Redshirt senior quarterback Will Howard knows that the Ohio State Buckeyes have an opportunity ahead of them. Their regular season didn’t end on a high note, and in fact, it ended disastrously. The Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth time in a row.
Making things worse was the fact that the loss happened in Columbus, and OSU was ranked No. 2 in the nation while Michigan came in with a 6-5 record.
That was a game the Buckeyes should have easily won, but instead, they fell 13-10 while Howard completed just 19-of-33 passes for 175 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
There’s a bad vibe in Columbus as a result of that loss, and that vibe may ultimately cost head coach Ryan Day his job.
Lost in the sauce of the disappointment is the fact that 10-2 Ohio State did make the 12-team College Football Playoff, meaning that this is still a season that can end in ultimate glory for the Buckeyes.
OSU still has plenty of reason to play and for Howard, it’s time to put it all out on the table.
“I’ve been playing college football for five years now, and this is all I have left. Like, I have, you know, four games max left in my college career. So, I mean, there’s no other option than to just empty the tank, and leave it all out here, because this is all we have left, as college athletes,” Howard said in a recent news conference (h/t On3). “Ohio State or not, like, this is it. And, I mean — I’m just excited to finish it the right way, because we have such a good group of guys, man. We have such an unbelievable team that we have here. It’s a special group.”
The No. 8-seeded Buckeyes will get a shot to turn this thing around against No. 9 Tennessee in a first-round CFP game on Saturday evening. If they beat the Volunteers, they’ll play No. 1 Oregon in a rematch from a game earlier this season that saw the Ducks beat OSU, 32-31, in Eugene.
The Buckeyes can’t afford to get ahead of themselves. First they need to take care of business against the Volunteers. That isn’t stopping Howard from putting the goal of winning it all out there, though.
“We can’t — we can’t go out any other way than winning it at all. Like, that’s the way that I see it, man. I just — I want this for this team, so bad,” he said.
