COLUMBUS, Ohio — Will Howard’s shadow still looms large over the Ohio State football program, and for good reason.

He transferred from Kansas State, immediately ingratiated himself into the Buckeyes’ culture, then validated Ryan Day’s entire program with a national title. Now, a guy who only spent 12 months in Columbus is all of a sudden the ultimate standard by which all OSU quarterbacks are judged. That’s pretty crazy to say given what’s come through the program in recent years.

Ohio State has spent the past eight years developing various Heisman Trophy finalists and first-round NFL Draft picks whilst recruiting five-star and top 100 recruits. Yet the guy who was absolutely none of those things has become the standard by which everyone else that follows will be judged.

How and why did that happen? Because he has the one thing all the others failed to get, by tapping into what made him so special.

“When it came to intangibles, I can’t say I’ve been doing this for 35 years or anything like that, but (he) was by far the best I’ve ever seen do it,” quarterback coach Billy Fessler said. “Just having a complete understanding of the offense. From the run game to the passing game to the protections. Understanding the ins and outs of the little details and everybody’s job. Where certain concepts or protections or protections were weak and how to adjust them if we were going to see something that made us weak there.

“A big part of trust is showing that I’m competent and that I understand. Will built that trust in his teammates by showing he was extremely competent. That he understood the ins and outs and he could tell everybody on the field what to do. From there, then he grabbed the trust of all of his teammates. Then he could start to lead. … Everything he did was built off of his total understanding of what we were trying to do offensively.”

Ohio State isn’t going to name its next starting quarterback this spring. Could it? Sure. Ryan Day isn’t going to prolong a process for the sake of prolonging a process if one person is clearly ahead of the pack. But 15 spring practices don’t provide a proper runway for that to even be possible.

At least not with the way OSU handles things.

“In spring you have 15 practices and a good portion of the 15 practices is guys learning and growing,” Day said. “The No. 1 job for each individual player is to get better individually and then we start to come together as a team. ... It’s more segmented.

“Once we get into the summer it’s a little bit more situational. You start to feel a little bit more of what it’s gonna look like in a game. ... There’s more practices in the preseason and it’s a little bit more game-like and you’re further along.”

Regardless of what perception said, the subject of that perception has never punctuated a win this early. At best, they’ve taken a lead, which the coaching staff has always been transparent about behind the scenes.

That’s how Dwyane Haskins won the job so early in 2018. They owed it to him and Joe Burrow to let them know where things stood. Burrow took that as a perfect excuse to leave and transferred to LSU.

The other battles haven’t gone that way. Everyone else had to earn it, no matter the gap their talent may have already created.

“There’s a lot of football to be played in August,” Day said. “Even thinking about where Will was this time last year and where he got to by the end of the season or even where he got to by August. That was a huge jump. We try not to make hasty decisions. But if someone’s that much further ahead, then there that much further ahead.”

Justin Fields was the obvious choice when he transferred from Georgia in 2019. But Day went into his first Big Ten Media Days still unwilling to publicly say so because he hadn’t earned it .

C.J. Stroud was the heavy favorite to replace him in 2021 . Still, Day remained on the same timeline and made him earn it.

Kyle McCord’s battle with Devin Brown in 2023 was probably the closest thing to an actual battle given it bled into the season.

Then there’s Howard in 2024. The veteran transfer, who was once again the obvious choice . But Day made him earn it and the result validated why.

In Howard, Day got a living example of why it takes so long for him to name his starting quarterbacks. He got someone to point to going forward every time we go through this song and dance.

The next man up might be obvious. But until he actually earns it, they can move on to Step 2.

“The No. 1 job of the quarterback is to be the hardest working guy in the building,” Day said. “There shouldn’t be any question. If someone says, ‘Who’s the hardest working guy,' it should be the quarterback. If it’s somebody else, that’s a problem because they should be the first one in the building and the last one to leave.

“And you have to be tough. If it’s fourth-and-2 against Texas, we’ve gotta find a way to get three yards. That’s the bottom line.”

That’s what Day wanted the 2025 quarterbacks to learn, especially during the College Football Playoff run. Now they have to apply what they learned if they want to earn the title Howard once held.

“The better leadership that you have for your team and the closer relationships that you have the longer it’ll take you,” Tavien St. Clair said. “Nobody hated Will. Nobody disliked Will. Everybody loved Will. He was comfortable talking to anybody. That’s something I’m gonna carry with me. Try to be familiar with everybody. Know everybody. Know everything about them. That’s been the main focus, building relationships with people that I don’t normally talk to and building that chemistry around the team.”

That’s the initial lesson the five-star freshman learned in what it takes to be Ohio State’s next quarterback and his future is bright. But right now, he’s not the guy the public has already crowned as next. Neither is Lincoln Kienholz , even if he’s the oldest guy in the room.

Julian Sayin’s talent has been setting him apart since he transferred from Alabama. He’s choosing not to listen to the outside thoughts about his potential and he shouldn’t. He can have all the talent in the world, but it won’t matter if he can’t apply the habits he watched Howard have last year.

Public perception says Sayin is in the same spot as Fields in 2019 and Stroud in 2021. He’s the uber-talented quarterback already being crowned as the heir apparent to the role of QB1. But public perception isn’t going to win him the job.

Howard’s special trait as a Buckeye was his intangibles. It’s the way he captivated a roster, elevating everyone around him. He carried himself in a way that made the entire program believe he was the guy to lead them to a national title. And it worked.

Ohio State recruits and develops elite quarterbacks. That alone doesn’t make you special enough to be the guy . You need that extra thing that Howard mastered as a fully realized college football player that sets you apart.

It took Howard five years to master that skill. It’s unreasonable to assume three guys much younger can do it in 15 practices.

“If you went around the Woody and asked about Will Howard everyone would have good things to say about him,” Sayin said. “That’s something that I’m trying to take that approach. It’s definitely not easy, but it’s something that I’m working on.”