It’s no secret Ohio State will have a new starter under center. Dwayne Haskins lit up opposing defenses and cameras last year and is now off to a new frontier in the NFL.
The two main combatants trying to wrestle the starting job away from one another are two transfers looking for a new opportunity. Yes, it’s the byproduct of the new college football world we live in. And because of that, there’s two relatively unknowns trying to make something known before all the fun starts on August 31.
In one corner there’s all the promise and unfulfilled potential of Justin Fields — one of the highest rated quarterback prospects of all time. In the other is a seasoned kid coming back to Ohio from the University of Kentucky in the form of Gunnar Hoak. It’s an intriguing donnybrook, to be sure.
So much so that USA TODAY has named the quarterback derby in Columbus as one of the ten biggest quarterback competitions of the fall.
Here’s what Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY says about the situation.
“Let’s trust first-year coach Ryan Day when he says the competition remains undecided, as he did in the days before the Buckeyes kicked off fall camp. Yeah, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Fields, formerly of Georgia, doesn’t take starter’s snaps from the opener. Nevertheless, Fields needs to provide separation this August from Hoak, a graduate transfer from Kentucky.”
It’s a bit surprising really, because I wonder just how real this so-called competition is (you don’t move heaven and earth to bring in Fields to play behind someone), but Ryan Day is sticking to his guns on it being labeled as such.
At the end of this quarterback roulette is going to be a winner, just don’t look down on me if I go all in on the Justin Fields experiment.
