After two years of struggles, Kansas State quarterback Will Howard is suddenly a hero
How does it feel to be carried off the football field while thousands of fans chant your name immediately after a dominant victory over a top-10 team?
Will Howard is one of the few players in Kansas State history who is qualified to answer that question.
The junior quarterback was hoisted into the air by teammates following his impressive performance during K-State’s 48-0 demolition of Oklahoma State on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, a result that went down in the record books as the most lopsided shutout victory by any college football team against a top-10 opponent since 1966.
“I finished up my interview with TV and then all of a sudden I’m just getting raised up,” Howard said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ It was kind of funny, but that was really cool. That was something I’m going to remember for a long time and something that I will cherish forever.”
It was a fitting conclusion to an unpredictable day on the gridiron. Few expected the No. 22 Wildcats to blow out the No. 9 Cowboys. Perhaps none envisioned Howard achieving hero status along the way.
But it happened. That was not a dream. Starting quarterback Adrian Martinez was unable to play in the game due to a lower-body injury, so Howard stepped in and looked like an All-American while doing so. The previously maligned passer completed 21 of 37 passes for 296 yards and four touchdowns.
He is starting to look like K-State’s quarterback of the future, if not the present.
Howard has done more than just admirably fill in for Martinez over the past two games. He has played at a high level and led the Wildcats to unexpected heights on offense.
At no other point this season have the Wildcats moved the ball more efficiently than they did in the first half on Saturday. The Wildcats possessed the ball for seven drives in the first two quarters and scored 35 points on them. That will do.
“He’s playing lights out,” K-State receiver Kade Warner said. “I told him at the very beginning of the game that there is nothing scarier in sports than a man with nothing to lose. And that’s how he’s playing. I mean, he’s playing lights out, and it’s so cool to see.”
Howard threw a pair of touchdown passes to Warner, plus another to Phillip Brooks and one more to Deuce Vaughn. The other K-State score of the first half came on a perfectly blocked 62-yard run from Vaughn.
The Wildcats ultimately pulled ahead by so many points that Howard was pulled from the game so third-stringer Jake Rubley could see some action in garbage time.
Howard has clearly come a long way since he was unable to spark K-State to a victory against Texas in the season-finale last year.
His play over the past two seasons inspired so little confidence that the coaching staff brought in Martinez as one-year rental at quarterback this season. Some fans gave up on Howard when he struggled as an underclassman while filling in for Skylar Thompson. And that was understandable, considering his struggles.
But Howard is throwing with much more confidence now and he is also making good decisions. Even when he got flushed out of the pocket, he made things happen against Oklahoma State. He might not have the same kind of speed as Martinez, but he is an upgrade as a passer. Now that the game is slowing down for Howard, he is showing off his arm talent.
“He is such a confident guy,” K-State coach Chris Klieman said. “All the stuff that he has gone through has prepared him for this moment. It prepared him for last week, too. Our guys and our players all believe in him.”
The Wildcats are hoping to use Howard in fewer than five games this season, allowing him to retain his redshirt. If that happens, he will have three more years of eligibility remaining in Manhattan. That’s a good thing, because K-State fans want to see more of him at the moment.
That hasn’t always been the case during his time on campus. Even though Howard has started 11 games for the Wildcats over the years, this was his first truly memorable effort. But it changed everything about his perception.
How did he improve and get to this point?
“Just confidence,” Howard said. “Football is a game that is truly all up here, especially at the quarterback position. Just another year of experience, another year of letting things come to me and a lot of things I learned from the last few years. I learned what to do and what not to do from all the other games that I played in 2020 and 2021. All the experiences that I had and all the struggles and hardships that I had helped this happen. The success that we’re having right now is because of that and because of the things that I’ve learned. Now I’m just being confident.”
It is unclear what will happen next with Howard.
Martinez was close to playing on Saturday and even went all the way through warm-ups before coaches opted to go with Howard. The Wildcats could pivot to Martinez next week if he is healthy. But there is no need to rush him back, given the way Howard is playing.
He is more than living up to the label Klieman gave him as “the best backup quarterback in the country.”
Howard has now proven that he can win big games for K-State, and spark a wild celebration afterward.
“We’re confident,” Howard said. “We’re feeling good right now. We just played a really good game today against a really good team and we beat them by 48. I’m just telling you, we have a lot of confidence and a lot of great talent. The nice thing is that we haven’t played our best game, and I think that’s still in front of us.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2022 at 8:40 PM with the headline "After two years of struggles, Kansas State quarterback Will Howard is suddenly a hero."