Today’s Topic: Why Is Ryan Day Apprehensive About His QBs?
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has become a beacon for quarterbacks.
Matthew Baldwin came from Texas to learn from him. Justin Fields came from Georgia because he believes Day can get him to the NFL.
Together, Baldwin and Fields will wage one heck of a quarterback competition over the next six months, which will be fun to talk about, but will also be an incredible amount of work for the parties involved.
“It doesn’t just happen,” Day said. “What happened last year with Dwayne Haskins is an anomaly. Someone to step in 14 games, projected to be maybe the first quarterback taken in the draft, third in the Heisman. That just doesn’t happen. Someone doesn’t just step in and do that.”
And yet, now there are expectations.
Dwayne Haskins threw for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns last season. It was expected that he would put up better passing numbers than JT Barrett, but nobody predicted this.
They couldn’t have.
So to expect something similar this season is unfair to everyone involved, especially when the work is just getting started.
“I mean, the expectations are obviously that we’re going to be really good and repeat what we did,” Day admitted. “But that’s not just going to happen. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, it’s going to take a lot of adjusting on the move. Guys are going to have to do a great job of stepping up in all areas.”
Day knows the amount of work the everyone put in last year, but it wasn’t just the work. It was also the player. Dwayne Haskins is the best passing quarterback in Ohio State history and his talent isn’t something that is repeatable through drill work.
“For me to sit back and look at what happened last year, it’s really amazing,” Day said. “I think Dwayne may be one of those once in a lifetime. Someone said he’s one of six quarterbacks in college history to throw 50 touchdown passes. Amazing.”
Dwayne Haskins has said he wasn’t ready to lead the team as a second-year player, but either Baldwin and Fields will need to do it in their second seasons as college football players.
In other words, Ryan Day is going to be asking a pair of quarterbacks who aren’t likely to be as talented as Haskins to do what Haskins himself has said he wasn’t able to do.
Had Haskins been forced into action for an entire season in 2017, he likely would have been fine, but he wouldn’t have been what he was in 2018.
And whoever wins the job this year should be fine as well, but it’s the should be that keeps Day from getting comfortable.
“It’s a new journey,” he said. “When we sat here this time last year, JT is gone, what’s next? Apprehension then. That’s the beauty of college football.”
“Dwayne Haskins has said he wasn’t ready to lead the team as a second-year player”
Last year everybody was bemoaning the fact that Dwayne should have been starting in ’17. They must have thought he was as advanced then as he was last year. He wasn’t – and he himself said so.
That’s clearly intelligent humblespeak from Dwayne. Saying anything else would be a direct criticism of Urban for starting JT despite our 31-0 Clemson beatdown. Directly following Dwayne coming in and leading us to victory over TTUN, they asked him of the possibility of starting the B1G Title game and essentially said that he was ready when they called on him in the Game and he’d be ready again if they called him to start the B1G game.
That was also 11.5 games into the season.
To succeed this coming season – and the Buckeyes definitely can do that, especially with all the returning talent – I suspect the offense will need to be much more run-pass balanced. Dobbins and his running mates will have to be more productive, but Fields and/or Baldwin will have to do their job, although to do it at the Haskins’ 2018 level is unrealistic.
From everything I have read, Fields may as good a passer as Haskins and he is a better runner. HOWEVER, if Fields is the starter, he will have to learn the playbook much more quickly and a newly built offensive line will have to perform well. If the starter is Baldwin, he has had more time to learn the offense, but may not be quite as physically talented. It will be an interesting season and I think either QB will be a tremendous asset to the Buckeyes.