ATLANTA — Will Howard, like us all, has felt lost many times in life.
He felt lost as a freshman at Kansas State, when COVID isolated so many and left him living alone before being thrust — well before he was ready — into the starting job. He felt lost two years later, when, finally prepared for the starting gig as a junior, Kansas State brought in a transfer QB, Adrian Martinez.
He felt the most lost, perhaps, when his grandmother — one of his closest family members — passed away later that season.
There was plenty more feeling of loss. In November of 2023, as he completed his fourth season at Kansas State and with a fifth season of eligibility existing, the school again turned to another quarterback, the highly billed Avery Johnson, chasing Howard into the transfer portal.
“There’s been a lot,” Howard said.
“It hasn’t been easy here either,” he said of his year at Ohio State. “That Oregon loss and To The School Up North, that was tough.”
But there’s no more loss, not now at least.
On this night, in the warmth of the domed Mercedes-Benz Stadium, away from the unseasonably frigid temperatures here in the Deep South, Will Howard felt a win, the biggest of them, too: a national championship as the game’s Most Valuable Player.
He completed his first 13 passes — a CFP and BCS title game record. He threw for 231 yards, racked up 56 on the ground in some critical first-down conversions, tossed a pair of touchdowns and ended his roller coaster of a journey by finishing atop college football’s mountain.
Ohio State and Howard beat Notre Dame, 34-23, to win the program’s ninth national title, vindicated their much-maligned head coach, ended college football’s longest season ever (149 days) and sent into Buckeyes lore the 23-year-old Howard, a Pennsylvania kid from the tiny town of Downingtown.
Afterward, he glowed while on the stage, swimming in a celebration for the ages — seven weeks ago an unthinkable outcome after losing at home to their rivals as three-touchdown favorites. After all, Ohio State, losers to Oregon and Michigan in the regular season, would not have advanced to a four-team playoff.
In the first year of expansion, the Buckeyes tore through their bracket, blazing a path that had Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti calling it “the greatest run in college football history.”
Individually, Howard’s run is a remarkable journey as well.
It started as a three-star recruit who received few offers from power programs and was ignored by his one, true love: in-state power Penn State. The journey meandered through four years of ups and downs at Kansas State.
He started 15 games his first three seasons, most of them in replacement duty for an injured starter. He was benched as a freshman. He was benched as a sophomore. Heck, he was even benched (sort of) before his fifth season was set to begin (he transferred instead).
In between these hurdles, he led the Wildcats to the Big 12 championship in 2022 and he threw for more touchdowns than any other K-State QB. There are no hard feelings. He still communicates with those at K-State. In fact, his brother, Ryan, is a freshman offensive lineman there.
But Howard took his own path — a unique one, for sure. He’s one of the rare players who can claim a major conference title at one school and a national championship at another.
“It’s crazy to look back at all the things that have happened in my career,” he said. “All the people back home at Downingtown and family at Kansas State and Ohio State. I leaned on a lot of people. I wouldn’t have been able to go through the stuff I did.”
But it ended with an exclamation point, a big one.
The season came down to one singular play, as it often does.
Ohio State, whose lead shrank from 24 points to eight in the fourth quarter, faced a third-and-11 with about 2 minutes, 45 seconds left.
Should they run the ball to force Notre Dame to use another timeout? Or go for the jugular?
They went deep.
Howard launched a moon ball to Jeremiah Smith, streaking down the sideline having beaten defensive back Christian Gray. The ball fell directly into his awaiting arms — a 56-yard completion that secured a championship.
“I wanted to call it sooner but guys were talking to me about running the clock down,” coach Ryan Day said afterward.
In the huddle before the play, OSU offensive tackle Josh Fryar did a double take at the play-call.
We’re throwing it deep?
“Holy s***,” Fryar said he thought to himself, “we better get this.”
“They were in a five front. I knew I had to block my guy, block my ass off,” he continued. “[My] defender looked over [his head] and saw the ball and I was like, ‘Where’s the ball going?’ And then I saw Jeremiah and I thought, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’”
There were other routes on the play, said offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, the longtime head coach and assistant who finally got his title ring. Howard had a choice depending on Notre Dame’s defense.
“If they gave us man [coverage], Will would take it. If they didn’t give us man, we knew Will is going to make great decisions and check the ball down. I talked to him, ‘Take a look at the look. Make the right look.’”
He did, of course. Kelly describes Howard as “smart, sharp and tough.”
“He did it with his legs, his arm and his brain,” Kelly said. “He’s awesome. We put a ton on his plate. He goes to the line of scrimmage with two, sometimes three plays and he puts us in the right play all the time.”
How fitting for the season to end, for the last strike, the final blow to come at the hands of perhaps the most electric player in college football in Smith.
But it originally came from the hand of an altogether normal guy, a Pennsylvania kid who for so long felt lost. That included this year too.
Howard, you’ll recall, slid down too late in a loss to Oregon while Ohio State was in field goal range. He gripped his helmet in disgust as the clock in Eugene struck zeroes — a 32-31 loss.
And then against Michigan, he missed on a bevy of passes, threw two interceptions and was kept under 200 yards.
In the playoff, he turned it around.
His combined four-game stat line is one of the best you’ll see: 82-for-109 (75.2%) for 1,150 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions.
Lost?
Not anymore.
He’s found a win, a historic victory that’ll go down in Buckeyes lore.
