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- Thread starter ScriptOhio
- Start date
ShowMeBuck
You know what? Chicken butt.
Yeah I was coming in to say the same thing. If NPF comes back then PJ plays inside.
Regardless ...there is just no scenario I see where PJ isn’t a starter. No way.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Ohio State will officially have a new starting quarterback in 2021 after Justin Fields announced Monday that he is entering the NFL draft. While that news wasn’t any surprise, it still leaves the Buckeyes with massive shoes to fill at quarterback, and none of the three quarterbacks who will be competing to fill those shoes – redshirt freshmen C.J. Stroud and Jack Miller and true freshman Kyle McCord – have ever thrown a pass at the collegiate level.
It’s never ideal to enter a season with a completely unproven roster of quarterbacks, and some drop-off should be expected when replacing a player of Fields’ caliber. Regardless of who wins the starting job, there’s likely to be some growing pains given the lack of experience. But the Buckeyes remain more than capable of fielding an elite offense in 2021.
Stroud and Miller are both four-star recruits who now at least have a year of practicing in Ohio State’s offense – plus some very limited game experience – under their belts. McCord is set to arrive on campus later this week as a five-star recruit. All three of them legitimately have the potential to develop into elite quarterbacks, so there’s reason to be confident at least one of them will be ready to play at a high level come September.
Regardless of who wins the starting job, that quarterback’s potential to succeed right away will be bolstered significantly by the boatload of talent he will have around him on Ohio State’s offense.
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GovTressel
Heisman
Can we trade a tackle and a couple of receivers for some back seven help?
The receiver room is going to be beyond ridiculous.
The receiver room is going to be beyond ridiculous.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
QUARTERBACK
The most interesting position battle for the Buckeyes this offseason -- and one that will certainly be followed closely around college football -- is at quarterback. Justin Fields left a two-year legacy that will be hard to live up to, but the Scarlet and Gray have made it a priority to land at least one top quarterback in each recruiting class so there is no drop off when one top signal caller departs after a successful career.
If they haven't already, the names CJ Stroud, Jack Miller and Kyle McCord will become familiar to Ohio State fans over the coming months. These are the three highly-rated quarterback prospects who will contend for the starting job this offseason. All three were top 15 at their position coming out of high school, meaning head coach Ryan Day and quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis have plenty of talent to work with when attempting to have one of these players ready to line up behind center come Sept. 2.
The presumed favorite is Stroud, who was the higher-rated prospect in the 2020 recruiting class and was the first quarterback into the game in backup duty when both he and Miller were fully healthy, including when Fields had to leave the College Football Playoff semifinal for one play. Day cautioned throughout the year, however, that this would be an ongoing battle between the two and not to read too much into when each player plays.
As it turns out, neither played much during their freshmen seasons, with each quarterback seeing limited snaps. In eight total snaps in 2020, Stroud carried the ball one time for a 48-yard touchdown. Miller played 10 snaps, carrying the ball twice for 23 yards and a touchdown. Neither quarterback attempted a pass as a freshman.
McCord helped St. Joseph's Prep win its third consecutive Philadelphia 6A state championship in 2020, throwing for 6,887 yards and 88 touchdowns. Despite coming in as a true freshman and not getting the experience of learning behind Fields and getting familiar with the playbook last year, the five-star prospect plans on having a say in this competition.
On paper, it seems Ohio State can't go wrong with any of these players leading the offense, but quarterback is a tricky and important position. It will be up to one of these three to win the job and for Day and Dennis to have the right player ready to start come the start of the 2021 season.
RUNNING BACK
Trey Sermon exploded onto the scene near the end of the season with career and record-setting performances. After transferring from Oklahoma, Sermon elected to head to the NFL after just one year in Columbus leaving some question marks at running back that existed a year ago.
Master Teague will be back for his fourth year with the Scarlet and Gray and is the presumed starter, but concerns in regards to his ability to be a complete back remain. Injury issues late in the season saw Sermon take over the majority of the snaps but his vision and explosiveness were evident in contrast to the starter. When Teague stepped back into the primary ball carrier role in the national championship, he struggled to hit holes and produce big plays, despite two touchdown runs, something that has become an issue over the last two years when the Tennessee native is playing top competition.
Sophomore Marcus Crowley, coming off a knee injury in 2019, saw his first snaps behind Teague in the national championship game but managed only 14 yards on six carries. While he showed promise as a freshman, averaging 9.5 yards per carry in clean-up duty, the jury is still out on Crowley, as it is on classmate Steele Chambers, who had only nine carries in 2020. Miyan Williams showed some promise with 10 carries for 64 yards in three of the final four games, including averaging seven yards per carry against Clemson.
Stepping on campus shortly will be 2020 recruits in TreVeyon Henderson, a top-25 overall prospect, and Evan Pryor, the second-ranked running back in the 2021 class. These are two of the most highly-ranked running back recruits ever to commit to Ohio State and, because of that, both will hope to get on the field early.
Running backs coach Tony Alford and the Buckeyes will want to at least have a pecking order established for the start of the 2020 season, if not a true starter. The Scarlet and Gray have used a committee at running back in recent years, but have been most successful when one talented back emerges to handle most of the carries.
