When Ohio State signed Will Howard out of the transfer portal in January, it wasn’t clear whether the Buckeyes were actually upgrading at quarterback.
In four years at Kansas State, Howard never completed more than 61.3% of his passing attempts. His 2023 passer rating was more than 20 points lower than Kyle McCord’s was for the Buckeyes a year ago.
When it became clear that Ohio State would need a transfer quarterback for this season, the initial speculation centered around the likes of Cam Ward, Dillon Gabriel and Riley Leonard. When the Buckeyes ultimately added Howard after Ward transferred to Miami, Gabriel transferred to Oregon and Leonard transferred to Notre Dame, there was some belief that Howard was a consolation prize for the Buckeyes.
Ryan Day, however, believed Howard had the right qualities to be the quarterback Ohio State needed to achieve its goals this season.
“Coach Day took a chance on me when he didn't have to. And there was some kickback, I bet, when I first committed here, and he believed in me, man. And I owe that guy a lot,” Howard said this week.
Howard has proved Day right and his doubters wrong through Ohio State’s first 11 games of 2024.
Going into the final week of the regular season, Howard has been arguably the best quarterback in the country. He leads the FBS with a 74% completion percentage, having already broken an Ohio State record by completing more than 80% of his passing attempts in six different games. And he hasn’t achieved those numbers by just dinking and dunking, as he ranks third in the FBS in passing yards per attempt (9.6) and second in passer rating (180.5). Pro Football Focus grades Howard as the nation’s second-best deep passer and 11th-best intermediate passer among quarterbacks who have thrown at least 100 passes this season.
Will Howard’s passing chart for the 2024 season.
Most importantly, Howard’s made the plays Ohio State has needed him to make week in and week out. Those looking for a reason to critique Howard might point to his slightly too-late slide that allowed time to expire at the end of OSU’s loss to Oregon, but Howard was otherwise excellent in that game, completing 28 of 35 passing attempts for 326 yards and two touchdowns against a defense that has otherwise held opponents to just 168.8 passing yards per game with a 53.7% completion rate this season.
Many media members – myself included – viewed quarterback as one of Ohio State’s biggest question marks entering the season. It’s ended up being one of the Buckeyes’ biggest strengths.
“What stands out to me is Will Howard is much better than I probably anticipated,” ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit told Eleven Warriors last week. “I watched him his whole career at Kansas State. I knew him very well. I wondered how he'd fit into a Chip Kelly offense. And what I've seen is just a dynamic playmaker that's in total command of that offense. He's done a really good job with the playmakers around him.
“I think his leadership is outstanding. And you look beyond the Indiana game into the playoff and into trying to win a national championship, you've got to have the right guy at that position. And in my opinion, they have that with Will Howard. You knew about Ohio State's athletic ability, their defense, everything they have – they've recruited and developed so well – but I wondered how they would be in that spot. And boy, Will is, I'm sure Ryan (Day) would tell you that, he's been better than I think what anybody expected.”
With the rivalry game against Michigan on the horizon this week, neither Day nor Howard wanted to address whether he’s exceeded their own expectations. After all, the Buckeyes haven’t yet achieved any of their three major goals of beating their rival, winning the Big Ten and winning the national championship.
“I don't know, because we're not done yet,” Howard said when asked how his play has compared to his expectations. “Still got a lot to prove.”
That said, Ohio State will have the opportunity to achieve the first of those goals this Saturday, and it certainly looks as though Howard is ready to meet the moment.
The stage has never looked too big for Howard as Ohio State has played three games against top-five-ranked opponents this season. Statistically, Howard had his worst game of the year against Penn State, but he showed his composure by battling back from two first-half turnovers – a pick-six and a fumble that cost the Buckeyes a touchdown – to lead Ohio State to victory with the game on the line, ultimately sealing the Buckeyes’ win with a 7-yard run on 3rd-and-3 on Ohio State’s final drive. Howard earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors for his play in last week’s top-five showdown with Indiana after he completed 85% of his passing attempts (22-of-26) for 201 yards and two touchdowns in Ohio State’s 38-15 win.
