Ohio State QB has an NFL mindset with his Buckeyes receivers

It’s not meant to be disrespectful, but there are some differences between the levels of play at Kansas State and Ohio State.

Take it from someone who now intimately knows both programs and specifically their receivers: New Ohio State starting quarterback Will Howard.

Howard made a name for himself in four seasons at K-State, and he threw for a ton of yards and touchdowns, so there were certainly some playmakers on the other side of those passes. He admits that things are different in Columbus than in Manhattan, though — especially with head coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly running an offense.

“I mean no disrespect to the guys I’ve played with because I’ve played with some really good players, and I don’t want anyone to take this out of context. I’ve played with a lot of good players. “But I think here it’s a little different in the way that Coach Day and Coach Kelly teach some things,” Howard recently said, according to On3’s Andy Backstrom. “You know, ‘Hey, that guy’s wide-open. He may not look wide-open. He might have a guy right on him, but he’s wide open. In the NFL, he’s wide-open.’ And that’s the mindset that I’ve had to kind of develop a little more is, he may not look to the general public like he’s open, but if you put a back shoulder ball on him, that’s a play you can make.”

Ohio State plays more of an NFL style of ball compared to K-State because, at least on the surface, that’s the type of players the Buckeyes recruit. That’s not a slight against the Wildcats but just a cold hard fact.

At the current moment, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson are Ohio State’s recent big-name wideouts in the NFL, but that doesn’t even include players like Curtis Samuel, Xavier Johnson, Chris Olave, Parris Campbell and Terry McLaurin.

At the time of this writing, only 19 former Kansas State players are active in the NFL, with just two of those players being wide receivers: Tyler Lockett and Byron Pringle.

There’s just a different level of wideout at OSU, and that’s a fact. The Buckeyes are an NFL machine, so of course Howard has had to adjust his mindset a little bit.

“With the guys that we have here, I mean they make plays like I’ve never seen anyone make plays before,” he said.