by Kyle Golik
No matter your allegiance to a school, everyone has notable oversights. During his 46 seasons at Penn State, Joe Paterno did not do much recruiting in the South; he typically wanted to build the backbone of Penn State from the Mid-Atlantic. When Archie Manning tried to convince Paterno to recruit his sons, Peyton and Eli, Paterno declined each time reasoning that they would want to play in the South.
While Paterno narrowly missed recruiting Peyton Manning—Manning would be a freshman in the 1994 season—the Nittany Lions took on Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl prior to Manning’s enrollment, he did not pay for the transgression in any way.
Fast forward nearly 30 years: current head coach James Franklin has given current Ohio State quarterback Will Howard the motivation to prove him wrong ahead of the Top 5 clash in Beaver Stadium on Saturday.
“I cannot wait. It’s gonna be a homecoming for me. I grew up a Penn State fan. I wanted to go there my whole life. They didn’t think I was good enough. I guess we’ll see next week if I was,” Howard, a Downingtown West native, said following Ohio State’s close call against Nebraska.
Will Howard was a former three-star prospect who had offers from Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota and Rutgers. Howard eventually settled at Kansas State for four seasons, where his 2022 campaign saw him come in as relief for Adrian Martinez, who had a season-ending injury, and was the catalyst for the Wildcats’ surprise Big XII Championship and Sugar Bowl berth.
After setting career highs in 2023, Howard wanted to finish his eligibility where he could get his skills refined enough to attract NFL attention. Howard’s primary suitors during the time in the portal were Southern California and Ohio State. When it became evident that Lincoln Riley was set on Miller Moss and Ohio State was far more aggressive in filling the void left by Kyle McCord it opened the opportunity for Howard for this matchup.
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So far in 2024, Howard is third nationally in completion percentage at 74% and quarterback efficiency with a rating of 183.9. He ranks sixth in QBR at 86.6, and is also in the Top 20 in passing touchdowns responsible for with 22 (17 passing and 5 rushing).
A natural comparison at this point is Howard outperforming Kyle McCord’s marks from a season ago. Howard has the edge in passing yards (1,937 to 1,795) and signature wins (Notre Dame and Penn State, both Top 10 wins). Through seven games, Howard statistically outperforms McCord in every category.
Though the ultimate comparison is the big time wins, while McCord was often scrutinized for his lack of dominance in big-time matchups, he did win two Top 10 contests. However, in his lone contest against a Top 10 opponent, Oregon, Howard came up short in the biggest moment for him.
While Howard put up significantly better numbers than McCord ever did in big-time games, the result is all anyone cares about. Penn State’s secondary will have to contend with a highly accurate Howard, who has had four 80+% completion percentage games out of the last five, that includes Oregon where Howard was 28 for 35 passing 326 yards and three total touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing).
Howard is flanked at the skill positions with as much — if not more — talent than anyone in the nation. However, Howard has to worry about his blindside, as Ohio State lost its second left tackle to injury against Nebraska when Zen Michalski who replaced Josh Simmons to a season-ending injury suffered against Oregon, went down.
While the injuries aren’t exclusive to Ohio State, Penn State is hoping EDGE rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton will be able to play in some capacity. Penn State head coach James Franklin said Monday that Dennis-Sutton will be a game-time decision.
If Ohio State doesn’t have the ability to protect Howard, it could mark a long day for him against an aggressive Penn State unit that likes to pressure the quarterback. They are second nationally in sack percentage over the last decade at 8.74%
This is a game that will start to define Howard’s legacy — if he were to have one at Ohio State — in a positive direction. Howard has all the skills and has the weapons around him to make Penn State pay for overlooking him.
