Will Howard postgame interview | Ohio State vs. Akron

We'll open it up. Uh, will, uh, uh, right in front of you. Steven means with cleveland.com Will, the first half was kind of clunky as a veteran who's been through this before when you guys get into the locker room at halftime. What are you saying to your offensive line and to your offense about how that first half went? Kind of, yeah, you know, we, we, uh, one of our goals in this game was to play clean and I feel like we didn't really do that in the first half. Um, you know, but at the end of the day, we just kind of had to get together and say, settle down, you know, just, just play our game, you know, don't think about it too much, don't, you know, let the fact that, you know, it's our, maybe our first time playing the shoe, like, just gotta settle in, you know, and play football and I think we did a good job of that in the second half, but, you know, we definitely need to work on, you know, starting a little faster, um, starting a little better and, and not having those, those mistakes that we had in the first half, you know, me personally, uh, you know, included in that and, I mean, we, we built off it and, you know, we, we came out in the second half and guns a blazing and, and did really well. Um, and obviously a win is a win and when you win by, as much as we did, like, you know, it's, it's good and, you know, I'm happy that we won. Um, but there's still a lot of stuff to clean up Steve Hellwig in 24 7 sports. Yeah, first touchdown to, uh, Jeremiah. It looks like he makes kind of adjustment on the ball and turns back, back shoulder just, uh, what, what did you see on that play? What did he do to, to complete it? And, uh, is that an advanced concept for a young guy to, to be able to make that play? And if, if he's pressed and it's one on one, put it up and he'll make, he'll make the play. Um, and that's exactly what he did. I just so I was pressed, you know, so I tried to put it up over top and he actually made a little adjustment and came back to it. And I mean, that's all I gotta do is just, you know, give him a chance and, and he's gonna do the rest you guys saw that today, uh, over to the right Austin Ward, the podcast. Well, Ryan said that nobody needed to say anything to Jeremiah after that drop screen there on the opening drive. Is that the case? You just, why don't? No, there was no word said. I mean, none of, none of us were worried about him at all. I mean, we were, you know, obviously, you know, it's a drop, it's uncharacteristic but, you know, hey, I, I made a couple of bad passes and, you know, like it's not gonna be perfect, man, you know, but it's, it's that next play mentality, you know, mental toughness is the ability to move on to the next most important thing. And, and, you know, we, we, we knew his maturity level, you know, we weren't worried about it and he came back and, I mean, had a great game. So will over to the left. Bill Rabinowitz, Columbus Dispatch. Well, you've been here eight months. You probably wondered what it'd be like to play in the shoe, just the whole atmosphere. What was it like? Um, how glad are you to have it under your belt? It's cool, man. It's a, it's a pretty, pretty freaking cool stadium and, and the fans and the band and just the true, like, I've never been a part of so many different traditions and I had to learn like all these new traditions that we had and it's like, it's cool, man. It's fun. It's like, it makes it more engaging, you know, for everyone involved and like the skull session and just getting to experience all this stuff that I've heard about for the first time was really fun and, and now that I got it all under my belt, it's like, all right. You know, now I've done it and now it's, you know, it's business as usual from now on. But, um, it's still cool and it's still fun to appreciate it. You know, when, you know, I only have 12 opportunities as a Buckeye, you know, guaranteed and, you know, obviously, hopefully we get 16 or 17, but, um, you know, I only have so many opportunities as a Buckeye, so I gotta got to soak it all in and enjoy it while, while I'm here, man. And it's quite a, quite an environment, quite an atmosphere and I'm just glad to be a part of it over to the right Dylan Davis Delaware is that you've made it clear before. No disrespect to the guys you played with the Kansas State, but it's a little bit different here with the guys you're throwing to, I guess just, you know, some guys that maybe you wouldn't think would be open or open. So I guess how did that materialize on the field for you seeing that in a game? And just how did it feel compared to maybe previous starts? Yeah, it's, uh, it's a, it's a freeing feeling when, you know, you can kind of just put the ball up and let those guys make adjustments and you don't have to be