Brandon Inniss gets questions about Will Howard, the most talked-about quarterback in Ohio State’s high-profile competition to start behind center.  

They come from teammates, asking for his assessment of the veteran transfer from Kansas State.

The exchanges prompt him to point to Howard’s leadership.

“Everybody listens to him when he’s in the huddle,” Inniss said. “He’s the commander. A lot of the quarterbacks have been very good, but he’s been on a different level.”

A day after Buckeyes coach Ryan Day seemingly moved closer to naming Howard as the frontrunner in the battle, impressed by him taking more of a command of the offense in preseason training camp, those tasked with catching passes from the quarterback were in sync.

They concurred that Howard had taken strides since spring practice, looking more comfortable as the signal caller.

The consensus among the handful of wide receivers is that Howard has been more at ease.

“He’s definitely getting more comfortable,” redshirt freshman Bryson Rodgers said. “He’s been a great aspect to this team. He’s a great voice in the locker room, great energy.”

More: Join the Ohio State Sports Insider text group with Bill Rabinowitz, Joey Kaufman Adam Jardy

The demeanor has translated to the fields outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, where the Buckeyes have been practicing since camp opened last week.

“You can feel his fifth-year presence when he steps onto the field,” senior Emeka Egbuka said. “Gets in the huddle, takes command of it, lets everybody know their assignments and what they got. Like a field general out there.

“He has tremendous confidence in his ability, so that that bleeds out throughout the entire offense, and we’re able to play fast.”

Howard is loose enough that he’s even been willing to partake in a little trash talking during competitive periods.  

“I like his confidence,” said Jeremiah Smith, the Buckeyes’ hyped freshman receiver. “He’s starting to talk more, talk a lot of mess on the field. I love quarterbacks that like to talk.”

Not always PG, either.

“He says a lot of stuff I can’t say,” Smith said, “but he’ll talk for sure.”

More: How is Ohio State QB Will Howard different since the spring? Let us count the ‘weighs’

The passage of time has allowed Howard to settled in at Ohio State. He only transferred to the school in January.

Spring practice required him to digest a new playbook and become more familiar with teammates. The timing between a quarterback and receivers remains paramount.

When Howard met with reporters earlier this week, he described the experience as like drinking from a fire hose.

“It’s something where you’re in a new environment,” Egbuka said. “You got to get accustomed to the people. You got to get accustomed to the new offense. So it’s all coming with time, and he just continues to get better and better every practice.”

The receivers don’t see the trajectory changing, holding high hopes for the athletic 6-foot-4 quarterback.

“Will’s a great quarterback,” Rodgers said, “and he just going to keep growing and keep becoming better and better for this team.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @joeyrkaufman or email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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Vehicles are trapped on roadways as flash flooding sweeps across Northeast Ohio Thursday evening.

Flash Flood Warnings are in effect for several communities across NEO this evening

As of 9:40 p.m., I-76/US-224 is experiencing this flooding in both directions for about 0.8 miles beyond Barber Road. The road is closed in both directions.

Expect closures and plan an alternate route.

Barberton Police and Norton Police are responding to I-76 at Summit Road for a report of multiple vehicles trapped in the roadway due to the flooding.

State Route 82 East at Hadden Road is also flooded, and the Ohio Department of Transportation said to expect lanes to be closed.

In Akron, Mayor Shammas Malik posted on X, advising residents to avoid the following areas due to flooding:

• Cuyahoga Street
• Merriman Valley
• Memorial Parkway
• Weathervane

Malik said to avoid any flooded areas and to not attempt to drive through them.
News 5 has a crew heading to the scene on I-76, and this story will be updated as more information is learned.

Click here to see the latest traffic information and an interactive traffic map on our Akron-Canton Traffic Center

Click here to see the cheapest gas prices in our area.

Our lady full of … surprises.

An Ohio churchgoer says she captured a divine “miracle” on camera when the eyes of a statue depicting the Virgin Mary suddenly appeared to shut.

Connie Liptak was at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Canton Friday when she says an Our Lady of Fatima sculpture that had been on display during a world tour closed and reopened her pious peepers, according to FOX 8 Cleveland.

“I knew it was a miracle because I’d been looking at her all morning,” said Liptak, who snapped a photo of the moment. “They’re really closed. I mean, you can really see her lashes are down.”

A digital photo of the supposed phenomena appears to show Mary with her eyelids shut and mouth slightly more agape than the statue in its original form.

True believers have long attributed miracles to the same sculpture — the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima —  including healings and astral phenomenon.

“We know that she’s wept 15 times,” said the statue’s handler, Larry Maginot, told the station

But Rev. David Misbrener, the pastor of the Ohio church, said he didn’t think it was an act of God.

“I’m a little bit skeptical of such things, and the church is very cautious with such things,” Misbrener told the Canton Repository. “Anything can happen with a camera.”

But he added,  “My take is that if anyone benefited spiritually or physically, it did its job.”

The statue, which depicts Jesus’ mother praying near a small village in Portugal, was commissioned in 1947. It now travels the world wide and is showcased in Catholic churches.

Liptak’s image of the apparent blink has yet to be analyzed by a digital photography expert.