Will Howard and Ohio State are gearing up for a potential top-5 showdown next weekend with Penn State.

For Will Howard, it will a homecoming of sorts. Howard is a Pennsylvania native. Although he ended up at Kansas State to begin his college career, Howard acknowledged on Saturday that he always wanted to go to Penn State — but the Nittany Lions didn’t recruit him out of high school.

“Stoked. I can not wait,” Howard said when asked about the upcoming trip to Happy Valley. “It’s gonna be a homecoming for me. I grew up a Penn State fan. I wanted to go there my whole life. They didn’t think I was good enough. I guess we’ll see next week if I was.”

Here’s video of Howard’s comment:

Howard is from Downington, Pennsylvania, which is located less than 200 miles away from University Park. He was a 3-star prospect out of high school in the class of 2020, per 247Sports Composite ratings. He did take an unofficial visit to Penn State back in September of 2018, but didn’t end up earning an offer from James Franklin and the Nittany Lions.

Instead of Howard, Penn State ended up taking Micah Bowens as its quarterback in that class. Bowens spent 1 year with Penn State before transferring to Oklahoma. He’s since moved on to Charlotte and, most recently, Bethune-Cookman.

Kickoff from Happy Valley is set for 12 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.