Kobe Savage and Will Howard spent two years going head-to-head with one another every day in practice. Now, the former Kansas State teammates are set to face off as opponents for the second time this season.
While Howard transferred to Ohio State to be the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback for the 2024 season, Savage transferred to Oregon to lead the Ducks’ secondary at free safety. With Savage patrolling the back end, Oregon’s pass defense has been one of the best in the country, allowing only 175.7 passing yards per game, a number bested by only Ohio State’s No. 1-ranked defense and seven other teams.
Savage and his Ducks got the best of Howard and the Buckeyes in their first matchup this season as Oregon won 32-31. But Howard performed well for his part in that game, completing 28 of 35 passing attempts for 326 yards and two touchdowns while also running for a touchdown. For the season as a whole, Howard has completed 73.2% of his passing attempts for 3,171 yards and 29 touchdowns with only nine interceptions – good for a passer rating of 173.5 that ranks as the nation’s third-best – while rushing for seven touchdowns.
Having played with Howard for two years after joining Kansas State from Tyler Junior College in 2022, Savage isn’t surprised by his former teammate’s success at Ohio State.
“He's a great competitor, a great guy, a great leader, a great teammate,” Savage told Eleven Warriors at Tuesday’s Rose Bowl media day. “Somebody you always want to go out there and compete with. It's really cool just seeing him on the other side. I mean, competing with him for the past two years at K-State at practices and stuff, it's really cool to finally play him again. It’s crazy I got to play him twice this season, so it's really exciting.”
Savage believes Kansas State prepared both him and Howard well to play for two of the top programs in the country as Ohio State and Oregon prepare to play for the second time in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals in Wednesday’s semifinals.
“Kansas State is definitely a blue-collar program. Not getting a lot of five-stars or four-stars, but just being able to have that dog mentality, whether you're a JUCO guy or a three-star guy, very under-recruited, to go out there and prove yourself,” Savage said.
Savage knows he and Oregon’s defense are in for a tough test as they go up against Howard – a three-star recruit out of high school who has spoken this season about the chip he has on his shoulder from not being recruited by Penn State, his home-state school – and Ohio State’s elite wide receiver corps led by Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate. He acknowledged that the Ducks lost their share of battles to Ohio State’s offense the first time around, but much like Ohio State’s defense, Savage said he and his Oregon teammates are confident they can improve upon what they didn’t do well in their regular-season matchup with the Buckeyes.
“Really just finding our edge in the details,” Savage said. “When we played them, we lost a lot of battles, whether that was a one-on-one battle, just little key details that we could have fixed. It wasn't nothing too crazy that will skew the game, but just the little things I feel like in our preparation will help.”
