Will Howard will be finishing his collegiate career at Ohio State this season after coming to Columbus in the transfer portal. It’s a significant addition for the Buckeye offense with him as a leading candidate to be their starter but also because of what Jim Nagy views him as as a prospect.
Nagy, the Director of the Senior Bowl, discussed Howard in an appearance on ‘Andy Staples On3’ on Tuesday. In doing so, he recalled meeting Howard last year when he was at Kansas State. That led to a story about getting a chance to invite him to their game before he then had other plans on his schedule.
“Yeah, I like Will a lot,” said Nagy. “You know, I was on campus there in Manhattan last November giving an invite out to his best buddy in Ben Sinnott, who ended up going in the early second round to the Commanders. So I got a chance to talk to Will that day. It was really a weird dynamic how it worked out for Will, unfortunately. You know, like, we ended up with Michael Penix in the Senior Bowl and Bo Nix in the Senior Bowl. We were waiting on Jayden Daniels at that time to see what Jayden was going to do.”
“It just was kind of dragging along. We didn’t get an answer from Jayden’s camp for a long time. So when I did circle back to Will Howard to invite him? This literally happened. I called Will one morning in late December. I said, ‘Will, we’ve got a spot, man’ and he really wanted to play in the game. He’s like, ‘Jim, I’m literally on a plane to Columbus, Ohio today,’” Nagy recalled. “So, at that point, I’m like, okay, I’m not going to call Ryan Day and try to make an issue out of this thing.”
Howard has played over the last four years with the Wildcats. In that span, he made 34 appearances, including 28 starts, for Kansas State State. Over his time there, he threw for 5,786 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 25 interceptions on 58.8% completion. That was good enough to rank him highly on the program’s all-time passing leaderboard, including being first in touchdowns. He also rushed for 921 yards and 19 more scores on the ground too.
During a full dozen games as a senior last fall, Howard posted 2,643 passing yards on 61.3% completion for 24 touchdowns and 10 picks.
That resumé is one that they at the Senior Bowl are high on. Nagy saw plenty to like in his skillset, especially when you start to consider him for the next level as a pro.
“We like Will a lot. We’ve watched him for a couple years,” said Nagy. “I think he has got a good arm. I like the accuracy. He does a lot of NFL-transferrable things from that Kansas State tape – watching him operate from under center, the play-action game.”
If they liked Howard at K-State, though, they may like him even more as the expected starter at Ohio State. From there, his stock could only rise that much more as a quarterback in a draft to come.
“We’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks put up big numbers for the Buckeyes. I think Will is going to do that,” said Nagy.
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