The Ohio State Buckeyes have found their new quarterback. C.J. Stroud will get the start under-center to open up Ohio State’s season versus Minnesota. 

On Saturday, Ryan Day made it official as he announced that the redshirt freshman will be running the show in Columbus."We are going to name C.J. Stroud the starting quarterback for the Minnesota game," Day said.

Day talked about why Stroud has put himself in this position to win the starting job. "I thought he, over the body of work between the spring and then also through preseason, separated himself with his decision making, his leadership skills, his accuracy, and so now we’ve got to go prepare to go play a game,” Day said. “But proud of him, happy for him." 

The media was convinced that he would win the job and that he was always leading the competition due to being the back-up to Justin Fields as a true freshman. Stroud is in a unique position and has the opportunity to cement himself as one of the next dominant Ohio State quarterbacks. He was mentored by Justin Fields and he has big shoes to fill trying to replace Field’s success. 

The California native was a late bloomer, but he was regarded as one of the top recruits in the country since his junior year. Stroud won MVP honors at the Elite 11 Competition, one of the highest high school football player accomplishments. Stroud is a dual-threat quarterback, not only does he have a strong accurate arm but he is great with his legs. He proved that when he saw action against Michigan State in 2020 when he broke out for a 48-yard touchdown run. 

Luckily for Stroud, he is surrounded by people that will make him better. He has arguably two of the top 5 receivers in the nation in Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson. Stroud has an offensive line that is coming in as the highest-graded line in the Big Ten with Thayer Munford, Nicholas Petit-Frere, and Harry Miller all returning. Stroud was ready to hear his name called and was pleased when he heard the news. 

Day said, “He was excited for sure and fired up,” Day said. “He knows that this is an opportunity and not an accomplishment.”

Writer

-By: Justin Howard

As arguably the best quarterback in program history, former Buckeye Justin Fields is off to the NFL. Who will replace the star dual-threat QB? Fields allowed Buckeye coach Ryan Day a smooth transition into the head coaching role in Columbus after Fields transferred prior to Day’s first year in charge in 2019. There won’t be a quarterback as talented as Fields walking through that door for the 2021 season. Who will it be? Let’s break down the candidates.

C.J. Stroud

A two-sport athlete (basketball being the other) at Rancho Cucamonga HS in Rancho Cucamonga California, Stroud joined the Buckeyes as part of the 2020 recruiting class, ranking as a four-star pro-style quarterback (6-2.5 194 lbs), the second-ranked pro-style quarterback in the country and the fourth-ranked player in California. He has a strong, accurate arm with good deep ball accuracy, although didn’t start on varsity until his junior year of high school. 247 Sports ranks him as a future top draft pick in his scouting profile. In his senior year at Rancho Cucamonga, Stroud threw for 3,878 yards and 47 touchdowns in 13 games, completing over 66 percent of his passes.

Jack Miller

Another four-star recruit in the class of 2020, Miller (6-4 210 lbs) hails from a state over from Stroud in Arizona, attending Chaparral HS in Scottsdale. Miller ranked as the 13th-ranked pro-style quarterback in the class of 2020 and the ninth-ranked player in Arizona. A four-year varsity starter, the MaxPreps All-American holds the Arizona 2A state record with 115 career passing touchdowns, and 3,653 passing yards/53 touchdowns in a season.

Kyle McCord

The most prestigious recruit of the three, McCord (6-3 215) arrives on campus as a third-ranked pro-style QB, 27th-ranked player overall, and a five-star recruit in the class of 2021 out of St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia. Scouts love his good frame and strong arm. He won a third consecutive state championship in the fall, setting Pennsylvania 6A state records with 6,887 passing yards and 88 touchdowns for his career. His dad, Derek McCord, played quarterback at Rutgers from 1988-1992.

Who is Going to Win the Job?

It’s hard to tell now in the spring. All three guys have been getting first-team reps during spring practice. Stroud has been getting a heavier share of first-team than the other two and is seen as the favorite, but Ryan Day doesn’t seem to be in a rush to name his new quarterback. Why would he? You don’t want to lose your quarterback depth to the transfer portal in the middle of April. 

