Ohio State Football Notebook: ‘When his feet are right, he throws a good ball’

Now I Gotta Cut Loose

When people talk about quarterbacks, the main thing that is mentioned is the arm. How strong it is. How accurate it is. And so on. Without proper footwork, however, the arm is never going to be as good as it can be.

According to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, it’s the footwork that is mostly to blame for quarterback Will Howard’s occasional struggles throwing the deep ball. Howard has missed a pair of deep throws to sophomore receiver Carnell Tate the past two games, and while the outsider may ask about arm strength, Day chalks it up to footwork.

“Yeah, a big part of it is footwork,” Day said. “It’s the footwork. It’s being able to time up your footwork with the route. And that’s something we’re going to continue to work through and with Will on. I think he’s thrown some really good balls down the field and then sometimes been a little bit late with his feet. So we’ll keep working on that because when his feet are right, he throws a good ball.”

Coming to Ohio State from Kansas State, Howard is throwing to a higher level of receiver than he has in the past. There was certainly some adjustment to that when he first arrived 11 months ago, but that is no longer an issue.

“Yeah, I think he’s adjusted now. He’s been with these guys for a while, so I just really think that it comes down to footwork and letting it go,” Day said. “Because when his feet are right, I mean, he throws a really good ball down the field. So that’s something that we’ve got to keep building on and growing on.

“I think it was the same thing on Saturday with the long ball to Carnell. Not that it was a bad throw. It’s just, it could have been thrown with a little bit more juice, and I think if the footwork’s a little bit better, it’s probably a little bit more accurate.”

Who Does Number Two Work For?

When Ryan Day named Will Howard as the starting quarterback back in August, the backup job then went to Devin Brown. Brown has kept the job, but last week against Purdue, freshman Julian Sayin replaced him mid-series on a third-and-long situation.

What went into that decision?

“We want to get those guys as many reps as we can,” Day said on Tuesday. “We’d like to get both of those guys reps, and in that moment, it was a third down, I wanted to give Julian that opportunity to go ahead and take a third down. I thought he used it as an opportunity to scramble and make a play and then didn’t quite keep the thing moving. Wanted to throw the ball a little bit with Julian to see how he did because he hasn’t really done that a bunch in games. Just missed one and he and Brandon [Inniss] didn’t connect. Would like to see him get a first down there.”

Brown has much more experience throwing the ball in games as a Buckeye, so they let Saying sling it. He went 0-4 in the game, but it was his first action since late September.

“I think that was a great opportunity for him,” Day said. “I’d love to continue to be able to do that, but as time goes on, you get less and less opportunities. We’ve got to make sure we’re winning games. So he and Devin are both working hard every day in practice. Devin right now is our backup, but Julian is pushing hard. We’ll keep evaluating it every week and see where those guys are at.”

Our Turf, Our Little Piece Of Turf

There has been plenty of concern from the Ohio State fan base on the frequent slip-and-falls from the Buckeyes on the turf in Ohio Stadium. This is the third year on the turf, which was deemed “way better” than the previous turf back in 2022 by then-sophomore running back TreVeyon Henderson, who also added that it was less slippery than the previous turf — which had reached its recommended replacement date of eight years of usage.

While the slipping isn’t an Ohio Stadium-specific issue, it’s certainly been seen enough to draw the ire of everyone. Quarterback Will Howard slipped a few times in last week’s win over Purdue. So much so that after the game he said he’s ordering some new cleats.

On Tuesday, OSU head coach Ryan Day was asked if he had commissioned any studies to find out if the slipping on the Ohio Stadium turf and the practice fields is out of the norm with the rest of the nation.

“So we’ve looked into a lot of things,” Day said. “And so after each game we’ll look to see if there was any of that going on and then get back with the folks at the company and make sure that all the tests are coming back the way that they should. And so we’ve been asking those questions.

The kind of turf Ohio State uses is known as “Slit Film Turf” and it is supposed to hold the rubber pellets that are spread over the field in place better. Day admitted that some changes have been made over the life of the turf already, and they will continue to look at ways to make the existing turf better for the players.

“They’ve come in, they’ve taken things out, they’ve put things in to make sure that it’s right for our guys,” Day said. “And so we’ll always look at that every week to make sure it’s right.”

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