Will Howard pinpoints when he learned how to quickly bounce back from in-game mistakes

Will Howard had thrown an interception on a game-opening series before — in fact, long before his battle-tested, 20-13 road win over then-No. 3 Penn State last weekend.

He did it as a true freshman while playing for Kansas State on the road against West Virginia in 2020.

His third pass of the day was picked off, and it was a bad omen. Howard went on to toss two more interceptions, including a pick-six in the third quarter of a 37-10 loss.

Flash forward to 2022, and Howard found himself in a similar position in Morgantown. This time, he had to stomach a pick-six on his second drive of the game.

“Early in the game, bad read, just threw a pick-six,” Howard recounted Tuesday. “And nobody said anything to me. This was kind of the first time that nobody had really said anything to me at K-State after a pick, and they just let me alone.

“I just went around to the whole offense, and I was like, ‘We’re fine. Don’t worry about it.’ Next play they came out, and we ran like a deep corner route off of a sprint out to the field. And when I felt like, ‘Oh, they’re still believing in me, they’re still throwing the ball,’ I went out there and ripped it, and it was like one of my best throws of the day.”

Howard added: “When that moment happened, that was kind of the turning point where I was like, ‘Man, it’s really about how you approach it and how you respond from it.'”

Howard went on to clock out with 294 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and another score on the ground, leading his then-No. 15 Wildcats to a 48-31 win over West Virginia.

“I was like, ‘Man, the two games started kind of the same, but they ended differently.’ I looked back, and I was like, ‘How did I approach that differently?’

“I said screw it, move on, and didn’t really let it affect my confidence. It took taking some hits and taking some lumps early in my career, but once I was able to kind of work through that, it’s all about how you respond, and it’s the next play after that bad play. Because as much as I’d love to go back and change that play, you can’t. You can’t do it. So you just got to move on, and you got to make it right. And I think I’ve gotten better at that. I still could be better, of course. But I’ve just just played a lot of ball and seen a lot, and so I feel like not that much fazes me anymore.”

So when Howard threw a pick-six on his first pass at Penn State this past weekend, he knew how to respond to his early-game turnover and the emotions of playing in Beaver Stadium — less than three hours away from his hometown of Downingtown, Pennsylvania — against a Nittany Lions program he grew up rooting for.

The experienced graduate transfer signal caller guided the Buckeyes to a pair of first-half touchdowns, quickly erasing a 10-0 deficit. Ohio State may have ran away with the game had it not been for Howard’s fumble at the Penn State 1-yard line on a would-be rushing touchdown. Nevertheless, he bounced back from that, too, making the necessary throws and runs in the second half to hold off Penn State and keep the Buckeyes’ Big Ten title hopes alive.

“When I was young, I used to make a mistake and say, ‘Man, am I that good? Am I good enough?'” Howard admitted Tuesday. “And now it’s like, ‘I am.’ I believe that I am.

“And when you when you believe that, you don’t let one play shake who you are. I think my faith has helped a lot with that. I think just playing for a bigger purpose, it helps you move past obstacles like that.”