as perfect, you know. Um, and that's nothing against, you know, my guys, I had a ton of playmakers at K State and um, you know, I, I love those guys and, and those guys were making plays for me too. But, um, you know, I'm just trying to talk about the, the, the dudes we got here, man, like we got some dudes and it, it showed out today and I think, you know, even, you know, down to the, the Jaden Ballard and, and Brandon Innes and Bryson Rogers, like we got depth at that position too like it, it's cool, man. It makes, makes my job easy. Uh, uh, uh Dan Hope 11 Warriors. Well, was there a moment in this game where you felt like you and the offense kind of settled in? I don't know if there was a moment. Um You know, I think that second half when we kind of started, started rolling a little bit, um, you know, made, made a couple of things happen. I think, you know, I think we did do some good things in the first half. You know, we made some good plays here and there. But, um, you know, really settling into a rhythm. I think that came in that second half and we kind of got that ball in the third quarter and started driving a little bit. You, it hot in here. You guys too, all right. Ok. I was just, I was just making sure. Ok, good. All right. But, yeah. No. Ok. Ok. Good. I'm like, I feel the sweat like coming down my chest right now. Um, but, but anyway, um, yeah, I think we settled in, in that second half and, and we're able to, we're able to go from there. Yeah, I know. II, I tend to ramble a little bit. So my bad, I see all the fans in the back. Everyone's like waving fans over over to the right. We'll, we'll wrap up here shortly. Uh, Stefan cleveland.com. Well, uh, coach J was talking about you guys kind of trying to establish a run a bit there early. What's kind of the, the thought process of conversations you're having with Coach Kelly and, and some of the teammates, um, you know, maybe when it's frustrating at the start, but you got to kind of keep that patience and, and establish the run game. Yeah, you know, I feel like there's not much you need to say at that point, you know, because we know what we have to do. Um, and, you know, at the end of the day, like for me being the run game, you know, they, they give me the, you know, coach Kelly says all the time, you're the run game coordinator, you got to get us in and out of the right plays and, and, you know, if we have a call and if we have, you know, something and, you know, someone comes from the, from one side like you need to make it right. And so part of it's on me, you know, we gotta all be working together all systems, you know, going on the same, on the same wavelength. And, um, you know, I think we did settle in in the second half and, you know, it's first game, you know, we were, we were, we were trying to be conscious of that and play clean and I think we did better in the second half, but again, like we just need to clean, clean up some of that stuff in the first half and go back and look at the film and, and uh and move on and grow and learn uh over to the left uh Cameron T Robinson, the athletic will Jeremiah had six catches nine targets and he led the team in targets. What is it about you two? You relate your chemistry with him that you think um allows you guys to click so well in the first game together on, on, on the field, I think, uh I mean, you guys see it. He's, he's pretty, he's pretty darn good at football first of all. Um But he understands the game like really well and, you know, like, I think there was a, the third down where I kind of, you know, I, I kind of maneuvered AAA D end that dropped and to get him a, you know, a ball and a curl and, you know, just the, the wherewithal he has to kind of figure out like, hey, you know, maybe just wrap him a little bit in that window. He, he understands the game very well and that's, I mean, Ameca Carnell, like those guys understand the game like unbelievably well, like all of them do. But, um, Jeremiah, you know, he's a, he's a dude man and if you get him in one on one coverage and he's gonna win, you know, and, and at the end of the day, like he's, this is just a start for him. I'm excited for him. Um, you know, I think we're, we're starting to develop a lot of chemistry and I'm excited to see, you know, how this season goes for him and, you know, he's a phenomenal player and he's gonna have a, you know, quite, quite a few more targets this year. I'm sure, uh, three more questions, Tim may let Monroe, uh, will, I was just wondering what your favorite pass was today and I was wondering if the, the one to Carnal Tate would be right in there because, uh, he had him roam the fly and he took it to the end zone and then the deep one to Jeremiah Smith, I think y'all ran 11 plays in the third quarter and had 100 and 35 yards and two touchdowns. So that's