Will Howard picked up a silver ring fit for a giant, admiring a hunk of foam three feet across for the national title winners to adorn. The Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback stared at it, figuring out first what it was and then what it meant.
As far as symbols go, it is hard to get more glaringly obvious, but there was still a hefty bit of disbelief as he looked over the sides.
Here was a kid from tiny Downingtown, Pa.—by way of four years with the Kansas State Wildcats—standing on stage with confetti falling off his shoulder pads and the national championship trophy just a few feet away. Howard was still processing it all after playing the game of his life for a thrilling 34–23 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
As reality set in and the neutral expression gave way to a sly grin, he turned and heard coach Ryan Day coming up from behind. The two locked eyes and embraced, smiling wide as they let out a shout of emotion that was equal parts catharsis and celebration.
This is what they were here for. This moment, surrounded by thousands of cameras that faded into the background as teammates jumped around them. Just a coach and his handpicked quarterback together celebrating a mission few thought they could accomplish just one month ago.
“The lights are bright. It’s a spectacle, and the TV timeouts are like four minutes long. It feels like everything is kind of a show a little bit,” Howard said. “You have to block all that out, and we talked about that all week. Eliminate all the distractions. Don’t listen to any of the outside noise. Just finish the job. When you get into big games like this, whoever is able to have the poise in the noise and be able to overcome adversity [will win].
“It wasn’t always perfect. It’s never going to be. But I think the team that we have and the leadership that we have with Coach Day, just the resilience this team has shown all year, it’s just unbelievable.”
Ohio State winning its ninth national championship in school history is imminently believable when taken on face value. But just over a month ago, the fan base was waffling between being fully apathetic and being downright hostile to their program. The Buckeyes faithful was fully out on Day, a coach who preached toughness so much it allowed him to cloud his judgment in game-planning for the Michigan Wolverines.
Fewer still believed in Howard. His late slide ended a painful loss to the Oregon Ducks earlier in the season. Then, he threw two interceptions to look pedestrian against that team up North—one of the few measuring sticks at a program that takes the field expecting a win every single Saturday.
It is to Day’s credit the negative vibes did not infiltrate the bunker of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in the long layoff. It is to Howard’s that the enigmatic offense returned to its roots and operated with workmanlike precision.
As a result, Ohio State became The Ohio State everybody expected to see. The roster stacked with NFL draft picks played like it. The coaching staff that had been so focused on nibbling around the margins finally started playing to their strengths. The quarterback who had everything placed on his shoulders started to deal, too.
Howard was initially a curious choice to become the team’s new quarterback after former starter Kyle McCord was subtly shown the door after last season’s loss to Michigan. The 6' 4" senior saved his best for last, though, setting a national championship game record by completing his first 13 passes.
He finished 17-of-21 for 231 yards and a pair of scores. His running ability remained devastating on short yardage, picking up several key third-down conversions as Ohio State ran off a quartet of 75-plus-yard touchdown drives.
While the Buckeyes’ lead ballooned to 31–7 midway through the third quarter, the Fighting Irish still had a bit of their nickname left in them. Quarterback Riley Leonard (255 passing yards, three total TDs) and wideout Jaden Greathouse (six catches, 128 receiving yards, two TDs) broke out of a mid-game slump and turned into a modern-day Joe Montana and Kris Haines with big plays all over the field.
Suddenly a rout turned into a nail-biter as the lead came down to one score and OSU received the ball back with under four minutes left.
“[Howard] said lock in, they can’t get a drop on us, and get after it,” offensive lineman Donovan Jackson said. “He’s a natural leader. I’m so proud to have him on this roster.”
After Irish linebacker Jack Kiser fought around a block to drop the signal-caller for a loss two plays into the drive,Howard etched his name into the minds of every Ohio State fan. Facing a critical third-and-11 on his own 34-yard line, he calmly took a three-step drop and let it loose down field.
High and arcing, the rainbow of a throw was suspended in midair for what seemed like an eternity.
“The ball placement, and the air, and the spiral … none of that surprises me,” receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “I see it every day.”
“When we’re clicking, Will is getting us in and out of the right place. He may have checked more than half of the plays today and did a great job at it, didn’t miss one,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly says. “I thought it was a really safe call.”
A safe play call in such a situation is all relative with not just a game, but a national championship on the line.
Then again, Howard knew he had Jeremiah Smith on the other end of the play. The superstar freshman seemed right at home in the NFL venue, getting a step on Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray and calmly hauling in a 57-yarder to secure the victory just before the two-minute warning.
“I mean, I wouldn’t want to be in that situation if they were in zero coverage on that last play,” safety Caleb Downs says, shaking his head. “It’s down in history now.”
“They had five up front and we had those five guys and we had to block our ass off and knew something special was going to happen,” offensive lineman Josh Fryar says. “I mean look what happened. Let’s throw it to the best receiver in the country. He goes up and grabs it. I want to call it the national championship play.”
That has a good ring to it, an image sure to find a spot on the walls of the football facility in Columbus, Ohio, along with all the other hagiography at a program that has plenty to celebrate.
For those who lived in the moment, though, such a play was the perfect encapsulation of this Buckeyes squad that looked like the preseason favorite to win it all. The one with all the talent in the world, finally putting it all together amid a run that will rank right up there with the CFP championship celebrated a decade earlier with the coach, Urban Meyer, and the quarterback, Cardale Jones, leaping in excitement on the sideline in Atlanta.
“It’s crazy to look back at all the things that have happened in my career, going from really playing as a freshman at Kansas State, not really knowing what I’m doing out there, and going into my junior year kind of lost, not really thinking I’d be playing, and then ended up winning a Big 12 championship,” Howard said. “I’m just so thankful that I got the chance to come here and to be a Buckeye and that Coach Day believed in me and that these guys believed in me.”
Howard can no doubt thank Jones, who is in charge of one of Ohio State’s NIL collectives, as much as Day for helping ensure his path ended with a ring he can admire far longer than he did on stage.
Howard is also sure to earn plenty of comparisons by the Buckeye faithful to another championship signal-caller, who never lit up the box score but came up clutch just when the demanding fan base needed him most.
“Oh yeah, Craig Krenzel. A lot like him,” former coach Jim Tressel says. “Tough, wasn’t going to lose. [Howard] came in and did exactly what Ryan and his staff hoped he would do, bring toughness. Bring maturity. Bring people together. He was the right guy.”
The right quarterback, the right play, the right moment and, yes, even the right team in the end.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Will Howard Rises to Ohio State’s Championship Moment.