Downingtown’s Will Howard is playing for a national title as his football journey comes full circle

Will Howard could have taken a different path.

The quarterback was once offered early enrollment at the University of Georgia, but he would miss his final year of high school football at Downingtown West. Instead, he decided to play his senior year and led the Whippets to a District 1 crown in the 2019 season for the first time since 1996.

He also could have entered the transfer portal following his sophomore year at Kansas State. After Howard was promised that he would be the future of the program, the staff brought in Adrian Martinez, a transfer from Nebraska at the time. Martinez won the starting job, but Howard decided to stick it out as the backup. When Martinez went down with an injury, it was Howard who led the Wildcats to a Big 12 championship in 2022.

After four years at Kansas State — and a number of accolades later — Howard wanted to declare for the NFL draft, but coaches and scouts told him his stock needed to be higher, so he decided to enter the portal for his final year of college eligibility.

A number of high-major schools reached out to the 6-foot-4, 235-pound quarterback. But Howard aspired to play for a team that could contend for a championship, and coach Ryan Day’s Ohio State squad — where Howard would learn under offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly — was where he would achieve exactly that.

“Will has told us, ‘I don’t know that I’d be doing what I’m doing at Ohio State if I didn’t have those experiences,’” said his mother, Maureen. “They helped him grow tremendously, as hard as they were at times. But you’ve got to walk through the fire and come out the other side sometimes, and he’s done that.”

Howard has always dreamed of playing in the Big Ten, and it might not have happened right away, but he fulfilled that desire. Not only has he earned the starting job, but he won over the locker room in just one season with the Buckeyes. Now, he’ll cross off another goal: playing in the College Football Playoff championship as No. 8 seed Ohio State (13-2) takes on No. 7 seed Notre Dame (14-1) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Monday (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

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It took patience and perseverance. He was willing to sacrifice time for success, and in many ways, when Howard steps out on the field, he’s still the same teenager playing under the lights on Friday night at Kottmeyer Stadium, with a big smile on his face.

“I’m really proud of him,” said former Downingtown West coach Mike Milano. “I told him, ‘Hey, man, I hope you’re enjoying this. How many people get the chance to set a goal and then realize it all within a year?’ It’s pretty amazing — I’m not surprised. People that know him well are not surprised.”

Howard excelled in just about every sport he played as a kid. It was football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the summer.

As an eighth grader, he was being recruited by some of the top area high school football programs, including St. Joseph’s Prep, Malvern Prep, and the Haverford School. Milano, who spent 21 seasons at the helm, wanted to keep Howard in Downingtown, so he sat down with his father, Bob Howard, to see if that could happen.

“We went out and ate lunch to talk about [it],” Milano said. “His pop was feeling me out to see where I stood, see what I was all about. Really his big concern is where I was with [in terms of] letting kids be multisport athletes. I laughed when he said it, because I’m 71 now, I was well in my 60s then. I said, ‘Bob, I’m the old-school guy. I think these kids should do everything they can. They get one chance to be a kid, do it all while you can.’”

Bob Howard was sold, and it’s where his son wanted to go. He played Pop Warner football with most of the guys on the Downingtown West team, some of whom were longtime friends of his. He also played four years of basketball as a forward, and by his senior year, Howard had surpassed 1,000 points.

But something changed about Howard’s commitment to football in his sophomore year. During the preseason, he was competing with a senior for the starting job. He had spent the previous year on junior varsity and told then-assistant coach Tom Kline, now the head coach, that he did not “plan on being the JV quarterback next year.”

“He was confident about who he was, and I love that about him,” Kline said. “He just didn’t think like, ‘I have to wait my turn.’ He was like, ‘I’m ready to play varsity football now and I don’t plan on being a backup.’”

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Maureen Howard even recalls her son spending late nights — sometimes until midnight — in the front yard of their home, practicing routes and footwork. He wanted to do it when nobody was around, she said.

That drive eventually led to him being named the starter for three seasons. His recruiting process took off from there. College coaches from all over would fly in to watch Howard throw or ask to pull him out of class to chat.

But during his junior year, against Coatesville, Howard was sacked and suffered a broken wrist on his throwing arm. He was out for the remainder of the season. However, after surgery, he showed up the next day at practice, willing to be a coach to backup Ryan Wetzel, who went on to play linebacker at Kutztown. Howard wasn’t upset or deterred. He just wanted to contribute.

While the injury may have impacted his recruiting stock, he still held more than 20 scholarship offers as a three-star prospect.

But then he experienced the ups and downs of recruitment.

He had an offer pulled after visiting a Big Ten school that his coaches and parents did not want to name. The program was high on his list of considerations, but it asked for his commitment on the spot. Howard wasn’t ready to make a decision.

“I asked him afterward, ‘How are you feeling?’ and he said, ‘Relieved,’” his mother said. “To me, that was really telling, because I think he [felt] pushed to make that commitment. But something about it in your gut was just like, ‘I don’t know.’ Anyway, back to God’s plan. It all works out the way it’s supposed to.”

Howard joined Kansas State to play under Chris Klieman, who coached Carson Wentz at North Dakota State. He was the backup, but found an opportunity on the field as a freshman after Skylar Thompson, now with the Pittsburgh Steelers, went down with an injury.

In nine games, Howard threw for 1,178 yards and eight touchdowns, with 10 interceptions, and rushed for 364 yards and three touchdowns.

By his junior year, Howard thought it was his team until Martinez joined the program. His parents and former coach talked with Howard about considering a change of schools, but Howard wanted a chance to compete for the job.

“Adrian wins the job, and to Will’s credit, he and Adrian become best friends,” Milano said. “He kept telling me, ‘Adrian’s a good dude. I’m sitting but I’m just going to keep working.’ Well, Adrian gets hurt and Will plays the rest of the year and leads the team to the Big 12 championship.”

In 2023, he started all 12 games in the regular season. He threw for 2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns, tying a school record. He also rushed for 351 yards and nine touchdowns. But Kansas State also had brought in freshman quarterback Avery Johnson, a native Kansan who would make a case for the job as a sophomore.

Howard believed he had more to show at the college level, but it wasn’t going to happen in Manhattan, Kan.

“He always kind of battled,” Maureen Howard said of her son. “He was the guy, then not the guy, was the guy, not the guy. That’s not easy, but he put his head down and worked his butt off.“

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Even when Howard left the Wildcats program for the Buckeyes, he still had to earn the starting job. It didn’t faze him, he was used to competing. This time, it was his. He beat out Devin Brown, who has been in the Buckeyes program for three years and recently entered the transfer portal.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old has run with the opportunity.

Howard has thrown for 3,779 yards and 33 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions this season. He also has rushed for seven touchdowns. He was named the Cotton Bowl offensive MVP after his performance against Texas, when he completed 24 of 29 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns.

He’s just having fun, his parents said. That’s what it’s always been about for Howard.

Monday will mark his final college game and he’ll look to get drafted this year. But whatever the outcome is, his parents are just looking forward to seeing the smile on their son’s face.

“You can’t really have scripted it much better,” his mother said. “Hopefully they come away with the win. But either way, he’s played as far as he can. He made it to the final game. What a blessing. My biggest thing is gratitude for his journey and having it in this fashion.”