Can't wait to put in an order for my Justin Fields jersey, it won't arrive until season's end. But it'll still be special!
Upvote
0
-
Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
- Thread starter MD Buckeye
- Start date
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
“What can you say about Justin Fields?” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Wednesday. “The way that he’s gone about his business, the way that he’s been a leader, the way that he’s spoken and been classy about it. His work ethic this offseason, if you ever get a chance to ask [strength] Coach Mick [Marotti] about it, it’s been off the charts. He’s changed his diet, he’s put extra work in.
“And then to see his leadership and the way he’s handled it, I can’t say enough about who he is.”
LEGENDARY STATUS AWAITS JUSTIN FIELDS IF HE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE'S CHASING IN LAST SEASON AT OHIO STATE
Justin Fields doesn’t have to do any of this.
Justin Fields, some could reasonably argue, shouldn’t do any of this.
Seven months stand between today and the 2021 NFL Draft. If he decided not to play one more snap for Ohio State, nobody who put down their scarlet-and-gray-tinted glasses could possibly argue with his decision. Already, he’s a lock of a first-round draft pick. Many view him as a top-five or top-10 selection. He could sit out the upcoming season to preserve his NFL draft status while not risking injury by playing football games without getting paychecks for them, knowing he’d ink an eight-figure rookie contract and a seven-figure signing bonus in the spring without ever suiting up in his Buckeye uniform again.
Yet he’s not going that route. Not after all this effort to get Ohio State onto the field again this fall to chase a national championship and avenge its College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Clemson in December.
Fields dove head-first into the effort to save the season. Taking a leadership role among players across the conference, he made it abundantly clear to anyone willing to listen that he’s planning to play for the Buckeyes this fall, planning to take a second shot at a Heisman Trophy after finishing in third in voting last year, and planning to go after a national title.
The long-awaited Wednesday announcement didn’t happen solely at the behest of Fields, who lived Ryan Day’s mantra of “fight” for the past five or six weeks. Nobody’s asserting that it did. But he made sure his voice and the voices of other players throughout the conference were heard by those who mattered both by using his widely followed social media platforms and creating an online petition signed by more than 300,000 supporters of the Big Ten playing football this fall.
Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...what-hes-chasing-in-last-season-at-ohio-state
Upvote
0
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
WATCH JUSTIN FIELDS AND JONATHON COOPER MEET WITH THE MEDIA FOLLOWING BIG TEN'S DECISION TO RESUME SEASON IN OCTOBER
Now that Wade and Davis have both announced their intentions to return to Ohio State and rejoin the Buckeyes’ championship chase, Ohio State does not have a single player opted out of the 2020 season. And there’s no question that Fields’ leadership, and steadfast commitment to playing as long as the Buckeyes got to play this fall, played a crucial role in keeping the team together.
That said, Fields isn’t surprised every Buckeye has opted into playing this fall – even though Day told all of them they could opt out if they didn’t feel comfortable playing – because of the team’s brotherhood and love they have for one another, a love that has been fostered within Fields over the past 20-plus months since he arrived in Columbus as a transfer from Georgia in January 2019.
“The brotherhood is real,” Fields said. “I think seeing a lot of different teams and players opting out and for whatever reason, I’m not saying that they don’t love their teammates, they might have different situations going on at home, but I just think Wyatt and Shaun coming back, that just shows you guys how much love there is on this team and how much of a brotherhood we really are and how close we really are.
“Last year, I was close to some defensive guys, but this year, I’ve kind of tried to make connections with every guy on the team and get close to them. So we relate to each other closely, and it just shows the love that we have for each other, what we want to do, what we want to accomplish, and like (Ohio State defensive end Jonathon Cooper) said earlier, we want to play. They’re not forcing us to play. We want to play. And Coach Day has given us the option to opt out if we don’t want to play. But everybody on this team wants to play and hope to win a national championship, so that’s our goal and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Now that Wade and Davis have both announced their intentions to return to Ohio State and rejoin the Buckeyes’ championship chase, Ohio State does not have a single player opted out of the 2020 season. And there’s no question that Fields’ leadership, and steadfast commitment to playing as long as the Buckeyes got to play this fall, played a crucial role in keeping the team together.
That said, Fields isn’t surprised every Buckeye has opted into playing this fall – even though Day told all of them they could opt out if they didn’t feel comfortable playing – because of the team’s brotherhood and love they have for one another, a love that has been fostered within Fields over the past 20-plus months since he arrived in Columbus as a transfer from Georgia in January 2019.
“The brotherhood is real,” Fields said. “I think seeing a lot of different teams and players opting out and for whatever reason, I’m not saying that they don’t love their teammates, they might have different situations going on at home, but I just think Wyatt and Shaun coming back, that just shows you guys how much love there is on this team and how much of a brotherhood we really are and how close we really are.
“Last year, I was close to some defensive guys, but this year, I’ve kind of tried to make connections with every guy on the team and get close to them. So we relate to each other closely, and it just shows the love that we have for each other, what we want to do, what we want to accomplish, and like (Ohio State defensive end Jonathon Cooper) said earlier, we want to play. They’re not forcing us to play. We want to play. And Coach Day has given us the option to opt out if we don’t want to play. But everybody on this team wants to play and hope to win a national championship, so that’s our goal and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Last edited:
Upvote
0
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
SINGLE-SEASON COMPLETION PERCENTAGE
Dwayne Haskins holds the current record with a ridiculous 70.0 percent mark in 2018, completing 373-of-533 throws.
