Desmond Howard is known as a massive Michigan homer. Every chance he gets, he needles the Ohio State football program. He usually refuses to give them any compliments, no matter how dominant a team they are. He is never able to be objective when it comes to the Buckeyes.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the top-ranked team in the country and have been since Week 1. With the combination of a dominant defense and an explosive offense, they are a very hard team to beat. Howard would almost certainly never pick them to win it all.
Yet, Howard did something surprising on Saturday morning during College GameDay. For once, he actually gave the Buckeyes credit for being good. He actually paid the team a compliment on the defensive side of the ball, something that no one saw coming.
Desmond Howard compliments the Ohio State football team's defense on College GameDay
While talking about the Buckeyes, Howard said that they had the best defense in the country by a wide margin. Perhaps he said that because he wanted to give props to a Big Ten team. Surprisingly, he didn't try to take shots at their schedule like some SEC homers did during the CFP reveal show.
It's pretty indisputable that the Buckeyes have the best defense in the country. They lead in every major metric, and they are destroying teams every week. They likely will improve on those metrics after taking on Purdue, which is the worst team in the Big Ten.
Ohio State's defense has to stay sharp throughout the next few weeks, even if the caliber of opponent is pretty weak for them. They have to make sure they are on their toes heading into The Game so they can end that losing streak against TTUN.
That alone is why Howard's comment is so surprising. Complimenting Ohio State in the month of November? That's almost unheard of for him to do.