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Good perspective on the 2021offense. He mentioned as many of us on here have said, that though Teague is a good person, his running style just doesn’t fit what Day wants to do, and it showed in the NC. He doesn’t have the one cut ability that made Sermon so successful, and also showed is the strength of the other RBs as well. Crowley and Williams he said could see the first snaps, but see Henderson getting PT as well. Not sure how that works throughout the season, as it seems the coaches like a workhorse. But a pair and spare helps with the depth if we can get back to a full schedule.
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RugbyBuck
Our church has no bells.
I attribute not doing so this year to the Covid season and lack of early games, but we need to get back to a WR rotation and the young guys we've brought in (presumably at least in part because of the opportunity to play in such a system) need to get some early game reps next season.
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bukIpower
Head Coach
I agree and IMO we need to get 3-4 WR on the field.... I've always been a big fan of getting a defense in their nickle or dime packages due to putting more speed on the field and then running the ball.
I know we liked our two TE sets last year but IMO that's a little bit more of a methodical approach instead of explosiveness with more WRs.
We have to start rolling these talented WRs and getting more on the field or it will be a little harder to sell kids in recruiting.
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Fully agree with you and @RugbyBuck, especially with the insane amount of WR talent that we have. We could go 7-8 deep easily in a rotation next year(Olave, Wilson, JSN, Fleming, Scott, Williams, Babb and Egbuka). And in the video the interviewee said that he could the offense having more of a 1RB, 1TE and 3WR look next year to exploit the speed and explosiveness of our guys. I think the 2 TE sets definitely had more to do with Covid19 season and so many frosh at WR who the staff wasn't fully comfortable playing for long stretches.
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There's simply too much talent in the WR room to not get 6 or more of them on the field in a rotation. It was obvious Fields really only had an established comfort level with Olave and Wilson, somewhat with Jameson...definitely attribute that to a covid season. You saw Fleming and JSN start coming on late and I guarantee you whichever young QB wins the job will be working with those guys and the incoming freshmen a ton. Not counting McCord out at all, but my money is on either Stroud or Miller and they came in with JSN, Fleming and Scott...you can bet on both those QBs having already have been working with those receivers, so I expect that while they will certainly look for Olave and Wilson plenty, there will be way more looks for those three receivers early and often.
As to the two TE set, I would expect much less of that now with Farrell and Hausmann (presumably) leaving. Royer and Stover have plenty of upside and I'm sure they'll play, but just not as much as Ruckert and Farrell were at the same time.
As to the two TE set, I would expect much less of that now with Farrell and Hausmann (presumably) leaving. Royer and Stover have plenty of upside and I'm sure they'll play, but just not as much as Ruckert and Farrell were at the same time.
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bukIpower
Head Coach
You have to think that getting our best players on the field is priority #1. I wouldn't doubt for a moment that literally 8 of the top 15 kids on offense are WRs. So taking a WR off the field and putting out someone unproven like Royer wouldn't be smart at all.
I personally think spreading the field helps the OL identify the blitz and helps the RB see where to run as well. So here's hoping we take advantage of all these great WRs.
Downside obviously is the QB is completely green but having two OTs like we have really helps.
Also I wouldnt count out Mccord... I personally liked his tape better than the other two but either way the starting QB is getting an absolute machine.
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Buckeye86
I do not choose to discuss it
I’m not seeing a lack of WR rotation from last season.
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...aun-wade-lead-ohio-state-in-2020-playing-time
WR GARRETT WILSON
48, 70, 48, 67, 57, 73, 56, 52—471
WR CHRIS OLAVE
52, 80, 58, 76, 55, DNP, 58, 62—441
WR JAMESON WILLIAMS
48, 36, 29, 40, 31, 43, 41, 40—308
WR JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA
17, 23, 27, 24, 28, DNP, 21, 23—163
WR JULIAN FLEMING
19, 1, 12, 6, 21, 52, 14, 3—128
WR KAMRYN BABB
6, ST, 6, ST, ST, 19, ST, ST—31
WR GEE SCOTT JR.
4, ST, 8, ST, DNP, DNP, DNP, 2—14
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...aun-wade-lead-ohio-state-in-2020-playing-time
WR GARRETT WILSON
48, 70, 48, 67, 57, 73, 56, 52—471
WR CHRIS OLAVE
52, 80, 58, 76, 55, DNP, 58, 62—441
WR JAMESON WILLIAMS
48, 36, 29, 40, 31, 43, 41, 40—308
WR JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA
17, 23, 27, 24, 28, DNP, 21, 23—163
WR JULIAN FLEMING
19, 1, 12, 6, 21, 52, 14, 3—128
WR KAMRYN BABB
6, ST, 6, ST, ST, 19, ST, ST—31
WR GEE SCOTT JR.
4, ST, 8, ST, DNP, DNP, DNP, 2—14
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The tapes don't tell the whole story of the 3. McCord had a more talented team than the other 2. McCord I believe won state and his team is PA power, Stroud was at Rancho Cucamonga, which isn't exactly known much for football, and he singlehandedly took them to the playoffs on his arm and legs. Miller had talent, but had a terrible OL and was a main reason why he was always injured. I think the QB who can master the offense, make the least mistakes and show clear leadership becomes the starter.
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