It seems the sour grapes from West Chester, Pa. native and former Downington West quarterback Will Howard still simmers on the subject of Penn State. Howard didn’t receive the attention during his recruitment that saw his journey start at Kansas State and end up at Ohio State.
It was last season’s matchup in Beaver Stadium that had Howard emotionally fueled to show James Franklin and company they were wrong about him. Howard’s game started rough with a Zion Tracy pick-six on Ohio State’s opening drive to give Penn State a 10-0 lead.
Ohio State would dominate Penn State the rest of the way, outscoring the Nittany Lions 20-3 to secure the Buckeyes eighth consecutive victory over Penn State. The exclamation point being Will Howard’s seven-yard run for a game-ending first down on the last offensive play the Buckeyes ran. Howard immediately rose up and motioned emphatically first down as he laid a dagger into Penn State.
Apparently that didn’t satisfy Howard enough.
During Howard’s appearance on Ben Roethlisberger’s podcast “Footbahlin,” the former Ohio State quarterback said there isn’t a rivalry with Penn State from an Ohio State point of view.
“Penn State thinks that their rivals are Ohio State, and Ohio State just doesn’t really see it that way,” Howard said.
What led to Howard’s remarks was Roethlisberger asking him about Ohio State’s current four-game skid against Michigan.
While Howard deflected emphasizing their national championship win over Notre Dame is just as if not more important, both Howard and Jack Sawyer both emphasized the heavy emphasis to beat Michigan.
It is this point that Howard misses about Penn State that the rivalry between the schools does exist. While Ohio State has the superiority at the moment, it wasn’t long ago Ohio State fans and coaches dreaded seeing Penn State on the schedule.
Think about Saquon Barkley’s opening kickoff touchdown in the classic 2017 encounter, the look on Urban Meyer’s face that he went 98-yards with ease silenced the hostile crowd. The great relief when Ohio State secured the 39-38 victory Meyer has always felt was a signature moment.
The 2018 game was another comeback for Ohio State and one of great relief for Meyer. With 6:39 to go Penn State had a 12-point lead in their annual White Out. The game produced another epic comeback and one-point win for Ohio State. Meyer often joked then and still jokes now that he hated being the White Out opponent due to the hostile crowd and tough competition.
While Howard feels emboldened, I was covering last year’s contest and instead of going to Penn State press room to listen to James Franklin, I went to cover Ryan Day. If anything Day felt relieved that they got the Top 5 win because it was a potential College Football Playoff elimination game for Ohio State.
Zion Tracy intercepts Ohio State’s Will Howard in the first quarter and returns it for Penn State’s only touchdown of the afternoon.
“We didn’t say it publicly,” Day said of the pressure he and the program felt to beat Penn State. “We said that behind closed doors (this week). It’s a big game for us. … There’s a lot there to probably unpack. There’s a lot that goes with being the head coach at Ohio State. You can say ignore everything, but your players read it, the staff reads it and family reads it. You have to stay strong.”
For many Penn State fans, it has been a rare occurrence to be on the backend of a rivalry. Penn State’s traditional rivals from their Independent days the Nittany Lions have decisive advantages over Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College, Maryland, Temple, and Rutgers. Each of those teams had Penn State marked on their calendars.
Take it from a blue blood perspective, Alabama under Nick Saban dominated Tennessee. It got to the point that many in the “yellowhammer” thought the third certainty in life after death and taxes was beating Tennessee. But the fervor to beat the Vols was always there for the Crimson Tide and even suffering through 15 defeats, when they finally beat Alabama the goal posts met the Tennessee River.
Some may use Franklin’s inability to beat Ohio State, he is presently 1-10 versus Ohio State, as a knock against him. It is a fair one, but it isn’t the first nor the last a coach will endure this.
A rivalry I have written to great detail to even a digital tome was the rivalry between Oklahoma and Nebraska. Tom Osborne, who today is venerated for being consistent and with how his career ended with three national championships in four seasons, couldn’t escape the knock that he couldn’t knock off Barry Switzer.
In 17 matchups against Switzer’s Oklahoma Sooners, Osborne went 5-12.
It wasn’t until after Switzer left the Sooners that Osborne was able to even his career mark against Oklahoma at 13 apiece.
The latter is my final point, with these rivalries and the caliber of programs, these games will be going on until one side doesn’t want to put effort into football. That is just where Ohio State and Penn State are. Franklin has the burning desire to figure out, look at how quickly Penn State asserted itself and prioritized to secure Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator.
On Penn State’s side the rivalry is real, Ohio State for now enjoys the spoils but when the series flips you better believe the vitriol for Penn State will be present, that is why Howard’s vantage point is short sighted.
