Shortly after Ohio State completed its spring game in mid-April, the Buckeyes’ coaching staff created an offseason roadmap of sorts for transfer quarterback Will Howard, a newcomer from Kansas State. Head coach Ryan Day wanted to see a deeper understanding and greater command of the system. New offensive coordinator Chip Kelly stressed to Howard the importance of shoring up his mechanics. Director of sport performance Mickey Marotti challenged Howard, who was listed at 6-foot-4 and 242 pounds last season, to reshape his body during the team’s strength and conditioning sessions over the summer.

An uneven performance during the spring left the door ajar for Howard’s fellow quarterbacks in a five-man race, with the primary challenge provided by rising junior Devin Brown, the backup to starter Kyle McCord in 2023. But if Howard could make noticeable strides in the aforementioned areas, the coaches explained, he would be well-positioned for the resumption of Ohio State’s quarterback competition in fall camp, a four-week sprint toward the season opener against Akron on Aug. 31.

“I think coming off the spring,” Day said, “everything was very new. It was a significant change in terms of scheme and what we ask the quarterback to do.”

[ 2024 college football rankings: RJ Young’s Ultimate 134]

For as exhaustive as such a to-do list might have seemed in April, Howard proceeded to navigate his first and only offseason in Columbus with aplomb. He toned and leaned his body to a more sculpted 235 pounds. He arrived at fall camp with improved velocity on his passes. He made quicker decisions in the pocket to reflect his growing comfortability in the scheme. And he began commanding the huddle with exactly the type of veteran presence Ohio State needed in the buildup to one of its most anticipated seasons in years.

All told, Howard’s improvements were swift enough and vast enough for Day to call an end to the competition at the halfway point of training camp — nearly a month earlier than last year’s race between McCord and Brown was finally decided. Day told reporters in a news conference on Thursday afternoon that Howard had graded out “significantly ahead” of the other quarterbacks when combining his performances from the spring with the first two weeks of preseason, a grand total of approximately 28 practices. It was enough for Howard to officially be named the Buckeyes’ starter over Brown. 

“I feel like, quite honestly, Will has taken control of the team in the last four or five days,” Day said. “I don’t think anybody will be surprised in that locker room.”

Ohio State’s Will Howard links up with Emeka Egbuka who makes a RIDICULOUS one-handed grab

For many fans and observers of Ohio State, this was the expected outcome from the moment Howard announced his decision to join the program in early January, bypassing a chance to enter the NFL Draft. Howard, who will turn 23 in December, started 28 games across four seasons at Kansas State, including 12 starts during the 2023 campaign alone. He threw for 5,786 yards during his time with the Wildcats and rushed for 921 more while producing 67 total touchdowns, 19 of which came on the ground. He was a second-team All-Big 12 selection by the coaches last season after leading Kansas State to a 9-4 record and a 6-3 mark in conference play.

Production aside, it’s Howard’s seismic edge in experience that proved too difficult for Ohio State’s other quarterbacks to overcome. Howard logged at least 400 snaps in three different seasons at Kansas State and left the Wildcats having topped 1,800 for his career. The other four scholarship quarterbacks on the Buckeyes’ roster will enter 2024 having played 164 snaps combined: Brown (104), Lincoln Kienholz (60), Julian Sayin (0) and Air Noland (0). Inexperienced quarterback play was among the factors that derailed Day’s squad last season, with McCord unable to match the lofty standard of predecessors C.J. Stroud and Justin Fields.

Put simply, Howard is a far more proven commodity. 

“Where he is now is pretty impressive,” Kelly said on Thursday afternoon. “And you know the one thing he has is experience: He’s been in the huddle. He’s been in a huddle in a lot of games and a lot of big games. So this isn’t new to him. Columbus is new to him, but playing college football isn’t new to him. I think that experience, you know, really started to shine through here in camp, and I’m excited to see where he goes with it.”

What that shining through has looked like, according to Day and Kelly, is the marriage of physical tools and maturity they envisioned when Howard joined the Buckeyes over the winter — both of which are now being accentuated by a roster of skill players far more talented than what was present at Kansas State. Improved footwork and base have allowed Howard to throw with more “zip” than he did in the spring. An obsession with watching film and vocalizing playcalls in the Ohio State quarterback room deepened Howard’s understanding of the offense. A commitment to changing his body enabled Howard to be clocked at 22 miles per hour during a summer workout, faster than all of his competitors at the position.  