Howard is a newcomer to the Ohio State/Michigan rivalry, but he has a strong track record in rivalry games – Kansas State went 4-0 against Kansas in his four years with the Wildcats – and has made it clear with his comments in both of his press conferences since Ohio State’s win over Indiana that he understands just how much The Game means to the Buckeyes and their fans.
“This rivalry game, it's the first thing that I heard when I came here on my visit,” Howard said last Saturday. “Beat the team up north, it's the first goal we have every single year, beat the team up one. And you can say anything about records, man; it's going to be a hard game every single year. They're going to bring it, we’re going to bring it. … This rivalry game means everything, man. We talk about it all the time. It's all over the place in our building. And I'm just honored to be able to be a part of it, and I won't take it lightly. This is the biggest game of our season, and I'm looking forward to it.”
While there’s no substitute for experience when it comes to The Game, Howard’s Ohio State teammates have full confidence that he is ready for the challenge that awaits them this weekend.
“When it comes to this rivalry in this game, there's always a saying, it's just like you don't know what you don't know. So no matter how much the freshmen think they know, they don't really know; no matter how much the transfers think they know, they don't really know until you really play in this game and feel what it's all about,” wide receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “I think Will understands that, and he's the closest to knowing what this means without actually playing in this game. So he has the entire right mindset going into it. And he's a leader that I think has what it takes to go into this game and win.”
While Howard has been excellent throwing the ball and also added a running threat that the Buckeyes had lacked at the quarterback position in recent years, his quality that’s drawn the most praise from Day and his teammates has been his leadership, which becomes all the more important this week as the Buckeyes look to do what they couldn’t do for the last three years.
“His leadership's gotten stronger and stronger each game. And he wants to win this one in the worst way for a lot of reasons,” Day said. “And again, I've just been very impressed with his leadership, with his intensity, with his competitiveness, with his positivity.”
“Coach Day took a chance on me when he didn't have to. And there was some kickback, I bet, when I first committed here, and he believed in me, man. And I owe that guy a lot.”– Will Howard on Ryan Day’s belief in him
Howard’s leadership made a profound impact on the Buckeyes last week as he kept the team thinking positively after star center Seth McLaughlin went down with a season-ending Achilles tear in practice, and the Buckeyes will go into this week’s game with confidence once again because of the trust they have in their signal-caller.
“He's a wonderful leader. Throughout all the adversity we've gone through, especially injury-wise, he's been a person that you can always look to,” Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon said of Howard. “He's always confident. He's always upbeat. And he was really big this past week, too, with just like rallying the guys and making sure everyone is still focused on the mission. And I can't say enough good things about him. He's a great dude.”
Despite his excellent play all season, Howard hasn’t yet gotten as much individual recognition for his play as C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins did. He hasn’t been at the forefront of the Heisman Trophy conversation, though he certainly could still earn an invitation to the ceremony by leading Ohio State to a win over Michigan and following that up with another strong showing against Oregon in the Big Ten Championship Game; he currently has the fifth-best Heisman odds at both DraftKings (200/1) and FanDuel (400/1), though he’s still seen as a long shot to win the award.
Howard’s said he isn’t worried about individual accolades, however, because his focus is on helping Ohio State win games and championships. And he’s never been more focused on that goal than this week as he seeks to reward Day and his teammates’ faith in him by leading them to the win over Michigan that’s eluded them for the last three years.
“I want to get this done for (Day). I want to get this done for those guys that decided to come back and who believed in me to lead this football team, because I'm forever indebted to those guys, man,” Howard said. “I love this university as much as the next guy. But I love my brothers, man. I love Coach Day. And I would do anything for those guys. And I want to get this done so bad for them and for Buckeye Nation.”
