COLUMBUS, Ohio _ Since he enrolled as a transfer from the University of Georgia in January, Justin Fields has been considered a near-lock to be the Ohio State football team's next starting quarterback.
Now it is official.
On Monday, OSU coach Ryan Day named Fields as the starter for the Aug. 31 opener against Florida Atlantic.
Day was steadfast in not anointing Fields as the starter when the sophomore enrolled. He maintained that during spring practice as Fields battled Matthew Baldwin. When Baldwin transferred to TCU and Dublin native Gunnar Hoak arrived as a graduate transfer from Kentucky, Day still said it would be open competition in training camp.
Fields said that he wanted it to be that way. He said didn't want to be handed the job.
But all along, little doubt persisted. Fields was the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2018 recruiting class. It would have taken something extraordinary to keep him from winning the job.
Now comes the hard part _ living up to the standard that has been set by recent Ohio State quarterbacks. He succeeds Dwayne Haskins Jr., who threw for a school-record 50 touchdowns while finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Haskins was a first-year starter a year ago, but he was in his third year in the program and had rallied the Buckeyes to victory at Michigan as a redshirt freshman.
Fields hasn't had the luxury of time to learn and absorb Day's complex offense. But his talent was evident in the spring to teammates and coaches, even if his performance in the spring game _ he completed 4 of 13 passes _ was forgettable.
He worked with the team's wide receivers in the summer and gradually earned respect as a leader.
Now Fields will try to build off the glimpses he showed as a freshman at Georgia last season. Playing behind Jake Fromm in 2018, Fields completed 27 of 39 passes for 328 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 266 yards and four touchdowns in 42 attempts, a 6.3-yard average.
That dual threat is what makes Fields such a tantalizing prospect. The Buckeyes aren't expecting him to match Haskins' passing numbers, but the hope is that his running ability will give them a dimension Haskins mostly lacked last year.
