Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard sheds black stripe
COLUMBUS — Ohio State quarterback Will Howard is only halfway through his first spring with the Buckeyes. But he’s far from a youngster.
Howard played four years at Kansas State and became a leader of that program before coming to Ohio State. He even won a Big 12 title with the Wildcats. Now he’s working his way into the Buckeyes program and gunning for the starting job.
The first step: he shed his black stripe Saturday after Student Appreciation Day practice inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Howard is among the three quarterbacks competing for the starting quarterback job this spring, along with Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz.
Howard believes his leadership is going to help him, as he spoke about in February before spring practice began.
“One of the biggest things for me is relationships because people aren’t going to respect you [and] they’re not going to listen to you if they don’t know you,” Howard said. “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And at the end of the day, that’s what I’ve been trying to focus on my first couple of months here. I know I’m not going to come in right away and be barking and knowing what all is going on. I’m figuring stuff out. But the best I can do is be encouraging to my teammates, have good relationships with everyone. And then that’s where that starts. You know, that’s where I can feel like I start being a leader.
“You don’t want to come in here with just yelling at people. They’re not going to respect you. They’re not going to listen to you until you have that baseline of a relationship. They know that if they can respect me, they can trust me to do my job and then I can bring them along when something’s not right.”
Howard first needed to be well-known and well-respected in the locker room. He appears to be doing that.
Now with his black stripe removed, he’s officially a part of the Ohio State program. The next potential step is earning the starting quarterback role.
Counting Down
Buckeyes vs. Akron: 154 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 245 days
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