Justin Fields arrived at Georgia in 2018 as one of the most-hyped recruits in college football history.
After playing sparingly behind Jake Fromm as a freshman, he transferred to Ohio State.
That made him one of the most-hyped transfers in college football history.
After eight months of waiting, it took exactly one quarter to see what all the hype was about.
On the Buckeyes’ opening drive, Fields scored the first touchdown of the season on a 53-yard run.
On the second drive, he looked for tight end Luke Farrell, but when he was covered, turned to a wide-open Jeremy Ruckert for a 25-yard touchdown.
The next time they got the ball, he hit Binjimen Victor for a 32-yard score.
On their fourth possession, he threw a 29-yard score to Chris Olave.
Exactly 8:10 into his Buckeye career, Fields had accounted for four scores, several on plays where the receiver was all alone.
“When I see him like wide open I just make sure there’s nobody else around him because it just doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to be that wide open,” Fields said.
But after a start where the biggest issue was suspiciously-open receivers, things got a little tougher.
The Buckeyes failed to score on their next seven drives, before kicking it into gear again in the third quarter of a 45-21 win.
Fields finished the day 18-for-25 for 234 yards and four touchdowns passing, with another 61 yards and a score on the ground.
With the first game now in the books, neither Fields, nor the Buckeye offense is anything close to a finished product. The offensive line struggled at times in pass protection, the run game bogged down occasionally, and they turned the ball over multiple times.
But that first quarter showed Buckeye fans and the rest of the college football world that there was a reason for all the hype surrounding Fields.
He’s not a Heisman-caliber quarterback yet, but the potential is clearly in there.
Day was happy overall with Fields’ play against FAU, but said the quarterback had a lot of areas to improve.
“Protections, reads, decisions. Lots to build from off of today,” Day said.
Time to trot out the old, “They sold out to stop the run and make Fields beat them with his arm.” trope. AF runs the option. Everyone knows their six plays (exaggeration). AF still runs for 429 yards.
Better to be the Buckeyes than Tennessee or NW BUT Fields didn’t look all that great except for his TD run. The rest were his skill players making him look good. Plenty to work on and Luke Fickell has EVERY reason to want to come into Columbus and slay the dragon.
The skill players made Haskins look good last year too huh?
Fields first ever start 4 td but didn’t look good lol. Did you think he was going to come out first game be the next Arron Rogers? Or Tom Brady. People hated on Haskins to last yr then he settled in and set records. People think the offense is going to go out there and show every play they going to run with a 28-0 lead. Some people’s comments on here show how much they really don’t know about the game.
Don and Joe,
The reason Fields looked so good in those 1st 8 minutes and 10 seconds is partly due to his talent and what the Buckeyes were doing. What happened the rest of the game shows that it was more of a string of very good luck against an outmatched team. We’ll see how it goes this week. I’m not throwing Fields under the bus. The entire offense looked bad the rest of the game, not just Fields.