Will Howard is the Quarterback Ohio State NEEDS

let me give you a take on Ohio State and Georgia they are the two best teams in the country it appears a lot of people are throwing Oregon into the mix maybe Texas so here's my take best roster one through 85 105 however far you want to go Georgia but I don't know that it necessarily matters that you've got the your 50th best player on your roster is the best 50th best player on anybody else's roster right uh top 20 players looking at any roster I think is Ohio State uh so if they're like that Georgia Ohio state will Howard does if he's truly the 20th best quarterback in the country because that's typically where he's ranked is he gonna wait down Ohio State and make it difficult for them to run through um the tournament at the end of the year because I think 20th best quarterback with this team can win a big 10 Championship or get the second place seed in out of the Big 10 and set themselves up as a five seed or whatever but winning those last couple games at the end might be tough yeah it might be really tough I I think that's that's the one thing that I pushed back and you you know as well as anyone that our show's fan base is is is has a bunch of Buckeyes right and I've pushed back a ton when people talk about we're the best team in the country like look at our roster it's like okay who are we comparing them to you said Georgia Texas Oregon those are three proven quarterbacks like really good quarterbacks and you can even throw you know a couple other teams in the mix and you're like I I'm not saying Ohio state is not the best team in the country I'm not saying they're not gonna be but I gotta see a lot of growth from will Howard based on the Kansas State film that I broke down and we did a deep dive study into the transfer portal class back when you know this was a thing cam Ward might come to Ohio State and all these other conversations and he's towards the bottom of the major major transfer prospects in a lot of things based on last year it's not to discredit that he can get better Ryan Day can can develop him he's gonna have better weapons like all of that is true but he's still not the sure thing like Elite quarterback we got to see that we got to see if that's even real and when I saw Will Howard two and a half years ago step in for I think it was Skyler Thompson and then the next year it was Adrien Martinez they tried to hand him the keys I was like this guy's a really good quarterback he let him down the field uh made plays uh with his legs threw it on time threw it in the right places and good quarterback all positives about will Howard coming from me as the Kansas State quarterback but it's funny like there was a a switch when I was asked okay he's now the Ohio State quarterback oh my evaluation of will Howard suddenly changed because the expectations changed different standard yeah CJ strout Justin Fields if those guys were leading this team then my national championship pick would have been a little bit more confident yeah there's no's is he like the next JT Barrett is he a different version of JT Barrett that's what he reminds me of no I mean that's a great comp I think he's a little faster than JT but I think he throws it similarly um I I think that's a a great comparison for him especially considering that he played for Ohio State so it's really easy to to to see the two but I I think that's will Howard the beauty of this Ohio State team is this one JT Barrett would have won a national championship last year at Ohio State right as I think will Howard would have so he's not gonna be CJ strout he's not gonna be Justin Fields he's not gonna be Dwayne hassin he's not gonna be a first-round draft pick I don't think hopefully he proves me wrong but he doesn't have to be he just has to be good enough to level Ohio stayed up a tick I mean they added Caleb Downs they added these the the transfer portal class the development the high school kids Jeremiah Smith got named a starter probably G to be one of the best freshman receivers we've ever seen like they have so many pieces that he just just don't screw it up don't do what Kyle McCord did with and hang your offensive line out to dry on your drops and throw it in the ground to avoid a sack instead of scrambling to extend a play like just he is the perfect polar opposite the yin to yang to Kyle mcord where he's going to scramble around he's going to extend the place he's a good athlete like he's a tough kid my favorite thing about him is he is a competitive tough kid you saw that on film people Ina in Manhattan Kansas talked about him that way and I think he is the perfect quarterback for Ohio State but I I don't think he's a top 10 quarterback in college football so you brought up Kyle McCord so my initial thought in comparing these two was not necessarily looking at the film like you do because I can look at film all day and I watch a of football but I can't dissect it anywhere close to what you can do so there are football guys and then there are football guys there are guys like me that played in high school and then just watched a ton of football but I'm not a real football guy I would never claim to be um but the first two things they come came to mind were well he should be better than Kyle McCord because number one he's got two and a half years of experience in the Big 12 and Kyle McCord had one start against akan coming in and number two he can when it's third and five and he sees a open up in the offensive line he can where Kyle McCord's got to think I got to fit it in somewhere because I'm not going to run for it yeah absolutely and I think the biggest thing that that was under talked about because a lot of people have been critical in the offensive line from Ohio State last year and don't get me wrong they they should