President Donald Trump wrongly refers to Will Howard as 'Tennessee quarterback'

The Ohio State Buckeyes visited the White House on Monday to celebrate its national championship victory over Notre Dame in January. The championship was the first in a decade for the blue-blood football program.

During president Donald Trump’s speech alongside the Ohio State team, Trump made a slight mistake when referring to OSU quarterback Will Howard. While discussing the Buckeyes’ championship run, which started against Tennessee, the president wrongly referred to Howard as a Volunteers QB

“In the first playoff game, Tennessee quarterback Will Howard scorched the Volunteer defense. I watched that game. I said, ‘that guy is good,'” Trump said before rattling off Howard’s stats from the game.

While the term ‘Tennessee quarterback’ is a phrase that has garnered headlines across the college football world over the past week and on the top of many’s minds — it appears to simply be an honest mistake from the president. After all, the Buckeyes beat the Volunteers in the opening round of the CFP. Moreover, Howard is out of eligbility so there won’t be any speculation from stemming from Trump’s comments.

On the field, Howard is coming off his best year in college where he completed 73% of his throws for 4,010 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 10 picks, while also rushing for 226 yards and seven more scores. That helped the Buckeyes to a 14-2 record in going on to win the national title in the College Football Playoff.

Overall, Howard spent a half decade in college football with four seasons at Kansas State before his final one at Ohio State. He appeared in 50 games, 44 of those being starts, between the two programs in Manhattan and Columbus.

In that time, Howard posted 63.8% completion for 9,796 yards, good for 195.9 per game, with 83 touchdowns and 35 interceptions. He also rushed for 1,147 yards and scored 27 more times with 26 of those being on the ground.

While at K-State, Howard earned spots in their record books throughout the top-ten in multiple statistics, including being their school’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns. That’s with him throwing for 5,786 yards, 48 touchdowns, and 25 picks on 58.8% completion, while also running for 921 yards and 19 touchdowns, for a Wildcat program that went 31-19, won a pair of bowl games, and won the 2022 Big 12 Championship.

Now, he’ll test his luck in the 2025 NFL Draft later this month, where he’ll have the distinction as the only national championship-winning quarterback in this year’s draft cycle.