What Will Howard’s commitment means for Ohio State football and Ryan Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a potentially dominant defense and an enticing collection of skill position stars, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day needed the quarterback who could bring it all together.

That circumstance confronted Day as soon as he accepted the reins of the program from Urban Meyer in the winter of 2018-19. His first major decision as head coach involved fixing the quarterback room immediately after Dwayne Haskins’ departure to the NFL and setting the course for years to come.

Day’s first foray into the transfer quarterback market become an unparalleled success. Justin Fields became a Heisman Trophy finalist and led two College Football Playoff appearances. Day now summons former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard to Columbus under similar, though not identical, circumstances.

Depending on the outcome of pending NFL Draft decisions, the Buckeyes could feature a former 1,000-yard receiver, one of the best running backs in the nation and a defense that spent the past season providing miles’ worth of margin for error every Saturday.

Unlike Fields, Howard will face real competition for the job. Devin Brown pushed Kyle McCord for the starting job last season through the first two weeks of the regular season. Current freshman Lincoln Kienholz and incoming five-star prospect Air Noland deserve a fair look this spring as well.

Also unlike Fields, Howard represents merely a one-year bridge back to the future of the Buckeye quarterback room.

Back in 2019, Day needed a jump-start to the kind of quarterback room he hoped to build. Now he needs a course correction — one season of stability (with upside) before he turns back to cycling through the upper-tier prospects who arrive on an annual basis.

Day asked McCord and Brown a year ago to find that measure of dependability and consistency. They almost got there. They also had Marvin Harrison Jr. and Cade Stover — recognized among the best in the nation at their positions — at their disposal.

Howard, or whoever ultimately wins the 2024 job, will not. He will, though, throw to a receiving corps potentially led by Emeka Egbuka. While the 1,000-yard receiver in 2022 has not announced an NFL Draft decision, he has been considered at worst a lean to come back. He would become the top target in a room littered with former top prospects such as Jadyen Ballard, Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and Jeremiah Smith, among others.

The offense may also benefit from the return of TreVeyon Henderson, who finally reached an elusive combination of health and performance in the second half of this past season. As the offensive line recalibrates and potentially reassembles with new contributors, a return by Henderson would ensure a fairly high floor for a complementary ground game.

And if neither Egbuka nor Henderson return? Day’s system has always been rather kind to quarterbacks, and Howard’s specific skill set should fit in fairly easily. He is not a dual-threat quarterback, but rather a mobile pocket passer. (Fields was more of the former, though under Day he played like more of the latter.)

Howard rushed for 168 yards and three touchdowns in back-to-back games against Central Florida and Oklahoma State last season. Ohio State quarterbacks netted minus-40 yards after lost sack yardage in 2023.

That’s quite a contrast, and Howard’s 6-foot-5, 242-pound frame scrambling for free yards would change how defenses must scheme and react.

The other difference between this transfer quarterback pickup and Day’s first: Back in 2019, the stakes were not yet make-or-break. Day had some leeway as a first-time head coach taking over a roster left a bit unprepared for Haskins becoming a first-round pick after one season as starter.

Day turns to Howard in need of a breakthrough. The list of players who have cycled through OSU in the past three seasons without playing meaningful snaps in a Big Ten championship game is staggering: C.J. Stroud, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Paris Johnson Jr., Mike Hall Jr.

Howard’s commitment comes as Michigan prepares to play the national championship game as a 4.5-point favorite. The Buckeyes’ relationship to their rivals and their place in the Big Ten hierarchy has flipped since Fields left.

Regardless of a lack of divisional strictures and an expanded playoff, Day must flip that relationship back. He is entrusting Howard to help make it happen.