All About Ohio State Quarterback Will Howard’s Parents, Bob and Maureen Howard (and the ‘Rollercoaster’ of Emotions They Feel Every Time He Plays)

Will Howard's parents, Bob and Maureen Howard, have supported his college football journey every step of the way.

Will kicked off his college football career at Kansas State University — roughly 18 hours away from his childhood home in Downingtown, Pa. He spent four seasons with the Wildcats and led his team to a Big 12 Championship victory in 2022 before transferring to the Ohio State University in 2024.

"It helps that I'm a little closer to home now. I'm only six and half hours away," Will said during a press conference in January 2025 while talking about his family's commitment to attending his games.

With the Buckeyes quarterback ready to face the University of Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 20, his dad and mom are as supportive as ever.

Here's everything to know about Will Howard's parents, Bob and Maureen Howard.

Bob and Maureen worked in finance and the medical field

Bob spent his undergrad years at Penn State University studying finance and earned his master's in counseling psychology from Villanova University, per LinkedIn. Afterward, he worked in real estate finance and eventually tried his hand at entrepreneurship, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Meanwhile, Maureen earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Delaware and her master's in physical therapy from Temple University in physical therapy. Today, she is a pediatric physical therapist who previously worked in the NICU center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Bob and Maureen share four kids

Bob and Maureen became parents on Sept. 24, 2001, with the arrival of Will. They later welcomed son Ryan and daughters Tori and Grace.

Ryan is currently a freshman at Kansas State, his older brother's alma mater, where he plays football for the Wildcats.

They noticed Will's athletic abilities early on

Bob and Maureen knew they had an athlete on their hands when Will was a toddler.

In November 2024, NBC4 Columbus caught up with Will's parents in the stands at an Ohio State game, where they opened up about the first time they paid attention to his natural sports skills.

"[Starting] when he was 2 years old [and] he was shooting baskets in our basement and making them, we just kind of said, 'There's something a little different about him,' " Bob recalled.

Since then, they have helped foster his talents and watched him take on football. "It's been a fun ride," he added.

Bob and Maureen co-founded the Baby Merlin Company

In 2008, Bob and Maureen co-founded the Baby Merlin Company after the mom of four invented the Magic Sleepsuit. The product, a garment for babies who have grown out of the traditional swaddle blanket, was created out of pure necessity — she needed her infant Will to become a better sleeper.

“I'd lay him down for naps, and he'd wake up in like 30 minutes,” she told The Columbus Dispatch in September 2024. “I knew he needed more sleep. He was grumpy. I was grumpy.”

After family and friends tried out the product themselves and loved it, Bob encouraged Maureen to get it on store shelves. They eventually launched Baby Merlin Company, which took roughly 10 years to become a profitable business, and it was an all-hands-on-deck type of operation in the beginning.

“She'd yell down the stairs, ‘We’ve got a shipment,’ and all of us would walk outside and take all the boxes off the truck,” Will told the outlet of running Baby Merlin out of their home in Pennsylvania. “There’d probably be over 100 sometimes.”

He continued, "For me, it was cool to see them push through. It taught me how to work hard and how to appreciate all the little things. It did bring us together as a family, too.”

In 2021, Bob and Maureen sold Baby Merlin to Perch — a Boston-based technology-driven commerce company. However, Maureen remains the face of the business.

“Our kids saw it grow from an idea to a thriving business,” she said. “They helped unload shipments and break down pallets. It’s pretty cool that they saw that and helped. It truly was a family-run business, and we’re super proud of that.”

Bob and Maureen go through a "rollercoaster" of emotions watching Will play

Decades after realizing that Will has a knack for sports, Bob and Maureen have witnessed their son grow into himself on the football field — which has involved many emotions.

"We [know] that college football has highs and lows, and you kind of have to be ready for the rollercoaster ride," Maureen told NBC4 Columbus.

Still, she tries to take her cues from her son.

"People always ask me if I get nervous. I kind of go by Will, if he's calm and feels ready, then I'm much calmer," Maureen told the outlet, adding that Bob has a similar "calm exterior."

She added, "But there's some churning going on inside. Don't be fooled."

Will leans on his family for support

During a press conference in January 2025, Will talked to reporters about how he managed the transition from Kansas State to Ohio State.

"My support system always is my family. I lean on them for a ton of different stuff," he said. "When I went out to Kansas State as an 18-year-old kid, [my mom and dad] came out there a lot. They helped me a lot."

Will continued, "[Ohio State] was different. I'm older now. It felt more like a professional kind of move, [but] my family did an unbelievable job of helping me."

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