ATLANTA – Will Howard, like all of us, has felt lost many times in life.
He felt lost as a freshman at Kansas State, when COVID isolated so many people and left him living alone before he was thrust, long before he was ready, into the starting job. He felt lost two years later when, finally groomed for the starting job as a junior, Kansas State signed a transfer quarterback, Adrian Martinez.
Perhaps he felt most lost when his grandmother, one of his closest family members, passed away that same season.
There was much more feeling of loss. In November 2023, completing his fourth season at Kansas State and with a fifth season of eligibility existing, the school turned again to another quarterback, the highly-billed Avery Johnson, chasing Howard into the transfer portal.
“There’s been a lot of things,” Howard said.
“It hasn’t been easy here either,” he said of his year at Ohio State. “That loss at Oregon and To The School Up North was tough.”
But there are no more losses, at least not now.
That night, in the warmth of the domed Mercedes-Benz Stadium, far from the unusually frigid temperatures here in the Deep South, Will Howard felt a victory, the greatest of all: a national championship as the game’s Most Valuable Player.
He completed his first 13 passes, a record in the CFP and BCS title game. He threw for 231 yards, racked up 56 rushing yards on some critical first down conversions, threw a pair of touchdowns and finished his rollercoaster ride by finishing atop the college football mountain.
Ohio State and Howard beat Notre Dame, 34-23, to win the program’s ninth national title, vindicate their much-maligned head coach, end college football’s longest season (149 days) and send it into history. from the Buckeyes to 23-year-old Howard. , a Pennsylvania boy from the small town of Downingtown.
Then he shined on stage, swimming in a celebration for the ages: seven weeks ago, an unthinkable result after losing at home to rivals as three-touchdown favorites. After all, Ohio State, losers to Oregon and Michigan in the regular season, would not have advanced to a four-team playoff.
In the first year of expansion, the Buckeyes topped their group, blazing a trail that caused Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti to call “the greatest streak in the history of college football.”
Individually, Howard’s career is also a remarkable journey.
He started out as a three-star recruit who received few offers from power programs and was passed over for his one true love: state power Penn State. The journey spanned four years of ups and downs at Kansas State.
He started 15 games in his first three seasons, most of them replacing an injured starter. He was benched as a freshman. He was benched his sophomore year. Heck, he was even benched (sort of) before his fifth season began (he transferred instead).
Between these obstacles, he led the Wildcats to the Big 12 championship in 2022 and threw for more touchdowns than any other K-State quarterback. There are no hard feelings. He still communicates with those at K-State. In fact, his brother, Ryan, is a freshman offensive lineman there.
But Howard took his own path, unique, to be sure. He is one of the few players who can claim a major conference title at one school and a national championship at another.
“It’s crazy to look back and see all the things that have happened in my career,” he said. “All the people in Downingtown and my family at Kansas State and Ohio State, I leaned on a lot of people. “I wouldn’t have been able to go through the things I went through.”
But it ended with an exclamation point, a big one.
The season came down to a singular play, as it usually does.
Ohio State, whose lead was cut from 24 points to eight in the fourth quarter, faced a third-and-11 with about 2 minutes, 45 seconds left.
Should they run the ball to force Notre Dame to use another timeout? Or go for the jugular?
They were deep.
Howard threw a moonball to Jeremiah Smith, racing down the sideline after beating defensive back Christian Gray. The ball fell directly into his waiting arms: a 56-yard completion that clinched a championship.
“I wanted to call it off early, but the guys were talking to me about running the clock,” coach Ryan Day said afterward.
In the pre-snap huddle, OSU offensive tackle Josh Fryar took the play twice.
Are we throwing it deep?
“Shit,” Fryar said, he thought to himself, “we better get this straight.”
“They were in a front of five. “I knew I had to block my guy, block my ass,” he continued. “(My) defender looked over (his head) and saw the ball and I thought, ‘Where is the ball going?’ And then I saw Jeremiah and thought, ‘Thank you, Jesus.'”
There were other routes on the play, said offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the veteran head coach and assistant who finally got his title ring. Howard had an option depending on Notre Dame’s defense.
“If they gave us man (coverage), Will would take it. If they didn’t give us the man, we knew Will would make great decisions and control the ball. I talked to him: ‘Take a look at the look. Get the look right.’”
He did, of course. Kelly describes Howard as “smart, intelligent and tough.”
“He did it with his legs, his arm and his brain,” Kelly said. “He is incredible. We put a lot on your plate. He gets to the line of scrimmage with two, sometimes three plays and puts us on the right play every time.”
How fitting that the season ends, that the final blow, the final blow comes at the hands of perhaps the most electric player in college football: Smith.
But it originally came from a completely normal guy, a boy from Pennsylvania who for so long felt lost. That includes this year too.
Howard, you may remember, fell too late in a loss to Oregon while Ohio State was within field goal range. He clutched his helmet in disgust when the clock in Eugene struck zeros: a 32-31 loss.
And then against Michigan, he botched a series of passes, threw two interceptions and was held under 200 yards.
In the playoff he turned it around.
His four-game combined stat line is one of the best you’ll see: 82 of 109 (75.2%) for 1,150 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions.
Lost?
Not anymore.
He has found a victory, a historic victory that will be recorded in Buckeyes history.