Will Howard came into the National Championship vs. Notre Dame on January 20th knowing that he was the projected team to win but couldn’t have that mindset knowing anything could happen.
Howard is a veteran QB with 4 years of former experience at Kansas State, deciding to transfer to Ohio State for his 5th year.
Howard came in clutch late in the 4th quarter completing a pass to Jeremiah Smith on 3rd and 12 to prevent having to give the ball back to Notre Dame with 4 min remaining.
Howard was pumped up about the big game.
Howard said, “Coming into this game, I was very excited about the game plan more than usual.”
Howard didn’t just make one impressive play in the game; he played a strong and dominant game throughout all 4 quarters helping lead his team to win a national championship like he was brought to Ohio State to do.
Howard showed his true leadership during the game helping his teammates battle through all the adversity all season.
Head coach of the Buckeyes Ryan Day believed that his team would be in the situation to win a national championship at the beginning of the year.
Day said, “I had a feeling that we would be in a situation like this where we needed his feet to go win a game, and that’s exactly what happened in this game.”
Howard was very grateful having been able to play as many games as possible in the playoffs being extra prepared and being counted as an underdog at the start of the playoffs.
He believes any extra time and practice helped him and his team’s success in the playoffs because they had the extra practice and upper hand.
The star quarterback was very excited about having two extra weeks to help prepare for Notre Dame in the national championship.
Howard said, “I think the 2 or 3 weeks given to us really helped us against these guys and get an edge and figure out what we liked and didn’t like.”
