The Ohio State quarterbacks met with reporters on Thursday, including fourth-year junior — and soon to be graduate — Joe Burrow. As such, the ever-present topic of Burrow’s future was discussed at length.
The quarterback competition this spring for Ohio State football is going to be important to watch, and not just because the Buckeyes are still looking for a starter. Burrow has said in the past that if he felt things weren’t going his way after the spring, he would evaluate his options.
Those options would obviously involve looking at places other than Ohio State to play quarterback.
With spring practice currently underway, however, Burrow is only focused on the here and now.
“I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and trying to get better every day,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens. I just go into every practice every day trying to go out with no regrets.”
What ifs can drive a person crazy, which is why Burrow has no interest in wondering. His mindset is only on putting everything he has into this one competition, and if it’s not good enough, then so be it. At least he did what he set out to do.
That’s why he is still fighting, rather than just biding his time until he has his degree in hand.
“I was convinced that it was going to be an open competition and that’s why I wanted to stay and give it my best shot,” he said. “They said that they will make a decision soon, so we’ll see.”
Of course, a cynic might say that the coaches will tell Burrow whatever it takes to keep him around, but so far Urban Meyer and Ryan Day have followed through on exactly what they told him would happen this spring. The reps are being split evenly between all three quarterbacks, and none of them are being treated like the starter or the backup. The job, it would seem, is truly up in the air.
So what will be the thing that convinces Meyer and Day that they have found their man?
“I think the big thing for all of us is leadership,” Burrow said. “I think the best leader is going to win the job. Obviously, J.T. was the leader of the team last year and somebody is going to have to step up.”
Burrow has said all along that he just wants a fair shot, but does that mean he has to win the job outright this spring to stick around? What happens if the job is still up in the air?
“I’m not really sure,” he said. “I’ll evaluate it after spring ball and see what they tell me and see what our meetings are like. I’m 100% focused on this spring right now.”
Mute This Conversation
It goes without saying that this has been a difficult last eight months for Joe Burrow. A year ago at this time, he was J.T. Barrett’s backup. He then went into fall camp playing the best ball of his career. A broken hand derailed all of that.
When he went down with the injury, his future was thrown into doubt — at least from the outside. He has seen the transfer talk, he hears it, and it even annoys him that fans assume that it will be him who loses the job and transfers, rather than somebody else.
“It does, yeah,” he admitted. “For about a year, I get all of these tweets. ‘Where you going?’ ‘You’re gonna transfer. You never play.’ I see them. I don’t say anything, but I see them.”
The quarterback battle being waged in the Ohio State football facilities isn’t any different than other competitions going on elsewhere. What is different, however, is the openness with which Burrow’s future is being talked about.
His coaches know that he wants to be a starting quarterback somewhere, but they want to see him compete to be a starter at Ohio State first.
“We have a lot of respect for Joe and Joe is going to fight like heck to win this thing,” said quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator Ryan Day.
“If he’s the best quarterback, then he’s the best quarterback. If Tate [Martell] is the best quarterback, or if Dwayne [Haskins] is the best quarterback… Whoever wins the job, wins the job. We have a lot of respect for Joe and Joe wants to play, and so we understand that.”