The roadmap from April has been realized. And Howard is ahead of schedule. 

“A big part of it is the work ethic he has put in,” Day said. “He comes in early, he puts work in, he studies the film, he understands what the schemes are, he understands the structure of the route combinations, and he’s done a good job in the run game. 

“When you’re in this offense, you’re making a decision every single play at quarterback. There’s very few times when you just hand the ball off and take a deep breath. We try to do that every now and again, but it’s not a lot. And he can handle it, and he’s done a good job of making sure that he’s prepared for the preseason, and it’s showing.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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Ohio State will start Will Howard, a transfer from Kansas State, at quarterback to open the 2024 season, coach Ryan Day announced Thursday.

Howard, who started 28 games for Kansas State and helped the Wildcats to the 2022 Big 12 title, was the front-runner for the Buckeyes’ starting job but had been competing in preseason camp with Devin Brown and others. Brown also competed with eventual starter Kyle McCord, who has since transferred to Syracuse, for the starting job last summer. Alabama transfer Julian Sayin and others were in the mix, but No. 2 Ohio State will go with Howard for its Aug. 31 opener against Akron.

“We’re really excited about Will being the starter,” Day said. “He has really 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.”

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound Howard set a Kansas State record with 48 career touchdown passes and tied the team’s single-season mark with 24 TD passes last fall. He has 5,786 career passing yards has accounted for 67 total touchdowns. Howard announced his transfer to Ohio State in early January.

Day said Brown, a junior with eight career appearances, will be Ohio State’s backup quarterback, although Sayin is still a contender for the No. 2 job. Sayin, ESPN’s No. 9 recruit in the 2024 class, transferred from Alabama to Ohio State in January.

Howard separated himself from the other contenders during the past seven to 10 days of camp, Day said.

“Will’s earned it,” first-year offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “We obviously grade everything and Will graded out the highest.”

With the 2024 college football season looming, one of the most-anticipated matchups is the game between the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes on Oct. 12 in Autzen Stadium. Their initial matchup as conference opponents in the Big Ten has a chance to become the first of many clashes between two blooming rivals.

When asked about the Ohio State game on the Jim Rome show, Oregon coach Dan Lanning said, “Unbelievable team. We’re certainly not looking ahead, but you can’t look at your schedule and not recognize who there’s opportunities to play and Ohio State has done an unbelievable job year in and year out. They’ve had a lot of success, they’re well coached, they’ve recruited really well, and they’ve built a history.”

In the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll, the Buckeyes rank No. 2 in the country. The Ducks are right behind them, sitting at No. 3. The potential for a top-3 matchup in Eugene has fans, players, and coaches eager in anticipation.

Over the summer, Lanning has praised Oregon’s relentless pursuit to market themselves differently than the rest of college football teams across the country.  In its first year in the Big Ten, the Ducks are looking to disrupt the traditional power structure of the conference.

“So, that’s the thing that excites you about joining the Big Ten is that you’re going to get to play teams like that, that have such a great history. I know that our fans will be unbelievable for that atmosphere. It’s gonna be a special game for sure, but fortunately we have to play some games before we get to that one and continue to improve,” said Lanning.

The last meeting between the teams occurred in Columbus in 2021, when the Ducks won 35-28 with Mario Cristobal at the helm. Ohio State was scheduled to make the trip to Autzen in the 2020 season before the game was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another interesting story line of the Oregon-Ohio State matchup is the return of Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly to Eugene. Kelly is the Buckeyes offensive coordinator and play caller in 2024, after stepping down as UCLA coach. Suffice to say, Kelly will have some surprises for the Ducks and they will have some twists of their own for their former coach.

The Buckeyes’ trip to Autzen stadium in 2024 will be one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. Although too early to tell, a trip to Eugene on Oct. 12 feels inevitable for the Kirk Herbstreit and the College Gameday crew.

Oregon looks to use the Autzen Stadium advantage to start a new rivalry with a Ducks’ victory.

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