Ohio State DC grades QB Will Howard: 'He’s making all the throws'

It's one thing for a head coach or offensive coordinator to "gas up" their own quarterback. It's something else completely, though, when it's the defensive coordinator who watches that quarterback from the other side of the ball day after day.

The lens is completely flipped, and sometimes that's truly the best way to scout your own players.

At Ohio State, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has been scheming against freshly-minted starting quarterback Will Howard all offseason. He watched Howard in spring ball as a new transfer from Kansas State, and he watched him win the quarterback competition against his main competition in fall camp, redshirt sophomore Devin Brown.

His takeaways?

“Well, he’s making all the throws,” Knowles said, per On3. “I mean, he stands in the pocket. He’s got great vision, arm strength. We got great receivers. He’s putting the ball in places where only the receiver can catch it.

“So, to me, it’s not just the arm strength, but he’s making the pinpoint passes, too.”

Howard is a big quarterback at 6-foot-4 and 237 pounds. The Buckeyes clearly feel he has the arm strength to make plays sideline-to-sideline as well as downfield, and they're hoping that his athleticism and ability to run can give them the X-factor that was missing at times last season.

Howard threw for 2,643 yards and 24 touchdowns last season with 10 interceptions. He also rushed 81 times for 351 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.

"Will has really taken a command of the offense, I believe," Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last week when he named Howard the starter (h/t CBS Sports). "You feel him in the huddle. You feel his experience. I think he did a really good job, as we talked about, of changing his body in the offseason. So he's become a threat both with his legs and with his arm. And the more he understands what he's doing out there, and when he does, he's really executing very well."