a, that's a hard one. I don't know if I could pick my, my favorite throw from today. Probably, probably that fade ball to, to JJ, um, in the, in the corner of the end zone or the, or that little, you know, peak throw I threw to him, um, in the red zone, uh, like those two, but the one that Carnell, I mean, now I just threw a curl to him and he took it, what, 34 yards for a touchdown. I mean, that's pretty easy for me. Right. You know, I'm just, I'm just going through my res, they go one high, I'm going to the, going to the field to my curl and there he is, he makes my job easy of your, yeah, I, I don't, I don't think there was anything that, you know, switched or anything crazy, you know, we just, we just settled in a little bit and, you know, I think we were just comfortable and, you know, it just kind of things started kind of going our ways, you know, we were, I feel like for me especially, you know, I started kind of taking the game as it came to me and trying to, you know, not trying to force things. I think there were a couple of times in the first half where, you know, I was just forcing things and trying to, trying to make things happen and, you know, with this team, with the guys, we have like, you know, the more I can just let the game come to me, it, it, it makes my job easy and, you know, we can get rolling over to the left. Rob All or Columbus Dispatch. Yeah. Well, we're talking about your passing and throwing, but really the sense is what's gonna make you different and this offense difference of your legs, your ability to run. Do you have a run mentality in you at all? I mean, and you under center, you go QB sneak. We haven't seen that in a while. Um, just talk about you if you can, that, that attitude. Absolutely. Um, you know, I think that's a big part of, of our game as, as this offense, you know, and, and what coach Kelly wants to do, um, and, you know, it doesn't even just have to be in the run game, you know, it can be in the past game too. There were a couple of times today where I'm honestly mad at myself that I didn't tuck it down and run and, you know, sometimes, you know, they came out and showed us a couple of looks that were new and, you know, that's gonna happen in the first game. Credit to them, you know, they, they come out with a different third down blitz than they've shown in the past and, you know, they had nine months to dial it up. So, you know, credit to them. But, you know, the thing is, is you gotta be ready and you gotta adapt. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, like for me it's, it's not just those design quarterback runs, it's more like, you know, hey, if, if they're in man coverage and everyone's got their back turn, you know, I gotta be able to go get upfield and, and, you know, go get us first down and I think I did that a couple of times today. But, you know, for me it's like it's getting out of that mode of, you know, it's touch football and, and, and, and, you know, and in camp, you know, nobody can hit you right. You know, so now it's like, oh, ok, you know, I can actually go make some, some stuff, you know, shake with my legs, you know, and, and, you know, when I kind of realized that and I think we had that one play action where I, where I went down there and did that and, um, you know, the more I can do that the better and I just need to, I just need to do that more, you know, when things aren't perfect down the field, you know, I gotta be able to make things happen with my legs and I think I'm ready to do that and I want to do that and final question over to the right James Watkins cleveland.com. Well, I won't quiz you on Archie Griffin, but I do want to ask you, why do you think it's important to honor history or historic figures, the way you guys did with Archie today? I think it's, it's really, really important and, you know, especially with, with Archie, you know, the only two time Heisman winner, like, I mean, he's a legend around here man and, and, you know, the fact that we wore the stickers for him, you know, it shows how much that we care about our, our tradition and our history and the people that have came before us. You know, and it shows that, you know, you don't forget about, forget about those greats before you and you, you remember it and that's why we're, you know, why we're doing it. You know, a lot, a lot of the reason we're, we're doing these things are for the people that, you know, that came before us. You know, the people that are here now and the people that are gonna come after us and, you know, it's, it's carrying on that Buckeye legacy. You know, looking at guys like Archie Griffin, you know, that are legends, you know, being able to put on the scarlet and gray just like they did is, is an honor and a privilege will. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Go bucks.