Will Howard Updates: Buckeyes Have To Maintain Consistency

COLUMBUS — Ohio State quarterback Will Howard met with reporters on Tuesday to discuss this past weekend’s big win over Penn State and how the Buckeyes will prepare for the rest of the season moving forward. The highlights of everything Howard had to say can be found below.

• On being a leader: “I definitely wasn’t like that as a freshman in college.” It takes time. You have to develop self-security first. You have to be confident in yourself no matter what happens. “This is bigger than me. I don’t care if I play my worst game — if we win, that’s all that matters.” Being a leader is being yourself. You’ve just got to be yourself and be real. If you are real and genuine, people are going to want to follow you.
• Took some self-control to slide on the third down play to win the game. You don’t want to allow something crazy to happen. As much as he would have loved to go 40 yards, it’s better to win the game. He probably could have padded his stats a bit more but he wasn’t thinking about that in the moment.
• Being willing and ready to use his legs in key moments is big for moving the chains.
• Can’t say enough amazing things about Donovan Jackson and Carson Hinzma and the rest of the offensive line. They all heard the talk. “That’s a team thing. That’s not just the O-line.” They wanted to impose their will on Penn State “and I think we did that.”
• Physicality is contagious. Watch that last drive. “I don’t think that they believed that they were really going to stop us.” Five yards on a quarterback sneak is deflating for a defense and inflating for an offense.
• On moving on quickly from bad plays: “I was bad at it my freshman and sophomore years, to be honest with you. I just felt it so many times.” He threw more interceptions than touchdowns as a freshman, “and I just didn’t know how to turn it around.” It clicked for him at West Virginia in 2022. “It’s really about how you approach it and respond to it.” “I just said ‘Screw it, move on,’ and I didn’t let it affect my confidence.”
• How confident are you that you are the guy to lead this team to a championship? “I’m very confident.” If I was to say I wasn’t confident, “that would be a pretty big problem.” “I’m thrilled about this win but at this point we’re past it.”
• “I feel like I’m playing good football but I still haven’t played my best.”

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