The Buckeyes play their spring game on Saturday (April 17th), and it seems like the reps will be broken up pretty evenly between the three of them. Take whatever results that occur with a grain of salt, because I don’t think Day will make any sort of decision or suggestion about who leads to the quarterback race. This will be something we don’t find out until fall camp. Regardless, the Buckeyes have three extremely talented options to replace Fields.

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson

Somehow, we made it! It has been one of the craziest college football seasons of recent memory, but we made it to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Ohio State and Alabama. For what I thought was a pretty boring playoff field, we get an excellent matchup of strengths in the title game. 

Here’s a couple of things I’m looking out for when the teams suit up on Monday:

How will the Alabama defense fare against another star quarterback?

Nick Saban has been the standard in terms of adapting to the current tide of college football. Early in his career, it was all about the defense, now he has transformed this roster into one of the best offenses the sport has seen. So how much has his defense regressed?

If you take a look at the broad numbers, it was a pretty solid season for the ‘Bama defense. They allowed under 20.0 pts/game and about 350.0 yards/games. There was a stretch in the second half of the season over six games where the Tide didn’t allow more than 17 points. In three of those games, the Tide didn’t even allow a touchdown. Pretty impressive right?

There’s a catch. In that stretch, Alabama faced Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas, all very middling offenses, in fact, probably the worst stretch of offenses in the SEC.

If we look at the two times Alabama faced Ole Miss and Florida, the Tide defense tells a much different story.

The Rebels’ Matt Corral tore apart the Crimson Tide for 365 yards and 13.0 yards/attempt. Ole Miss managed 268 more yards on the ground. Lane Kiffin and Co. did whatever they wanted against Saban’s defense. The only saving grace for Alabama was the historic offense of their own, and one of the worst defenses we have ever seen on the Ole Miss side. That was back in October, how about a more recent example?

Lots of teams struggled to stop Kyle Trask and the Florida Gators this season, and Alabama was no exception. Trask tossed for over 400 yards and three touchdowns in the SEC Championship game as ‘Bama had to hold off Florida storming back in the second half to win 52-46. 

Alabama has played a pretty weak schedule of quarterbacks this year, and has been torn up by teams effective at moving the ball down the field. I think Justin Fields is going to get a prime chance to build off his semifinal performance.

Will we see Jaylen Waddle?

Jaylen Waddle returned to practice this week after suffering a nasty ankle injury in October. Alabama listed him as a game-day decision, I wouldn’t be shocked if we see Waddle in a limited capacity of some sort.

I love watching Waddle play. He’s a juiced-up version of Henry Ruggs and an electric returner. He topped 120 yards in each of the four games this season and scored four touchdowns. He’s a lock to go in the top half of the first round. The Alabama offense is on a different gear when Waddle suits up.

How healthy is Justin Fields?

We all saw Justin FIelds get cracked by James Skalski and hobble around the sidelines in pain. We also saw him deliver one of the greatest quarterback performances we’ve seen on the sports’ biggest stage.

Fields have said multiple times that he will be all good to go for Monday’s National Championship game. We don’t know how severe Fields’ injury was, Ohio State didn’t disclose it. Will another hit in that area jolt Fields back into pain? We saw how that worked out for Clemson the first time.

Who will win?

This is so tough. I didn’t see the gutsy performance from Ohio State coming in the semifinals, they looked electric. I was wrong.

I just have a really hard time seeing anyone beating Alabama. Justin Fields will be the best quarterback the Crimson Tide have faced this season, but even when Alabama has gotten torn apart on defense, Mac Jones and DeVonta Smith have bailed them out. If Waddle is back, that’s just another advantage.

It’s going to be a fireworks show between the two quarterbacks. I’m going to have to lean on Alabama.

PREDICTION: ALABAMA 51 OHIO STATE 38

Writer

-By: TJ Mathewson