After a hotly-contested months-long battle, Ryan Day has officially named Ohio State’s starting quarterback. Kansas State transfer and fifth-year signal caller Will Howard has won the job.
Howard was in a battle with Devin Brown, Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin, and Air Noland for the job.
This is Day’s sixth year at the helm and his fourth starting quarterback battle. Comparatively, his appointment of Howard on August 15 is the soonest. He named Justin Fields starter on August 19 and C.J. Stroud was August 21. Last year, the battle spilled into the season and Kyle McCord wasn’t officially QB1 until September 12.
Will Howard is Officially the Ohio State Starting Quarterback
The writing has been on the wall for a few weeks, now. At the beginning of Fall Camp, Howard was taking the overwhelming majority of snaps with the first-team offense. On the first Sunday of camp, he took every snap except for one.
When he announced the decision at the Thursday presser, Day gushed:
“We’re really excited about Will being the starter. He has taken command of the offense. You feel him in the huddle, you feel his experience. He did a really good job of changing his body in the offseason, so he’s become a threat, both with his legs and with his arm. The more he understands what he’s doing out there … he’s really executing very well.”
New offensive coordinator Chip Kelly added that the coaches grade everything that the players do in practice and scrimmages. Howard has graded out the highest and the staff felt comfortable enough to pull the trigger with 16 days until the Akron matchup.
New Sheriff In Town
This announcement comes after spending the last four seasons with the Kansas State Wildcats. In his time, he finished with 5,786 yards and 48 touchdowns with KSU and helped lead his team to the Big 12 Championship two years ago.
He is a willing and able runner, a trait Ohio State hasn’t had from its quarterbacks since 2020. Howard has run for 921 yards and 19 touchdowns off 226 carries in his career. Stroud ran for 136 yards and a touchdown off 80 carries. McCord, last year ran for negative 65 yards off 32 carries.
Additionally, he has a powerful arm and has been working on his deep-ball efficiency with the new Buckeye receivers. he completed 32.6% for six scores. In 2022, when he won the Big 12, Howard was a bit more prolific pushing the ball down the field. 19.1% of his attempts were 20-plus yards and he completed 42.1% with six scores.
Defenses will need to decide what aspect of Howard’s game they’ll want to take away. With impressive weapons all able to hit a home run anywhere on the field paired with his ability to pull it down and take the free yardage, Ohio State’s offense is going to put defenses in binds.
Howard is already a Heisman candidate (it’s really early) and was named to the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, and Davey O’Brien Award watchlists.
