The decision of who would be Ohio State’s starting quarterback this season became clear to Ryan Day and Chip Kelly after two weeks of preseason camp.
While Will Howard had always been viewed as the frontrunner to start at quarterback since he transferred to Ohio State from Kansas State in January, Ohio State left the door open throughout the spring and into preseason camp for Devin Brown, Julian Sayin, Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland to also compete for the job. Howard struggled enough during spring practices to leave it into question going into August whether he would lock down Ohio State’s starting job.
Day had said all along, though, that he didn’t want the quarterback competition to extend into the start of the season like it did last year before Kyle McCord ultimately won the job over Brown. As the Buckeyes crossed the halfway point of preseason camp with their 13th practice of August on Thursday, Day decided he had seen enough to officially name Howard the starter.
“When you take the aggregate of all the numbers, Will graded out significantly ahead of the other guys in the team work,” Day said Thursday during a press conference. “I think coming off the spring, everything was very new. It was a significant change in terms of scheme and what we ask the quarterback to do. Once he kind of went through the offseason, he changed his body and then came in with a much better knowledge of what was going on, you could see him playing faster, his feet were moving, the ball was coming out with more pace. And then I think after the first week, you just start to see him take control, make good decisions.”
Kelly said there wasn’t any specific moment where Howard separated himself as Ohio State’s best quarterback but that he has improved substantially from the end of spring to where he is now.
“I think he's really worked extremely hard in the offseason; from the end of spring ball on April 13th to now, he's made great strides,” Kelly said. “We gave him a plan over the summer to work on and he took it and ran with it. So where he is now is pretty impressive. And the one thing that you know he has is he has experience. He's been in the huddle. He's been in a huddle in a lot of games, he's been in a huddle in big games. So, you know, this isn't new to him. Columbus is new to him, but playing college football isn't new to him. So I think that experience really started to shine through here during camp. And excited to see where he goes with us.”
Both Day and Kelly cited the decision-making of Howard, who started 28 games over the past four years at Kansas State while the rest of Ohio State’s quarterbacks have just one combined collegiate start (Brown in last year’s Cotton Bowl), as a big factor in how he’s set himself apart from the other quarterbacks in preseason camp, along with his ability as both a passer and a runner.
“It's not just who has the strongest arm, but the decision-making process has always been at the top of the list,” Kelly said. “And then after that, it would be repetitive accuracy and then athleticism. And I think Will has all three of those.”
While Howard’s downfield passing accuracy was the biggest concern surrounding him coming out of spring, he’s impressed Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles with his precise ball placement over the past couple of weeks.
“He’s making all the throws,” Knowles said. “He stands in the pocket, he’s got great vision, arm strength. We’ve got great receivers, he’s putting the ball in places where only the receiver can catch it. So to me, it’s not just the arm strength, but he’s making the pinpoint passes, too.”
As he’s said all offseason, Day reiterated Thursday that the Buckeyes don’t need Howard to be “extraordinary.” While they’d surely love for Howard to follow in the footsteps of C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins and become Ohio State’s next Heisman Trophy contender, they don’t necessarily need Howard to play at that level to be a championship-caliber team with all the talent they have around him.
What they do need Howard to be is a quarterback who makes smart decisions and executes the plays available to him in both the passing and running game while taking care of the football and avoiding reckless turnovers. And the Buckeyes are confident Howard can be that guy based on what we’ve seen in their preparation for the season.
“We need someone who's going to take care of the football, make good decisions, make the routine plays routinely,” Day said. “He's gotta play well on third down. He's gotta play well in a red zone and win the game in a two-minute drill. I mean, that's what we ask our quarterbacks to do. And we have a good surrounding cast around him. And so taking care of the ball is very, very important, but then also scoring touchdowns. And I think all of our quarterbacks this year bring a skill set that they can beat you with their feet, they can beat you with their arm, but they got to beat you with their brain, too.
“A big part of it is when you can anticipate what's going as opposed to react, it's all the difference in the world, and he has a better handle on it,” Day added later. “And a big part of that is the work ethic he has put in him. He comes in early, he puts work in, he studies the film, he understands what the schemes are. He understands the structure of the route combinations. And he's done a good job in the run game.
“When you're in this offense, you're making a decision every single play at quarterback. There's very few times where you just hand the ball off and can take a deep breath. We try to do that every now and again, but it's a lot, and he can handle it, and he's done a good job of making sure that he's prepared for the preseason, and it's showing.”
