The Ohio State Buckeyes face a huge showdown this afternoon against the arch-rival Michigan Wolverines. These two teams absolutely hate each other and every time they play it’s pure football entertainment for the fans.

Will Howard wants to lead his Ohio State team to a big win. They want to end their three-game losing streak against Michigan.

Ryan Day is also extremely motivated to beat the Wolverines. He’s tired of losing to Michigan and he knows that in order to coach the Buckeyes, he has to find a way to win this game.

Still, Howard made a bold statement before today’s game. He knows how important today is for Ohio State and for himself.

“I don’t want to be half-involved in this. If I want to be a Buckeye, this is a big part of being a Buckeye. This game means everything.”

He continued and talked more about how he felt and what he learned about this rivalry game throughout the season.

“It wasn’t really like that this week, it’s been like that all year for me,” Howard said. “Feel how much this rivalry means and how deep it goes and how deep it cuts. You can look around the building and see the countdown clocks. From the moment I got here it was different. You don’t wear blue in the building. You don’t say the “M” word. All these things, I thought, this is different. It’s not really a rivalry, but more of a way of life.”

Howard also made it clear that he knows how important this game is to the team and that he wants to give something to those who have believed in him all year. He also wants to get the win for Day, who took the chance to get him via transfer.

“Coach Day took a risk when he didn’t have to. I bet when I first got involved here there were some setbacks and he believed in me. I have a lot to thank this guy for. I want to do this for him. I want to accomplish this for the guys who decided to come back and believed in me to lead this football team because I am forever indebted to those guys.”

Other than that, the stage is set for Howard and the Buckeyes. They have a chance to win big and advance to the Big Ten Championship.

It will be very interesting to see how Howard plays this afternoon. Should he reach the level he has shown all year, he will help give Ohio State a very good chance of ending its losing streak in this rivalry matchup.