In the biggest game of his life, Ohio State’s Will Howard rose to another level

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.

Will Howard and the Ohio State Buckeyes finish the season on top of the college football world. (Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)

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…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-21 07:19:00

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