Ohio State Football: Quarterbacks who could replace Dylan Raiola in 2024
By Ryan Stano
3. Jake Merklinger
The final quarterback the Ohio State football team might consider is Jake Merklinger. Merklinger is from Savannah, Georgia, and is the seventh-best quarterback in the 2024 class. He’s a guy that has offers from a lot of big-name schools already.
Merklinger stands at 6’2 and 195 pounds and has a pretty good arm to him. Based on his film, he is also pretty accurate. He also is shifty in the pocket and can make defenders miss when they are trying to tackle him. His deep ball looks pretty good as well.
Merklinger is also someone who can run the ball if he has to. He’s not going to outrun many collegiate secondary players, but he can pick up a first down on a designed run if need be. His pocket presence is what is impressive to me. He does a good job in the pocket.
Ohio State hasn’t offered him yet, but that might be coming now that Raiola is out of the picture. Day has gotten plenty of kids from the state of Georgia to come up to Columbus and play, most notably Justin Fields. I’m not saying Merklinger is Justin Fields, but he’s got a chance to be pretty good.
Of the three quarterbacks on this list, this is the one I’m going to keep my eye on the most. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Day try to get an offer to him relatively soon. He’s got a quick release and can make accurate throws on the run like Stroud does now.
Next. Ohio State could lose RB to transfer portal. dark
These are the top three candidates to replace Raiola as the 2024 quarterback in my opinion. We’ll see what Day decides to do and who they decide to pursue as a staff.