Leader Unveils the Intense Exchange That Fueled Ohio State's Path to the National Championship

The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't completely sure about what they'll gain from having a rookie quarterback Will Howard Throughout his career, he is anticipated to serve primarily as a backup; however, there might be potential for growth given his background as a college national champion. Amidst the unclear situation at the quarterback position in Pittsburgh, there’s certainly a possibility for him to showcase his abilities during games. All he requires is the chance to demonstrate his capabilities rather than being confined to a secondary role. being ignored by the coaches during training camp and preseason.

Howard made an appearance on Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger To discuss what contributed to the Ohio State Buckeyes' championship quest, and how leadership stepped up during a particularly challenging period.

After that loss to Michigan," Howard recalled. "Coach Ryan Day gathered all the leaders together; he called for an entire leadership council session. We convened and held a discussion where he announced, ‘Tomorrow, we’re having a players-only meeting. Everyone will attend, including myself, and we’ll openly express our thoughts. If anyone has something they wish to share with me, now’s their chance.’ The conversation became intense as some players confronted Coach Day, who also challenged them in return. Offense linemen even shouted at defensive backs—there were strong emotions involved. Although being part of such a tense gathering isn’t enjoyable, post-game, we knew fighting through this situation was inevitable.

Many Ohio State players experienced their poorest performance of the season during the final regular-season matchup with the Michigan Wolverines. This alone was enough to leave athletes feeling nauseated and furious, compounded by allowing their chief adversaries to dominate their home field and stifle their scoring. Consequently, fans demanded that Jim Harbaugh, head coach Ryan Day, along with several others, should be ousted from the premises right away due to what appeared to be an utter disaster.

Certainly, their tale was far from over. Following that intense gathering, Howard pressed onward with his new outlook.

"The thing that we all come to was that we still had a chance to make a run," said Howard. 'We're in the playoffs.' As dejected as we felt in that moment, we all said, 'We can make this right by winning a National Championship,' and that's exactly what we did, and I think it talks a lot to the leadership and the maturity of the group that we had last year... people were saying all kinds of stuff about us, and we had to shut it all out. We had three weeks to get ready for Tennessee, and we came out p*ssed off. You could just see it. You could tell from the moment we stepped on that field, I just knew that nobody was going to mess with us."

As horrible as that loss to Michigan was and as angry as the whole team was, that loss may have been the catalyst to Ohio State's dominant run for the national title. They got embarrassed on home turf as its rival tried to plant the flag at the 50-yard line. Some very tough conversations had to be made, and that's exactly what they did.

Steelers' Brass Needs To Prepare For Howard

The Steelers have had brutal losing streaks in nearly every single season starting in 2018. The leadership needed to steer the ship in the right direction has not always been there, even with Head Coach Mike Tomlin He was commended for his leadership skills. However, all those seasons led to humiliating playoff defeats, provided they qualified for the playoffs at all in that specific year.

Clearly, Howard comes from a team that doesn't put up with failure. His squad had one embarrassing loss, and that was more than enough motivation to fix all of their issues and make sure they didn't play that bad again. With everyone screaming at each other, one message was abundantly clear: that kind of gameplay is unacceptable.

Should this occur with the rookie quarterback still listed on the Steelers' roster, do not anticipate his silence within the locker room. Despite potentially serving as the third-string QB on the team’s depth chart, he would probably unleash his fury on everybody involved. For him, failure simply isn’t an acceptable outcome.

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