Will Howard: QB · Ohio State · #18.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Will Howard
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Played for two head coaches across five seasons and two programs. All-Big Ten in 2024 made it three straight seasons on the honors list. A game that shows it: 326 passing yards and 13 rushing yards against Oregon — Week 7, 2024.
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
58.3% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 23.1% conversion-per-dropback — 57.1% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
15 of 17 on 3rd/4th-and-2-or-less (88.2%). 12 of the team's 31 inside-the-5 carries (38.7%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Los Angeles Times Nov 1
Eleven Warriors Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Ohio State | 309 | 423 | 73.0% | 4,010 | 9.5 | 35 | 10 | 175.3 | 97 |
| 2023 | Kansas State | 219 | 358 | 61.2% | 2,643 | 7.4 | 24 | 10 | 139.7 | 50 |
| 2022 | Kansas State | 119 | 198 | 60.1% | 1,633 | 8.2 | 15 | 4 | 150.3 | 71 |
| 2021 | Kansas State | 30 | 55 | 54.5% | 332 | 6.0 | 1 | 1 | 107.6 | 47 |
| 2020 | Kansas State | 90 | 168 | 53.6% | 1,178 | 7.0 | 8 | 10 | 116.3 | 52 |
| Career | 767 | 1,202 | 63.8% | 9,796 | 8.1 | 83 | 35 | 149.2 | 69 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Ohio State | 105 | 226 | 2.2 | 7 | 19 |
| 2023 | Kansas State | 80 | 364 | 4.5 | 9 | 70 |
| 2022 | Kansas State | 35 | 22 | 0.6 | 3 | 14 |
| 2021 | Kansas State | 32 | 184 | 5.8 | 4 | 71 |
| 2020 | Kansas State | 78 | 364 | 4.7 | 3 | 80 |
| Career | 330 | 1,160 | 3.5 | 26 | 80 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2024 season · 16 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 52-6vs Akron | 17/28 | 228 | 3 | 0 | 8.1 | 70.2 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 2 | W 56-0vs Western Michigan | 18/26 | 292 | 1 | 0 | 11.2 | 89.3 | |
| Wk 4 | W 49-14vs Marshall | 16/20 | 275 | 2 | 1 | 13.8 | 98.0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 38-7@ Michigan State | 21/31 | 244 | 2 | 1 | 7.9 | 79.8 | |
| Wk 6 | W 35-7vs Iowa | 21/25 | 209 | 4 | 1 | 8.4 | 84.3 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 7 | L 31-32@ No. 3 Oregon | 28/35 | 326 | 2 | 0 | 9.3 | 93.4 | Season-high 326 yds |
| Wk 9 | W 21-17vs Nebraska | 13/16 | 221 | 3 | 1 | 13.8 | 73.9 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 10 | W 20-13@ No. 3 Penn State | 16/24 | 182 | 2 | 1 | 7.6 | 69.9 | |
| Wk 11 | W 45-0vs Purdue | 21/26 | 260 | 3 | 0 | 10.0 | 76.3 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 12 | W 31-7vs Northwestern | 15/24 | 247 | 2 | 0 | 10.3 | 95.9 | |
| Wk 13 | W 38-15vs No. 5 Indiana | 22/26 | 201 | 2 | 1 | 7.7 | 86.8 | |
| Wk 14 | L 10-13vs Michigan | 19/33 | 175 | 1 | 2 | 5.3 | 56.8 | |
| Bowl | W 42-17vs No. 7 Tennessee | 24/29 | 311 | 2 | 1 | 10.7 | 98.7 | |
 Bowl | W 41-21vs No. 1 Oregon | 17/26 | 319 | 3 | 0 | 12.3 | 97.7 | |
 Bowl | W 28-14vs No. 4 Texas | 24/33 | 289 | 1 | 1 | 8.8 | 90.0 | |
 Bowl | W 34-23vs No. 3 Notre Dame | 17/21 | 231 | 2 | 0 | 11.0 | 99.1 | |
| Total | 309/423 | 4010 | 35 | 10 | 9.5 | — |
Week 6 · 2024
W 35-7
vs Iowa
209 yds · 4 TD · 1 INT · QBR 84.3 · 28 rush yds (10 car) · 1 TD
Dominant 28-point win at home against Iowa.
With J. Smith — 4 rec · 89 yds · 1 TD · 14 rush yds (1 car) · J. McGuire — 38.5 yards per punt · 2 punts · 1 inside the 20
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 410 passing plays (294 completions) against the box score's 423 attempts (309 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
9.626 of 205 QBsSack rate
3.2%35 of 205 QBsRarely sacked (35 of 205 QBs) and still 6 of 205 in Adjusted ANY/A.
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 73.0% completion on 423 attempts · 51 deep completions averaging 32.6 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2024 baseline
No situation moves him more than 39 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
Splits · Per-game
2024 season · 16 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home9g | 241 | 2.3 | 9.9 | 0.8 |
| Road3g | 251 | 2.0 | 8.3 | 0.7 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-710g | 272 | 2.2 | 10.2 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 214 | 2.2 | 9.1 | 0.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Ryan Day
Pass share
46.5%
455 pass / 523 run
Plays / game
61.1
16 games
Scheme: Run-leaning, slow tempo.
Player standing · 2024
Picked for an all-conference team by at least one selector.
The All-Conference honor is earned — and the box score backs it up emphatically: #2 of 137 FBS quarterbacks by CFB Zeitgeist Score.2024 profile
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
Three-star recruit. Now #2 at the position.
How it ended
Five seasons, at Kansas State and Ohio State, 9,796 passing yards — drafted at #185 overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
A stat line in 49 games over five seasons.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-BIG TEN
All-Big Ten mention (2024)
Weekly recognition
1 weekly honor (2024)
2 career weekly honors across 2 seasons
Coaching lineage · 2020–2024
2 coachesPlayed for 2 head coaches at 2 schools: Chris Klieman and Ryan Day.
Next stop · NFL
Pittsburgh SteelersEntering 2nd NFL season
Pittsburgh SteelersEntering 2nd NFL season
