Ryan Day isn’t the only one under pressure. His QB Will Howard is under in-depth scrutiny too. And it could be on him to determine the outcome of the first round of the 12-team playoff between No. 8 Ohio State and No. 9 Tennessee. But for one certain analyst, the challenge that awaits the redshirt senior and the Buckeyes on Saturday seems like “a tall mountain for them to climb.” 

On December 20, Todd McShay dug out Will Howard’s past stats to highlight the concern of his prevalent game plan. In a new YouTube video on The McShay Show, he reported, “For the past two seasons, Will Howard is 3-6 in games with 30 or more passing attempts. This year, he had the win against Michigan State, but he lost to Oregon and Michigan. The only teams he beat last year were Troy and UCF. The other losses are mostly against ranked teams. I don’t think they want him throwing the [football] more than 30 times.”

The Buckeyes’ OC Chip Kelly has received criticism for the same. People slammed him, saying he didn’t trust Will Howard’s passing and chose to run him rather than have him throw. But as McShay added, “The problem is, so you say to yourself, ‘run hitches, run quick hitters.’ Well, he threw a pick-six against Penn State because he was throwing a quick hitter. He threw a pick in the red zone against Michigan, just trying to get the [football] out quickly. He’s had some issues there as well.” 

Adding to the misery, Will Howard failed to break the 3-loss streak against Michigan in The Game in his first season in Columbus. He was picked off twice, finished with just a 57.6 percent completion rate, and only racked up 175 passing yards, all of which are season extremes. Perhaps we could see some change in the game plan in the playoffs as Chip Kelly expressed his remorse after the last loss. He said, “I got to put Will in a better position to make plays. I didn’t do that.” And they better be prepared to win not just this game but the natty as well because Ryan Day’s job is hanging by a thread.

Can Will Howard salvage Ryan Day’s job at Ohio State?

Many factors contribute to Ryan Day’s stake at Ohio State. He’s leading a $20 million roster team in hopes of winning his first national championship with the Buckeyes. It was all fine at the beginning of the season, but OSU has a knack for messing things up big time in the final games. Why else would Ryan Day be 66-10 with Ohio State and fans still want to boot him? With the 13-10 loss against Michigan, the sixth-year HC faced his fourth consecutive loss in this prominent rivalry game. But there’s still hope for Ryan Day. 

Ohio State will have the home-field advantage when they host Josh Heupel and Tennessee in Columbus. The Buckeyes are favored over the Volunteers by 7.5 points. Besides, valuable lessons were learned following the Michigan loss. A beaten up Will Howard said, “What did I learn? Can’t turn the [football] over.” 

But it’s easier said than done. This will be a life-death situation for Ryan Day’s job. Can we expect less turnover issues from Will Howard inside The Shoe on Saturday?