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Chip Kelly jokingly blames Will Howard for Ohio State’s 12 pm kickoffs
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Chip Kelly has a way with words sometimes, and Ohio State’s offensive coordinator usually packs his press conferences with some good-natured humor.
He did it again on Tuesday, and his material centered on the fan backlash to the long list of noon ET starts that Ohio State has had to contend with this season. The Buckeyes are going to play 6 straight games to close the regular season that have noon ET kickoffs. Three of them are already in the books, and there are still 3 to go for the 8-1 Buckeyes, starting with Saturday’s early start against Northwestern on BTN.
After that, Ohio State will host Indiana and Michigan, with both games being in FOX’s coveted noon window. But not everybody in Columbus believes that the noon time slot should be so coveted. A lot of fans are in an uproar, similar to Penn State fans complaining about their team’s noon starts, but Kelly found humor in it all, as he usually does.
For Kelly, these dreaded noon starts centered around the Buckeyes’ quarterback.
“Will (Howard) said if he gets to play at noon, he can complete 80% of his passes,” joked Kelly. “So, I think the controversy is over. You get a noon kickoff, he’ll complete 80 (percent). I know a lot of people have problems with what we’re doing, but if it means the QB can complete 80% of his passes, we’ll take it.”
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Kelly is obviously joking, but Howard has found his groove in Columbus. The star QB is completing 74% of his passes, a mark that ranks 2nd in FBS and only trails Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel by the slimmest of margins (74.1% for Gabriel). Howard has 5 games this season with a completion percentage of at least 80%.
If Howard maintains that mark, it would go down as by far the best percentage of his career after a career-best 61.3% mark in his final season at Kansas State. Howard’s 22 passing touchdowns is also tied with Gabriel for the B1G lead and is just 2 off his career-high 24 from the 2023 season.
Fans may prefer night games, but they definitely prefer winning, and Howard and the Buckeyes are thriving in the noon time slot so far.