have been better and need to be better but the number of times he hung them out to dry with one I mean I the first two drives I watched of will Howard there was obviously Kansas State doesn't have the most robust offensive line in the country there were several times a guy whiffed the block and it's like dude it happens at every level Georgia does IT Tech everyone does it but you got to be at least a little bit athletic and have a little bit of gamesmanship to you to avoid a sack extend the play at the very least throw it away that never happened it was an intentional grounding took a sack it was it was always just a a horrible negative outcome and it just ex you know accentuated the any any offensive line issue and I think you've eliminated that with Will Howard like if he senses that he is up out of there and he can run and I think it's it's going to be nice to have that back at Ohio State because even CJ Stroud great athlete up up until the Georgia game would never do it he would avoid a sack but he would never take off and scramble ever and now he did it against Georgia now he's doing it all the time in the NFL it's a beautiful thing to watch yeah and I'm sure you came across this game with Will Howard uh I believe it was Oklahoma State last year yeah and it just wasn't real pretty threw three picks he was around 40 some percent and those are just stats but it it looked awful at times and again like you mentioned off the top trying to convert will Howard from the Big 12 to the Big 10 with much better weapons when his best guy was like a h-back last year yeah I mean it's he's definitely living in in the lap of luxury right now I mean the skill position he has the Run game he's gonna have I mean he is he's in you can't get in a better situation to succeed than he has and he certainly wasn't in that situation at Kansas State and I think he he really I was worried about it honestly when he first came in obvious I I talked to several people around there and it it it didn't go well at first I mean in early in Spring ball even it's just they felt like oh boy we didn't get like a savior quarterback and when Spring ball ended everyone told me Devin Brown was the better quarterback through spring and I was hesitant to even say that publicly because the year before I said he he was going to be the starter and he wasn't but that's what coaches told me and this kid transformed everything about his life like not drinking beer with the fellas like training hard and you you you saw him the first press conference in training camp you're like whoa what happened to this kid from literally like mid April until August 1 like three and a half months his body's different the way he talks is different like you can tell he realized the opportunity he had in front of him and he just buckled down and and was grinding and it paid off starting quarterback and they're they're they're saying he's doing a really really good job uh Jack Sawyer I believe it was at Big 10 media days when he was asked about Jeremiah Smith said something like man I hope this dude doesn't put too much pressure on himself we want him just to kind of ease into things understand hey uh some freshman it takes time and you got to ease into it d d d then he saw uh he saw him on the field for one like one practice and he's like holy this guy this guy can do it right now right like we don't need to wait around and and our guy Daniel is pretty much asking the same thing here so he says Zack what would you consider to be a great season for starting freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith I mean listen I I think the the The Lure around Jeremiah Smith right now the just the the monster that is the media Beast has created is is gonna make almost anything a failure for him this year but I think if this kid goes out and gets seven 800 yards and eight touchdowns as a true freshman it's it would be incredible I mean keep in mind we talked about it on the show literally today Ohio State hasn't had a true freshman receiver like be a key piece in over a decade I mean I never did and I got there in 2012 so we're talking at least 12 years ago from Garrett Wilson who played quite a bit as a freshman especially late in the season but wasn't a starter game one Chris olve Fant fantastic I mean massive game against Michigan game 12 but wasn't a starter didn't play a lot early like we've never seen a freshman have this kind of role in Columbus in the last over a decade so I think the kid came in and I recruited South Florida forever he's his mentality maturity is incredible especially coming from south Florida where usually they think they're going to start they think they're the best thing ever and throw me the ball 80 times he came in with and had no expectation he said what do you mean Mar Harrison Jr was just a top five pick and didn't play as a freshman I I'm not coming in here demanding to play as a freshman if Marv didn't I don't have to and just things like that that he says show you his maturity and and also his work ethic I mean kind of following the blueprint that Marv left at multiple receivers before him left of just the grind and the and the catching jugs and the putting in the extra work like this kid he's gonna be successful and have a great year as a true freshman not only because he's talented but he came in with the mindset and maturity where he's not really a a normal freshman that's trying to figure out where class is showing up late to workouts this kid's there early staying late like he's he's manifested this for himself as soon as you mentioned 2012 of course we're talking week one and we're diving into 2024 but sometime in the offseason I got to hear about those Florida teams I got to hear about all those Ohio State teams from you but we'll do that sometime in the offseason