COLUMBUS, Ohio — Will Howard didn’t have the most impressive throw in Ohio State’s 38-7 win over Michigan State and he’ll even tell you that.
The winner of that category for the Big Ten opener goes to his backup Devin Brown and emphasizes just how important all 41 of his snaps coming into the game were. The Buckeyes used all those snaps to make sure Brown was ready if something ever happened to Howard and took him out of the game. That moment came with 29 seconds left in the first half of a game where OSU didn’t always look great on both sides of the ball.
“I think that was the game right there,” Howard said. “I thought Devin did an unbelievable job of being ready when his number was called. That’s competitive excellence. We talk about that all the time.”
Howard took a hit from a blitzing Spartan linebacker that knocked him out of the game for a play. He’d return in the second half, but it would be up to Brown to close out the first 30 minutes. Most teams would’ve looked at that situation and decided it was in their best interest to take a 17-7 lead and make it a 20-7 one before heading to the locker room to regroup.
It was the perfect time to be conservative and head coach Ryan Day chose not to take that route because these are the exact moments why he wants more than one game-ready quarterback
Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly chose to go for big. The result was Brown finding Jeremiah Smith for a 17-yard touchdown which Smith caught one-handed with a defender draped all over him.
“That was a clutch play,” Day said. “We told him if you have the opportunity to throw it, rip it. Only throw it where the receiver can catch it. If nothing was there, throw it out of bounds and kick the field goal. He did that and he gave him a chance. It was good to see him make the play in that spot.”
That touchdown was part of a day when the freshman had 83 yards and a touchdown on five catches plus a 19-yard rushing touchdown.
Smith added to what’s been an impressive freshman campaign that’s rivaled only by Alabama’s Ryan Williams. But OSU gained something extra that’ll be even more important.
It gained validation for spending the entire spring and the early days of fall camp not caring which quarterback was working with who while all five battled to be the next starter.
Brown gained validation for his unwillingness to give up on his goal of one day being the starter even if he’s now lost two battles in as many seasons.
Day gained validation in continuing to keep his foot on the gas regardless of who’s under center because he trusts his ability to develop quarterbacks.
Howard gain validation in how he’s handled the other quarterbacks on the roster since he transferred from Kansas State understanding he was disrupting the flow of the room and possibly cutting in line as the Buckeyes’ next starter.
All of that validation is about the big picture for a program that isn’t foreign to the concept of needing multiple quarterbacks to win a national title. The micro view is about what it meant during a Saturday night Big Ten opener.
Ohio State was teetering on both sides of the ball and allowing an inferior team to hang around because it kept shooting itself in the foot. Then Brown stepped in and with a simple sideline throw ended any chance of Michigan State making a weird first half an interesting game.
“I really think that throw and that catch that those two made, that really sealed the game,” Howard said. “That kind of put them out of it. I’m just so proud of Devin for stepping in and being ready. You never know what’s gonna happen. I just got the wind knocked out of me and you’ve gotta go out for a play. It is what it is. He went in there and made the play and it was big time.”
