While the Ohio State football season isn’t officially over, it’s on its last legs. Unless a miracle happens on Saturday, the Buckeyes will not be participating in the College Football Playoff. It’s time for them to assess what kind of team they want to have next season.
We know that the quarterback play wasn’t good enough this past season. Kyle McCord wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible either. His floor is high but his ceiling might not be. It’s pretty clear that for Ohio State to beat the elite teams, they need elite quarterback play.
There are five options that I want to entertain for next season. All five of these options are realistic, not pipe dreams. I can already tell you that you won’t like my final option for who might start next year. Let’s start out with what might be the most exciting option though.
1. Air Noland
The most exciting, and probably daring, option is to have Air Noland start right out of the gate. He is Ohio State’s 2024 recruit at the quarterback position and is out of the state of Georgia. As of right now, he is a five-star recruit and stands at 6’3 and 195 pounds.
Noland gives the Buckeyes something they didn’t have at the quarterback position this past season; the ability to run. McCord was not agile enough to scramble for big yardage on plays. He was barely used at all in the running game. In fact, he finished the season with negative rushing yards.
While he’s not a run-first quarterback by any means, he at least gives that threat that he could tuck it and run at some point. He may have the fastest release of anyone in the 2024 class, which could be important with how bad the offensive line was this past year.
I don’t think this will be the Ohio State football team’s first option for next season. Starting a true freshman is extremely rare for Ohio State. The last person to get any starts as a true freshman was Braxton Miller back in 2011. I wouldn’t count on that happening again.
The next three options I’ll give you will come from the transfer portal, which several quarterbacks have already entered. The next one is someone who is very decorated as a starter.
2. Grayson McCall
If the Ohio State football team decides they want someone who has more experience, there’s no one available who has more experience than Grayson McCall. The Coastal Carolina quarterback entered the transfer portal and brings a ton of experience to wherever he lands next.
McCall has started for the Chanticleers for the last four seasons. Over the course of his career, he has thrown 88 touchdown passes. McCall is most known for leading Coastal Carolina to a big season back in 2020 in which they went undefeated in the regular season.
From 2020-2022, McCall only threw 8 interceptions. In contrast, he threw 77 touchdowns over the course of those three seasons. He wasn’t as good this past year, but he has played in plenty of games in his career. He’s also never completed less than 67% of his passes.
McCall probably doesn’t have the Power 5 experience that the Buckeyes would be looking for. McCall has only played against three Power 5 opponents in his career. Ohio State could do a lot worse than someone like McCall. At least they know he won’t be scared. He’s also mobile. He ran for 569 yards and 7 touchdowns in that great 2020 season.
If the Buckeyes are looking for someone who has Power 5 experience and has a track record of playing well against those kinds of opponents, the next player on this list is someone the Buckeyes might pursue.
3. Cam Ward
The Ohio State football team has already been linked to Cam Ward on Twitter after he entered the transfer portal. Ward put up some excellent numbers for Washington State last season, throwing for 3,732 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also had just 7 interceptions.
Not only can Ward sling it, but he can run the ball well too. While he only had 122 rushing yards this season, he did put it in the endzone 8 touchdowns. He’s clearly a threat in the red zone when the read option is a good play choice. That’s something Ohio State didn’t have this year.
Ward is the best combination of experience and talent available in the portal at the moment. With Riley Leonard, the quarterback at Duke headed to Notre Dame, Ward might be the best option in the portal. He played in the best conference in the country this season.
Bringing Ward in would also allow Air Noland to get more comfortable in the offense so he can prepare to start in 2025 as a sophomore. Ward would be a one-year rental because next season would be his final year of eligibility, especially if he plays well. He’d want to go to the NFL.
It remains to be seen if Ohio State will actually start to pursue Ward once he’s officially in the portal on December 1st. While his overall numbers are good, Washington State lost a lot of games this year, including one 10-7 to Stanford. Ward should be able to put up more than 7 points on a team like that.
The next person on this list is someone who isn’t in the portal yet but might choose to do so after Spring ball is over.
4. Maalik Murphy
The Ohio State football team lost Quinn Ewers to Texas. That’s why they’re in this whole quarterback debacle to begin with. They could take one away from Texas this offseason. Ohio State fans seem to think they can lure Arch Manning from Austin. They can’t.
Maalik Murphy is the more reasonable target to pursue. Murphy was a former five-star quarterback in his own right. Better yet, he’s actually played in college games. He started a few games while Ewers was hurt this year and played decently in them.
In two starts this season, Murphy passed for 395 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also threw three interceptions though. Murphy is certainly raw and got thrown into the fire unexpectedly, but he has all of the physical tools that you would want in a quarterback.
Murphy stands at 6’5 and 238 pounds. He’s got a massive arm and can make any throw on the field. With more playing time, he could become more polished and comfortable in the pocket. He just hasn’t seen the field enough to work through some things.
If Ohio State were to pursue Murphy, it would be a pure talent play. He’s pretty much as unknown as Noland would be. Murphy also hasn’t indicated he wants to transfer. But if he doesn’t win the starting job over Manning in the Spring, he could look to jump elsewhere.
The final quarterback option for the Buckeyes is one you’re not going to like, but it’s the most probably one.
5. Kyle McCord
Yes, the Ohio State football team could run it back with Kyle McCord. In fact, it’s the most likely scenario. I’m not sure that Ryan Day has the intestinal fortitude to make a move at quarterback and shove aside a guy he recruited, even if it’s in the best interest of the team as a whole.
McCord was good this year but not great. It’s clear that he has a pretty high floor and won’t make too many mistakes. The mistakes he does make though are extremely costly. That interception in the first quarter of The Game is inexcusable and it’s not a pass he should’ve ever thrown.
A high floor is great if you can match that with a high ceiling. That’s something that McCord doesn’t have. I thought he did when he first got onto campus. I was dead wrong about that. He’ll likely never be able to put up the kind of numbers Justin Fields or C.J. Stroud did.
Could this be a possible Joe Burrow situation? When Burrow left Ohio State, he had a bad first year at LSU before going scorched earth in his senior year en route to a Heisman Trophy and a national title. Could Day do something similar with McCord next season?
That might be what Ohio State football fans are left hoping for. I don’t have much faith in Day to make a move in the transfer portal to replace McCord. We might be looking at him running it back with McCord throwing to a bunch of receivers with little to no experience.
God help us all if that’s how next season starts.