Downingtown’s Will Howard, passed over by Penn State, ready to ‘prove them wrong’ with Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It had the makings of a throwaway question. Will Howard’s postgame press conference was nearing its end Saturday. His No. 4 Ohio State team, favored by nearly four touchdowns over Nebraska, needed a late touchdown throw from him to avoid embarrassment inside Ohio Stadium to remain a one-loss team on pace for a playoff appearance.

The questions asked of Howard had mostly been about the things that went wrong. The Buckeyes, after a week off following a heartbreaking loss in Oregon two weeks ago, couldn’t do much offensively behind an offensive line that “wasn’t good enough,” Howard’s coach, Ryan Day had said earlier. Howard, a 2020 Downingtown West graduate, was asked about playing behind that banged-up line, about his late scoring drive, about how his team had just done enough against an opponent it was supposed to dominate.

And then came the last question of the session, which was more of a statement than a question, about how Howard couldn’t step away from the podium without everyone hearing his first thoughts about returning home to Pennsylvania next weekend to take on No. 3 Penn State.

It was almost as if Howard was waiting for the prompt. No, nothing about Ohio State’s 21-17 win over Nebraska was pretty, but “wins are wins,” he had said earlier, and Howard, a fifth-year quarterback, has learned to flush the negative things and move along. The next one is the biggest one. It’s a tired cliché, but it’s more than applicable here. Howard’s father, Bob, went to Penn State, and Will, as a young football player in Chester County, had always dreamed of going there. He wanted the Nittany Lions, they didn’t want him, and so maybe it felt a little out of place after a game in which Howard’s offense was booed off the field at least once by the home crowd. But he was going to say it anyway.

“I’m stoked,” Howard said about next weekend. “I cannot wait. It’s going to be a homecoming for me. I grew up a Penn State fan. I wanted to go there my whole life. They didn’t think I was good enough, but I guess we’ll see next week if I was.”

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This rivalry never needs any extra juice. It wouldn’t have needed any next weekend. It’s No. 3 Penn State and No. 4 Ohio State. It’s James Franklin finally looking to win the big one. Heck, former president and current presidential hopeful Donald Trump plans to attend.

Howard, however, just raised his hand to be Public Enemy No. 1. It’s his first installment in the rivalry, having spent his first four seasons at Kansas State.

Ohio State might still be undefeated if Howard had gone into his slide earlier at the end of Ohio State’s loss at Oregon on Oct. 12. He didn’t, and time expired, and so Howard was left with things to think about.

“Have I sat up at night and thought of a million different ways that we could’ve gone about that last drive, or what I could’ve done differently on that last play? Absolutely,” he said earlier this week. “But now we’ve gone through it and we’ve seen it.”

Every step along his college football journey has been a chance to learn, Howard said, and so maybe that’s why he looked so calm Saturday in the biggest moment. Nebraska, led by former Temple coach Matt Rhule, had taken a surprising fourth-quarter lead inside of 11 minutes to play. Howard needed just eight plays and less than five minutes to go 75 yards. He completed all three of his passes, including a series-starting throw to Carnell Tate for 37 yards that put the Buckeyes into Nebraska territory. He also had a 10-yard run of his own, a play that left Ohio State on Nebraska’s 9-yard line. Howard hit running back Quinshon Judkins in the end zone on the next play, the third of his three touchdown passes during the win.

Things used to bother Howard, he said. But football at this level has made him mature. Things were never perfect at Kansas State. He was benched, recruited over, won a starting job, lost a starting job, had guys transfer in, and watched guys transfer out.

“I’ve seen it all,” he added. “I’m pretty seasoned. I’d like to say stuff doesn’t really bother me anymore and even though it’s a bigger stage I try to just remember that this has been my dream my whole life and it’s a blessing to be where I’m at.”

At Ohio State, Howard is focused only on winning and reaching the next level. His masters program, in sports coaching, comes with a pretty light schedule. It’s all football, all the time. The numbers are showing that the formula is working. He’s completing a career-high 74% of his passes and is on pace to blow by his highs in touchdowns and yards. He doesn’t have one specific answer to explain it, he said, but he’s spent time learning to accept that completions are completions. Sometimes it’s OK to check down. He’s learned from Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the former Eagles coach, to “let it happen, don’t make it happen.”

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He’ll need to do more of the same next Saturday. Ohio State is without star left tackle, Josh Simmons, and didn’t seem ready to replace him Saturday. The Buckeyes couldn’t run the ball effectively enough. But they made the plays at the end when it mattered.

“We were able to show that when the going gets tough and maybe things aren’t going our way, we’re able to win in the fourth quarter,” Howard said.

You’re more likely to see people in and around Ohio Stadium wearing jerseys with numbers on the front of the players who came before Howard than you are to see a shiny new scarlet jersey with No. 18 on it.

Howard is no Justin Fields or C.J. Stroud in more ways than one. First, he’s not expected to be taken in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft, at least not yet. Second, right now he’s pretty much using Ohio State, which is fine, because the Buckeyes are using him, too.

Howard transferred from Kansas State — replacing another Philly-area product, Kyle McCord, who is now at Syracuse — after playing for the Wildcats for four seasons. He graduated with an accounting degree earlier this year and was ready to test the NFL draft waters while also putting his name in the transfer portal. He was ready for something new.

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“My goals, ultimately, are to make it to the NFL and to be a starting quarterback in the NFL,” Howard said. “So if I don’t put myself in uncomfortable situations and situations that are going to challenge me … I think at the end of the day, everything kind of made sense here.”

He told the teams that were recruiting him two things: He wanted to elevate his draft stock and he wanted to compete for a national championship.

“I don’t think you can find a better place for that than Ohio State,” he said.

In an alternate universe, Happy Valley could have been that place. Howard “grew up rocking the navy and white,” he said. He played his high school football 2½ hours from Beaver Stadium. He was The Inquirer’s All-Southeastern Pennsylvania Player of the Year in 2019. But his list of offers never reached that kind of level as a high schooler. He chose Kansas State over places like Maryland, Temple, Minnesota, and Rutgers.

“I wasn’t as good of a player as I am now, looking back at it,” Howard said. “But I definitely remember that. It stays in the back of my mind that they kind of looked over me.”

Howard said he had an injury during his junior year of high school. He never heard from Penn State again. He still has plenty of ties there, even if he converted his father, who grew to hate Ohio State, into a Buckeyes fan. His younger sister, Tori, is a current Penn State student, and Howard has other friends and family friends who either go there or support the football program.

A lot of them might be conflicted this weekend. Will, obviously, won’t be.

“I’m looking forward to going back home and showing them what they missed out on,” he said.