Choose your fighter!: Will Ohio State or Notre Dame have a QB edge in national title?

It all comes down to this. While several other facets of the game may impact it more so than the quarterback position, the winner of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game will almost certainly be getting great play out of its signal-caller. For Ohio State, it will be Kansas State transfer Will Howard. And for Notre Dame, it will be Duke transfer Riley Leonard. Who is going to win?

Earlier in the playoff, I said that Drew Allar was the best quarterback remaining heading into the national semifinals and Leonard was the worst with Howard and Quinn Ewers sandwiched in between. While Allar is now out of it and so is Ewers, leaving us with Howard and Leonard, and that is it! In a way, they kind of play the quarterback position similarly with quite a bit of run to go along with their throw.

Right now, I think it is hard to top how well Howard has played in the playoff. He had an up-and-down regular season at Ohio State, but he has looked the part for the Buckeyes in the postseason. Howard has been instrumental in Ohio State defeating Tennessee, Oregon and Texas in succession to even get to this point. I like his arm a bit more than I do Leonard, but Leonard is the ultimate underdog, too.

Can Leonard do enough to upset Howard and the heavily-favored Buckeyes in the national title bout?

Who is the better playoff QB between Will Howard and Riley Leonard?

In a way, I do not think there is all that much separating Howard's game from that of Leonard's. Again, I do like Howard's ability to throw the ball with a bit more accuracy than I do Leonard. However, the biggest thing I think Howard has in his favor that Leonard does not is he has the better and more explosive receiving corps. Notre Dame does not have a Jeremiah Smith or even an Emeka Egbuka.

In short, Howard can play a looser brand of football than Leonard in this game because he has better weapons around him. There may come a play or two where Howard needs to make something happen. For Leonard, we are looking at that number of plays hanging in the balances being closer to six. Howard needs to make one of the two, whereas Leonard may need to hit on five of the six plays.

Ultimately, I just like the way Howard has been playing of late more than I do with Leonard. Again, it is not by much, but little becomes big over time in a championship setting such as this one we are about to see unfold before our very eyes. Howard does not need to play a perfect game to be crowned a national champion, whereas Leonard needs to play something akin to the game of his life to do this.

Howard's accurate arm and better receiving corps tips the scales heavily in his favor over Leonard.