Ohio State Football: Justin Fields ready to be a CFB star
The Ohio State football team added transfer QB Justin Fields this offseason and he is surrounded with great expectations. Does he have enough to be a star?
Late last December, there were rumblings of former Georgia backup QB Justin Fields wanting to transfer. Among the list of schools that made sense were Ohio State and Oklahoma as both of their Heisman caliber quarterbacks were expected to move on to the NFL.
Making the jump to the pros is exactly what Dwayne Haskins and Kyler Murray did which opened the door at both universities. Following a great slate of New Year’s Day bowl games, the end of the season was marked for Fields at Georgia as well as the storybook ending of an era for Urban Meyer at Ohio State.
When the season ended, Fields announced he was entering the transfer portal. Not long afterward he was on Ohio State’s campus. A short time later he was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA.
Landing Fields got the Ryan Day era off to a fantastic start as he and Matthew Baldwin were set to battle it out for the starting job. However, about six weeks ago Baldwin announced he was transferring from the program to move closer to home due to family reasons.
This shocking move left Fields the de facto winner of the QB competition he was expected to win anyway.
The Ohio State offense paired with Justin Fields is a match made in Heaven as it is tailor-made for a quarterback of his style. He will be able to showcase his cannon of an arm with a group of veteran receivers who will help ease him in giving him a comfort zone.
Moreover, the storyline of the offseason will be reinserting a true quarterback-run threat into the offense. The dynamic explosive speed and agility of Fields will not bode well for defenses who will regularly be stuck in pick-your-poison situations.
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The threat of Fields taking off will be at the forefront of the opposing linebackers’ minds which will open up opportunities for RB JK Dobbins. He will be able to either catch outlet passes out of the backfield or find gaps in the defense due to the overcompensation on Fields’ rushing abilities.
Fields has not even started a game in college and he already holds the third best odds (11/1 via Bovada) to win the coveted Heisman Trophy which no Ohio State QB has won since Troy Smith in 2006.
He possesses all of the intangibles of an elite player on the field, but can Fields develop and grow into a leader on and off of the field like his predecessor Dwayne Haskins did last year?
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The country and Buckeye Nation are eager to see Fields’ official debut in Scarlet and Gray on August 31st. I think he will meet and exceed expectations under Ryan Day and become a breakout star in 2019.