Buckeyes could face depth issue despite collection of quarterback talent

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Ohio State Recruiting Question of the Day

Are you little surprised Ohio st didn’t offer Drew Aller, he commited to Penn St without an offer from Bucks. I’m well aware of what we have at qb and ewers coming in, but expect for 1 or 2 to transfer as well.

— Ted Grams (@teddyba91912380) March 9, 2021

While it never feels good to expect transfers from any position on the roster, it feels especially bad to project them from the quarterback spot. But it does seem reasonable that attrition of some sort could happen there for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State will enter spring football with three extremely talented young passers, all of them with freshman eligibility and none of having thrown a pass in college. The battle between C.J. Stroud, Jack Miller and Kyle McCord this spring and through the summer will be fiercely contested. And to be perfectly honest, the battle for the backup quarterback spot may be just as important when it comes to the future of the position.

Things can change very quickly, can’t they? Let’s think back to November of 2018.

Dwayne Haskins was setting Big Ten records left and right in his redshirt sophomore season, backed up by a former Gatorade National Player of the Year in Tate Martell. Graduate transfer Chris Chugunov, who was added to the Buckeyes roster just three months earlier, was learning the system and freshman Matt Baldwin was recovering from a torn ACL he suffered in his final high school game.

Within five months, Haskins was gone to the NFL, Martell and Baldwin had transferred out, Justin Fields transferred in and Ryan Day — taking over as the Ohio State coach — was scrambling to bring in Gunnar Hoak to compete with Fields and Chugunov.

Day has been clear in his belief that the Buckeyes need a four-scholarship quarterback room, but he opted against bringing in a second one in the 2021 class and to this point hasn’t made a move to bring in another grad-transfer to compete for the starting spot this spring. So Ohio State is clearly content with its three young options — and probably should be. It’s a loaded group, but with the NCAA likely to permit one-time, immediate eligibility transfers, there is a bit of quarterback roulette to fear in the months ahead.

There is going to be some serious ego management and playing-time juggling necessary in order to keep Stroud, Miller and McCord all on board throughout the summer and into next season. That task becomes even more challenging when the country’s No. 1-ranked 2022 quarterback arrives in Columbus next January. But the Buckeyes aren’t interested in the playing the worst-case scenario game, and because of that have not made any overtures toward a second quarterback in Class of 2022 at this point.

That allowed a big-time prospect like Medina 4-star quarterback Drew Allar to leave the state as he committed to Penn State on Monday. Allar is the second quarterback to commit to the Nittany Lions in this cycle, so it’s possible he’d have considered that situation with the Buckeyes, but how would Day justify the decision to pursue him aggressively at this point?

It’s dangerous for Ohio State to approach its loaded quarterback room with the mindset that someone is going to leave, but the balancing act from here through next January is going to be something that could shape the roster for the next couple of years. At some point, it may be forced to consider a second player at quarterback in 2022. But until then, Ryan Day, Corey Dennis and the rest of the Buckeyes staff has to be entirely focused on developing the three that will take snaps this spring.

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