Will Howard spent several weeks in college football purgatory after entering the transfer portal in late November.

Ohio State wanted to wait until after the Cotton Bowl before giving the green light to the former Kansas State quarterback coming. Howard spent a little too much of that time eating.

When he arrived in January and first stepped on the scale, it wasn’t pretty: 249 pounds on his 6-foot-4 frame.

“A little portal weight put on,” Howard said Tuesday with a chuckle. “Coach Mick had some words for me.”

That would be OSU’s strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti. But Howard didn’t need to be told.

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“I didn’t feel great myself,” Howard said. “I knew I had to lose some weight.”

Marotti and team dietitian Kaila Olson devised a plan to help Howard reshape his body, and he has done so. He said he now weighs between 233 and 235 pounds.

“All I had to do was listen to what they told me and follow the plan, and it worked out,” Howard said.

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He did extra cardio work. He learned to cook.

“I felt a little more grown up,” he said. “I had fun with it. It was cool. It feels good to eat well and treat your body right.”

The body change is already paying dividends. Though offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly said no front-runner has emerged in the quarterback competition, Howard looks poised to assume that status whenever it is announced.

All five of Ohio State’s quarterbacks can run, but Howard is the fastest. Kelly said Howard exceeded 22 mph in testing. In Saturday’s practice, he outran OSU’s speedy defensive backs for a long touchdown run.

“Not only can you see his ability to run faster, but I think he’s got a lot more stamina,” Kelly said.

Howard and Kelly also said the quarterback has improved his passing since the spring.

“I’ve tweaked some things in my mechanics,” said Howard, who completed 58.8% of his passes at Kansas State. “I’m getting a deeper level of coaching than I ever have. I have a deeper understanding of the offense and what the defense is doing.”

It’s a significant change from the spring when Howard looked tentative at times. That wasn’t surprising given that Howard was learning a new system and even had to adjust to a different coordinator when Bill O’Brien left to become head coach at Boston College.

“I feel in the spring I was, at the beginning, drinking from a firehose a little bit, especially with the way the offense was installed,” Howard said. “But I think that was good for me – learning how to go through a couple of practices without having any prior experience with an offense and the struggles I had.”

It wasn’t until midway through spring practice that he began to feel comfortable. He continued that progress in the summer.

“Coming into fall camp, it’s been completely different,” Howard said. “You can’t replicate actually doing it. The only way to do it is to do it. It’s helped me a lot this fall camp to just play rather than think about things.”

In the four practices open to fans and media, Howard wasn’t spectacular, but he looked in command. He didn’t throw an interception and took what the defense allowed, which usually wasn’t much.

“Going against this defense every day is a blessing,” he said. “It sucks at times. (I know) in games that guys aren’t going to be guarded like that.

“We’re going to play some really good defenses, but I think we’re playing one of, if not the best, defense in the country, and that’s just making me and us better.”

Howard said he is unconcerned that coaches maintain there’s no pecking order yet. He figures that will take care of itself in time.

“That’s not my decision,” Howard said. “I’m just going to be myself and keep fighting to be the best version of myself every single day and make the most out of my reps and show this team I’m going to give it my all. That’s all I can do. We’re going to keep competing and make each other better and have fun.”

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