Ohio State fans have grown accustomed to a high standard of play at the quarterback position.
Throughout the program's illustrious history, the most decorated Buckeye signal-callers tended to do as much (or more) damage with their feet as their arms. Or at least that was the case until Ryan Day came to town.
The occasional Bobby Hoying, Joe Germaine, or Troy Smith standout season was the exception, even in fairly recent history, as the likes of Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, and J.T. Barrett scared opponents more when the ball stayed in their hands compared to when it was thrown.
Of course, since Day's arrival in 2017, virtually every OSU passing record has been rewritten by quarterbacks who now expect to hear their names called in the first round of the NFL draft. Those expectations have extended to fans of the program as well, who were disappointed by Kyle McCord's 2023 season, despite it being just the eighth time in 133 years during which a Buckeye eclipsed the 3,000-yard passing mark.
His replacement, Will Howard, certainly appears poised to have the ninth such season, already amassing 520 yards in two games. The Kansas State transfer has seemed to fit in well with Day and new coordinator/QB coach, Chip Kelly, refreshing an Ohio State offense that ranked just 48th in total yards last fall.
Howard's leadership on and off the field has been unmistakable, handling media duties and commanding the huddle with relative ease. Additionally, his massive frame and athletic ability have added a missing element to the Buckeye run game, re-introducing an option element not seen with such regularity since Barrett was under center in 2017.
As a passer, his command of the RPO game has been excellent, making quick reads and distributing the ball accurately, sometimes making as many as four decisions for where to go with the ball on a single play (as detailed in last week's Film Study). However, while his performance in the traditional, drop-back passing game has offered plenty of highlights just the same, there is some reason to keep an eye on that part of his game.
Thus far, the Buckeyes' only two opponents have been from the MAC, offering little resistance against the superior talent at virtually every position, but especially at wide receiver. Brian Hartline's room has continually beaten defenders one-on-one while finding the open windows in zone coverage, making Howard's job easy.
During the vast majority of Howard's designed dropbacks in the first two weeks, his primary receiver has been wide-open, allowing him to throw darts with confidence. As we see from this post route to Jeremiah Smith off a play-action fake below, Howard has often been able to drop back, identify his primary read, see a scarlet jersey with no one nearby, and fire a strike for a big gain.
However, as C.J. Stroud showed us all in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia two seasons ago, a good quarterback can throw a nice ball to his first read. But a great quarterback can progress through multiple reads to find an open man.
For Ohio State to achieve its goal of winning the first 12-team playoff this season, Howard will need to be great.
Of course, it's not a knock on Howard that his first read has consistently come open against Akron and Western Michigan, and he should be recognized for taking advantage of so many such opportunities. However, on the rare occasions in which his first read has not come open, Howard has looked like a different player - one lacking confidence in both his physical abilities and the structure of the concept he's being asked to execute.
For example, the concept below in the opening game against Akron saw a concept that has been a staple within Day's system for years, creating a triangle read into the boundary with a high/low concept and a shallow crossing route.
Howard correctly identifies his read key, which is the movement of the boundary cornerback, to see if he defends the arrow route from the running back or the deep corner from the tight end. When Howard sees that the cornerback takes on the arrow route, he looks to the tight end, only to see the safety has covered up that route as well, meaning the QB must work to the third point in the triangle, Brandon Innis running a shallow crossing route.
As Howard resets his feet toward Innis' crossing route, he sees the middle linebacker nearby, forcing him to reset once more and look back to the middle of the field. Luckily, the play is timed up to have Carnell Tate breaking open over the middle of the field against such coverage, attacking the space that the linebacker just vacated and providing Howard with a relatively easy target.
Yet despite having plenty of time in the pocket to work through this progression and reset his feet twice, Howard never threw to Tate. Instead, he rolled to his right, eventually ran into pressure, and threw the ball away out of bounds. Rather than pick up 15 yards (or more) and a first down, the result was an incomplete pass.
One of the themes from that Akron game was the disguise of the Zips' defensive schemes, showing one alignment pre-snap before dropping into an entirely different coverage structure once the ball was in play. This not only blew up pass protection schemes for Howard and his offensive line on several occasions, but it also gave Howard trouble when he tried to ID the right key in his pass progressions.
On another horizontal progression that began with a high-low read on a corner route, Howard never came off his first read despite it being bottled up by the zone coverage. This time, it was Smith running a corner route against what appeared to be a 2-deep coverage shell.
But after the snap, the Zips dropped into a 3-Cloud zone scheme that seemed to flummox Howard, with the corner sitting in the flat while the safety played a deep third behind it. The veteran QB never took his eyes off Smith's corner route, however, and instead of dropping it off to his running back in the flat as the pressure from the right side of the pocket closed in, Howard simply launched a ball over Smith's head out of bounds.
On both occasions, Howard can be commended for not taking a risk with the ball and living to fight another play. One of the weaknesses pro scouts identified with his game was a tendency to force the ball into tight windows that weren't there, an area the senior said he was focused on improving this season.
However, against top competition, the Buckeyes will need their senior QB to be more than a distributor in the option game, and prove he's capable of making plays in clear passing situations against good defenses.
For any Buckeye fans who are now worried, luckily, there was some progress on this front in Howard's second game against Western Michigan. On the game's very first drive, he looked off a wheel route out of the backfield from TreVeyon Henderson and a deep post from Smith before resetting to hit Emeka Egbuka on a wide-open shallow crosser that led to a big gain after the catch, showing he can, in fact, work through a horizontal progression.
Later in the game, Howard's finest throw as a Buckeye came on his second read, a deep over route on a Yankee concept that came off play-action. In this vertical progression (deep-to-short), Smith occupied both the corner to his side and the free safety, allowing Egbuka to run across the field directly into the space those defenders had formerly occupied.
Though the strong safety recognized the concept and tried to run with Egbuka, Howard knew it was a one-on-one matchup that his talented receiver should win, as long as the throw was on target. Thanks to his protection, Howard could wait for the window to open and fire a perfect ball downfield for a big gain.
As the season progresses and the level of competition rises, however, Howard can't count on having so much time to wait for a receiver to come open. Not only will talented defenders pose stiffer tests for both his receivers and linemen, but opposing coaches will surely scheme up ways to disguise their intentions and force Howard to make decisions far more quickly than he has had to thus far in his Buckeye career.
While it may not be another few weeks until Howard is truly tested in this regard, when he and the Buckeyes head to Eugene, Oregon, it's worth monitoring as the level of competition increases against lesser conference foes like Michigan State and Iowa. Although they have certainly loved watching him light up MAC opponents thus far, OSU fans expect their QB to deliver the same results no matter the opponent.
