There are a lot of ways college students distract themselves during a professor's lecture.
While some remain locked in on taking notes and listening, others might text friends, set fantasy football lineups or check sports scores, play a game on their phone or laptop, scroll through social media – there are many ways to not pay attention to something in the digital age.
Will Howard doesn't use any of those vices when he wants to take his mind off the teacher for a moment or two. Instead, he pulls up some film.
"Yeah, 100 percent," Howard said when asked if he's a film junkie. "I love watching film. I always have. This semester, I have class at night and – don't tell my professors, but sometimes I watch a little a little film in class. I just love to watch film every day, whatever it is."
With all the responsibility Howard holds in Ohio State's offense, whether it's typical quarterbacking or the added decision-making that goes with RPO and option run looks, his amount of and love for gaining more game knowledge is a strength the Buckeyes can weaponize as they stand 11 days from Big Ten play.
"Will continues to grow every day," Chip Kelly said. "That's one thing I love about him. He's a lifelong learner. He comes in here every day really hungry about, 'How do I get a little bit better every day?' I think last week he did improve from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in training sessions."
Anyone who's played chess knows just how much of a positional game it is.
Your pieces have to coordinate to have any sort of a threatening attack. One of the guiding principles is that a queen, the most powerful piece in the game, only works best when supported by or supporting other pieces. Top players find one pawn or one square to attack, and if it isn't defended properly, take advantage of that one weakness with ruthless precision. Or they expose another one.
“He's a lifelong learner. He comes in here every day really hungry about, ‘How do I get a little bit better every day?’”– Chip Kelly on Will Howard
A thousand allegorical stories could be written comparing football and chess to one another. The analogy has been around for decades. But Howard, like many quarterbacks with similar game knowledge, is more of a queen with a mind and eyes – he's equal parts a weapon and a schemer.
"I love the game of football and I love the chess game that it is," Howard said. "I love how much strategy goes into it. I think that that's a fun part of it. Being able to come out and have something planned for your opponent that they're not ready for or seeing something before it happens, I think, is really fun. That's a really fun part of the game for me."
Experience is something that helps Howard in his preparation and study. Of course, to be experienced, one must first be inexperienced. And a vast array of starts in the first few years of his college football career at Kansas State showed him the importance of film.
"That's a terrible feeling to have when you're not prepared or not recognizing what they're doing," Howard said. "And I think I've been there enough times to where I'm like, 'Man, I'm never going to let that happen again.' And I always want to be ready and prepared in the best way that I possibly can be so that I'm never in a situation where I don't at least have some general idea of what's going on."
Now with those years of experience under his belt, Howard's experiencing much more of the opposite, using his preparation and game knowledge to understand how defenses are trying to stop him.
"That is one of the most satisfying feelings, I feel like I've said that," Howard said. "When you come out and you're like, 'Alright, I know what they're going to do.' Or, 'They're rotating to the field here, it's probably going to be some sort of field pressure.' Then that comes and you're like, 'Alright.' It just is a reassuring feeling of like, 'Man, all that work that I put in, all the preparation I put in pays off.'"
“I love the chess game that it is.”– Will Howard on the game of football
Kelly's done a great job of helping Howard further diagnose defenses. Part of that comes through teaching, but another part comes through schematics.
Window dressing has been a staple of Ohio State's offense through two games this season. Throwing different formations, snap counts and a variety of pre-snap motions at opponents can get players to jump into the defense's shell and reveal what the coverage and rush schemes are.
"I think pre-snap motions are two things," Kelly said. "Number one, to gain an advantage numerically against the defense. So if you move and they're not moving, you gain one hat from one side to the other side. And then number two, to discern what they're in. So it helps the quarterback from an understanding standpoint."
Howard's knowledge and decision-making are every bit as important on the ground in zone read, speed option, RPO – the staff told him he's the "run-game coordinator" for a reason. Of course, it's hard to tell as an outsider when handoffs or keeps are called and when they are options, or when a pass is an RPO or good old-fashioned play action.
"That's the point of an RPO sometimes is that you shouldn't know whether it's a designed run or whether we have a pass off of it," Howard said. "It should look like just a pass if it's an RPO and I pull it and throw it. It's just being able to keep the rhythm of it and making the right decisions. It's pretty clear when I make a bad decision on an RPO, but you don't really see it when it's a good decision, which is a good thing.
"So I think I've done well with it. I think it's something that we need to continue to work on and work through. And as long as I can just keep us on schedule and not force things, make the right decisions with the football, with the guys that we have, just let them do the rest."
There is still more film and preparation and diagnostic work to be done for Howard. Kelly said that was the quarterback's top focus for Ohio State's "improvement week" outside some techniques that needed refining.
"There was some real technical things from a fundamental standpoint that, as we continued to drill and play-action pass and demeanor and what his fundamental footwork is going to be on those plays," Kelly said. "Some of it was just recognizing pre-snap indicators of (coverage). Where is the free safety and is he discerning, can you discern from where his alignment is what the coverage is going to be pre-snap before we get to post-snap situations?"
Above all else, Howard is happy to be leading a title-caliber team in his final year of college football.
"I'm going to appreciate every moment I have out on that field playing in front of these fans," Howard said. "It's a blessing. And I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and not let any moment pass me by, because it's a pretty cool opportunity I have and that we have as a team this year."