Last season, Fields hit on 238-of-354 passes for a 67.2 percent result. Yes, that's a good bit away from Haskins' mark but with all the talk about how Fields has improved in the offseason, knowing what the young man already brought to the table, this one feels like it's at least worth keeping an eye on.
In case you're wondering, Fields completed 69.2 percent of his albeit limited throws (27-of-39) as a true freshman reserve for the Georgia Bulldogs.
TOUCHDOWN PASSES IN A SINGLE GAME
Ohio State is going to be looking to rack up style points due to a cushy schedule and just eight regular season games (plus a B1G championship matchup) to prove itself worthy of a playoff bid.
Throw in that reality with the fact Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson combine to give Fields a pair of elite targets, along with a host of younger talent stacked behind, and it seems plausible he will throw for six touchdowns (or more) in a single-game.
If Fields turns reaches six, he'd join Haskins (twice), J.T. Barrett (twice) and Kenny Guiton in accomplishing the feat. Might he beat them all with seven? I wouldn't bet against it. Day could be out for blood and you know he wants to reward Fields for staying put amid the madness when he could've easily opted out and remained, at worst, a Top-10 NFL draft pick.
SINGLE-SEASON PASSING EFFICIENCY
Fields actually set the school's single-season record for passing efficiency last year when he put up a 181.4 mark, bettering Haskins' 174.1 from 2018.
The question here is whether or not Fields can improve on his 2019 result to own the two best single-season passing efficiency tallies in school history.
Oh, and if you're wondering, he's how the NCAA calculates passer rating according to captaincalculator.com:
NCAA Passer Rating = ((8.4 x Passing Yards) + (330 x Touchdown Passes) + (100 x Number of Completions) – (200 x Interceptions)) ÷ Passing Attempts
Seems simple enough.
CAREER PASSING EFFICIENCY (MIN. 300 COMP)
Haskins holds the school's career mark, which is also the Big Ten record, with a 173.9 spanning the 2017-18 seasons.
As we already touched on, Fields posted a 181.4 last year but he's not the career leader because he doesn't yet have enough completions to qualify.
Last year, Fields connected on 238 throws so he needs 62 more this year to reach the minimum of 300.
Assuming the current schedule isn't interrupted, it feels like a foregone conclusion he'll hold both the school and conference passing efficiency records.
CAREER AVERAGE TOTAL OFFENSE PER GAME
Again, Haskins holds the career mark here with 254.1 average yards per game over his 2017-18 efforts. The inputs there are 5,396 yards in 22 games.
Fields, just like with passing efficiency, only needs a few more outings featuring his typical production because he averaged 268.4 yards of total offense per game last year in 14 games (233.8 passing, 34.6 rushing).
Upvote
0
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Kirk Herbstreit: Leadership, vision is now Justin Fields' legacy
Saturday on ESPN's College GameDay, analyst Kirk Herbstreit underlined Fields' impact. Regardless of what Fields accomplishes with the Buckeyes, his efforts off it will ultimately be what he is remembered for.
"Justin Fields, he'll be remembered as a great player," Herbstreit said. "I bet you 20 years from now, we're going to look back at his vision and determination as a guy that could have easily — he may be the first or second pick in the draft — opted out and trained. He stayed and kept fighting and battling for his teammates to have a chance to play. He was out front leading the way. People should remember no matter what — no matter how many championships he wins — for that leadership."
Fields originally created a petition Aug. 16 that asked for the Big Ten to reinstate its fall season. It received 302,372 signatures.
"I was pretty confident and I definitely had faith that big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren would listen to what we had to say," Fields said Saturday on GameDay. "Our staff, (head) coach (Ryan) Day, just drove into our minds to not give up the faith and keep fighting. I want to credit those guys as leaders.
"Our coaches have done a great job of reminding us of staying socially distant from people and big gatherings. It's a small sacrifice in order to play the game we love. It's really not hard. Our team loves the game of football and we're excited we're finally getting the opportunity."
Fields opened up on the Big Ten's decision Friday. Despite his status, he never considered opting out.
"No, and one reason was because I really wasn't trying to rush anything in case this situation did pop up," Fields told 247Sports affiliate Bucknuts.com. "And another reason is I wanted to give myself an opportunity to come back and show the world what I can do and what I've improved on, because I feel like I've improved a lot on my game and I've learned a lot this offseason and I know the talent we have on offense and defense. We're just all so excited to be able to get on the field and show how hard we've been working, show our talents and play the game that we love."
Upvote
0
Thanks for this. I just plugged this formula into a spreadsheet to calculate NCAA passer ratings quickly. Tried it out with Field's stats from last year and got the exact rating that the official NCAA site got. Here's a screenshot of the layout and formula in case someone else wants to gin one up for their use:
Last edited:
Upvote
0
There wasn't supposed to be math...
The job of employing spreadsheets to do simple arithmetic is taken @MililaniBuckeye
Go back to arguing with Taos. The numbers-obsession thing is all I've got
Upvote
0
Fucking awesome. Might have to put in my order for a Fields jersey, hopefully can get it delivered by the first game.
Upvote
0