loss to Oregon. “And it makes you excited, because we got another chance at it. And like I said, you don't get a lot of second chances in life and God's blessed us with one. So we got to make sure we take advantage of it.
“And it's a hell of a team, man. I mean, Oregon's a great team. They do some really good stuff, man. And it's not going to be easy. But we got to go in there and do our thing and take what they give us and impose our will, because that's the only way we can do it from here on out.”
Even though the Buckeyes lost to Oregon in the first game, Howard is confident in their ability to turn the tables in the rematch.
“It's hard to beat a team twice, and we're hungry,” Howard said. “We're ready for this, for this opportunity. I'm just so fired up that God blessed us with a second chance at this thing.”
“It's not going to be easy. But we got to go in there and do our thing and take what they give us and impose our will, because that's the only way we can do it from here on out.”– Will Howard on his mindset entering Ohio State’s rematch with Oregon
Final play of the game aside, Howard can give Ohio State a good chance to win just by playing as well as he did in the first meeting with the Ducks. He had the best game any quarterback has had against Oregon all season, completing 80% of his passes for 326 yards – 100 more passing yards than anyone else has had against the Ducks – and two touchdowns with no interceptions while also running for a touchdown.
That said, Howard feels as though he’s become an even better quarterback now that he’s gotten seven more games as Ohio State’s starter under his belt.
“You try to evolve every week and you try to learn from the good things and from the bad things,” Howard said. “And I don't know if I could say one thing about what I've gotten better at, maybe my completions, just trying to take what the defense gives me, trying to get smarter with my decision-making as the year has gone on. And just getting more comfortable in the system, I think is another part of it. I don't think there's one thing I can necessarily put my finger on, but just trying to learn from the good and the bad and evolving every single week.”
In a week when Howard has extra motivation to draw from because of how the game ended when Ohio State played Oregon in Eugene, one of the biggest things Ohio State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly appreciates about Howard is how his approach has stayed the same as it’s been all season.
“One thing I love about Will is his consistency in his approach on a daily basis. Every Monday is the same preparation in terms of film study and what we talk about. What's Tuesday look like, what's Wednesday look like, what's Thursday look like, and his growth during the week. So I think it's that consistent approach that you really kind of admire from him,” Kelly said. “There's nothing looking forward (beyond the next game). Make the proper corrections on a Sunday after a game, whether it's a win or a loss, and then move on to the next opponent. That's the way I think he's approached it since the first game of the year.”
That said, Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka has seen an even more intense desire than usual from Howard to lead the Buckeyes to a win in Pasadena.
“He's a laser-focused person. He goes about his business. He's very loose and he's very calm and he's able to rally the team. But you can see it in his eyes that this game means everything to him,” Egbuka said. “So every single practice, every single huddle, making sure we're sharp, making sure we have a better practice than we had yesterday, a better practice than Oregon is having. So his full focus is on beating this team. And obviously it's hard not to think about the stuff of the past, but I know he's laser-focused on what we’ve got coming up.”
