Ohio State Football: Impact of Matthew Baldwin’s transfer
In a surprising decision, Matthew Baldwin decided to enter the transfer portal. Where does this leave Ohio State at the quarterback position?
Just after 6:00 PM ET, Ohio State quarterback Matthew Baldwin entered his name into the now-famous NCAA Transfer Portal. One of two main candidates for Ohio State’s starting QB role, Baldwin will leave a major hole in the depth at the position.
Baldwin, along with former fellow candidate Justin Fields, performed well at the Spring Game but left little to show that he earned the starting job. He threw 20-36 for 246 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions and fumbled once.
With his surprising transfer just five days after the Spring Game, the Buckeyes will now have to scramble and crown Fields as the new starter. Ohio State faced a similar situation last year after Joe Burrow’s transfer, but there was a slightly more solid backup for Dwayne Haskins (Tate Martell, in case you forgot).
Chris Chugunov (graduate transfer from West Virginia) and Danny Vanatsky are certainly no pushovers. They earned the right to play QB at Ohio State, but neither is at the level of Fields or Baldwin, who would have created a solid situation in case of an injury to the starter.
Only Chugunov has FBS experience and is under scholarship , leaving the Buckeyes with only two scholarship QBs who have seen limited action at the college level.
While Baldwin was certainly the underdog to become the starter at Ohio State and had already faced backup duty in high school at Lake Travis, he put up an impressive effort during the Spring Game and proved he was still a considerable option as the starting QB for the Buckeyes.
However, this situation is not all bad. For one, the transfer of Joe Burrow cleared the way for Dwayne Haskins to have one of the best seasons in recent Buckeye history, breaking many of the single-season records set just a few years before by J.T. Barrett.
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Also, entering the transfer portal does not confirm Baldwin is gone for good. And even if he is, there are other QBs in the portal who could transfer to Ohio State.
With Fields now firmly positioned as the likely starter for Ohio State, any new transfers coming in is highly unlikely. But for the 2020 or 2021 class there is an open spot.
Fields will now have his moment and will have a goal to perform similarly to Haskins last season. If the Spring Game is any indication, there are a lot of improvements to be made as Fields was more of a highlight reel (4-13 with a 98-yard touchdown pass and a few impressive runs) than a consistent quarterback at Georgia and the Spring Game. Just the opposite of what Haskins was in 2018.
Next. 3 Takeaways from Saturday's Spring Game. dark
In my last article I said the quarterback situation was nowhere near solved. However, with the likely (he’s not officially gone yet) transfer of Baldwin, the Buckeyes will be forced to crown Justin Fields as the starting QB for the 2019 Ohio State Buckeyes. As a result, they will have a steeper road to climb to get back to the height of last year’s team.