'We willed ourselves to win': Ohio State's Will Howard gets revenge against Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — One by one, the bodies caromed and ricocheted off Will Howard, the Ohio State quarterback whose skin was coated with sweat and dirt and the grass-stained remnants of the sweetest slide he's ever slid, the one that sealed a victory over a program he once dreamed of representing. Seven days had passed since Howard, a former three-star prospect from Downington, Pennsylvania, a western suburb of Philadelphia, boldly proclaimed how much the impending matchup between the Buckeyes and No. 3 Penn State meant to him, how he'd grown up rooting for the Nittany Lions and viewed this trip to Beaver Stadium as a homecoming. "They didn't think I was good enough," Howard said in reference to Penn State's coaching staff during a postgame news conference in late October. "But I guess we'll see next week if I was."

It was the kind of comment that produced a moment of stunned silence inside the media room at Ohio Stadium, the site of a sloppy and mistake-ridden win over Nebraska that catalyzed a week of consternation both inside and outside the program. The offensive and defensive lines were maligned for their poor performances. So, too, were the members of Ohio State's coaching staff most responsible for those particular units, from offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and offensive line coach Justin Frye to defensive line coach Larry Johnson and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Eventually, in the aftermath of Saturday's game against Penn State, head coach Ryan Day admitted that, behind closed doors, the Buckeyes had spoken about "being at a crossroads" following back-to-back unsettling performances: a one-point road loss to Oregon in which Howard accidentally allowed the clock to expire, his lurch toward the turf requiring one second too many, and a narrow home win over Nebraska during which Ohio State trailed in the fourth quarter despite being favored by more than 25 points. 

So once Howard veered around the left side of the offensive line for a 7-yard run and slide that clinched his team's 20-13 victory over Penn State, and once he completed the final kneel down that secured the Buckeyes' first road win against a top-five opponent since 2006, the transfer from Kansas State was mobbed by representatives from all corners of the program. There were teammates who hugged Howard and others who shoved him adoringly. There were coaches who slung their arms around him and others who aggressively grabbed his chest plate. "Are you kidding me?!" Howard yelled amid the fray. And nearby shouts from players both prominent and pedestrian were praising Ohio State for roaring back from an early 10-point deficit. "That's how you bounce back, baby!" edge rusher JT Tuimoloau shouted as the alma mater was being sung. "Do you f----- love that?" a reserve offensive lineman bellowed. "Yeah, you f------ love that!" he replied to his own question. 

"One of the things we talked about this week was in life you're going to have these opportunities where you've got to go will yourself to win," Day said. "You've got to go take something. You've got to go find a way to get that thing done — whether it's for your family, for your career or in the game of football. And our guys did that today. They did. And I'm really happy for this team, I'm happy for the seniors, and I think this is going to springboard us moving forward."

That Ohio State emerged from its cauldron of expectations unscathed revealed a spirit of resilience that many believed the program and, more specifically, Day himself, sorely lacked. Not only did Day enter the weekend with a desultory 2-7 record against top-five opponents — a statistic that had been making the rounds since the Buckeyes lost, 32-31, to then-No. 3 Oregon in mid-October — but Saturday's game also marked the first time Penn State entered this rivalry as the higher-ranked team since 2017, a reflection of the Nittany Lions' previously unblemished record. Not only would Ohio State need to contend with the largest crowd in the history of Beaver Stadium — the announced attendance was 111,030 fans, only a small percentage of whom sported scarlet and gray — but they'd be doing so behind a makeshift offensive line for which Donovan Jackson kicked outside to play left tackle and last year's starting center, Carson Hinzman, reemerged for the first time since logging three snaps against Iowa in Week 6 to occupy Jackson's traditional spot at left guard. Not only were the two preeminent pregame shows both broadcasting live from Happy Valley to preview one of the most anticipated clashes of the season — a game that could have serious Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff implications come December — but there was also a laundry list of more than 20 NFL scouts and talent evaluators on the credential list, including five franchises that were expected to send multiple representatives to State College: the Washington Commanders (x4), the New York Giants (x3), the Baltimore Ravens (x2), the Carolina Panthers (x2) and the Houston Texans (x2).

So many of those highly-trained eyes were focused on Howard, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound quarterback around whom the dichotomy between physical traits and on-field performance are somewhat vexing. Personnel from the Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals planted themselves a few yards from Howard during pregame warmups, gauging his frame and mechanics and demeanor before the pads were donned. One of them even snagged a cell phone video of Howard's throwing motion that can be discussed and dissected for months in the buildup to the 2025 NFL Draft — just as scouts and general managers are certain to discuss the spellbinding pick-six he threw on Ohio State's first pass of the game, the shoddy ball security he displayed when reaching for the pylon on a play that was ultimately ruled both a fumble and a touchback, and the inaccurate deep pass he launched toward wide receiver Carnell Tate for what should have been a touchdown but drifted out of bounds instead. 

"It wasn't pretty," said Howard, who completed 16 of 24 passes for 182 yards and two scores while also carrying the ball 12 times for 24 yards. "I probably played my worst game of the year. [That's what I'm thinking] right now, just walking off the field. But man, I mean, we willed that game. We talked about it early in the week, man. We said, ‘We're going to have to will ourselves to win this game. There's no way we're going to be able to lose this thing.' And that was the way we played, man.

"I can't give enough credit to my teammates. They bailed me out. Winning a game like that, man, in my home state, it's unbelievable."

Most of the bailing out came from Ohio State's defense, which only surrendered 270 yards of total offense and limited the Nittany Lions to just three combined points on three trips into the red zone. A breathtaking interception from cornerback Davison Igbinosun, who said God helped him wrestle the ball away from wideout Harrison Wallace III in the end zone, robbed Penn State of an opportunity to take the lead shortly before halftime. And with the Buckeyes clinging to a seven-point lead in the latter stages of the fourth quarter, the defense mounted an impressive goal-line stand in which Knowles' unit rebuffed tailback Kaytron Allen on three consecutive runs before bracketing tight end Khalil Dinkins to force an incompletion on fourth down. The same Penn State offense that had been revered for its creativity under first-year offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, formerly of Kansas, failed to produce a touchdown for the first time since head coach James Franklin's debut season in 2014. 

And so it was the Ohio State offense that punctuated Saturday's game, draining the final 5:13 off the clock with an emasculating drive consisting of 11 consecutive runs. Inch by inch, yard by yard, the Buckeyes clawed from the shadow of their own goal line to the Penn State 47-yard line, needing nothing more than a single conversion to preserve the win. That's when Howard peeled to his left and rumbled across the line of scrimmage for the most cathartic of quarterback slides. 

"That was huge," Howard said. "We willed ourselves to win that game."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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