The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Race to be backup QB is tight in Columbus
Dwayne Haskins and Joe Burrow are staging a close competition to be the backup to longtime starter J.T. Bar‑ rett for the Buckeyes this fall. Freshman Tate Martell is expected to redshirt.
COLUMBUS >> There’s a quarterback derby brewing at Ohio State.
No, there’s not a battle for the starting quarterback position. J.T. Barrett has that sewn up as tight as possibly can be.
The derby comes in the battle for second string behind Barrett, where redshirt sophomore Joe Burrow and redshirt freshman Dwayne Haskins are in a full-blown daily game of “Can-You-Top-That?” to be the second in line behind Barrett.
Both Burrow and Haskins put their best foot forward in Ohio State’s annual spring game on April 15 in front of 80,134 fans at Ohio Stadium.
Burrow completed 14 of 22 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns for Scarlet, which pulled out a 38-31 victory.
Bouncing back and forth between the Scarlet and Gray teams, Haskins completes 26 of 36 passes for 293 yards and three scores.
They were the primary quarterbacks of the day.
Barrett started for Gray and completed 8 of 12 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown in first-quarter duty.
True freshman Tate Martell, a likely candidate to be redshirted, threw for 11 yards and ran for 24 yards and a touchdown.
“Outstanding,” Coach Urban Meyer said, describing his quarterbacks’ performance and progression this spring. “They started, the first week was kind of, oh, not real productive. And then they just — all four quarterbacks — in the last three weeks have been exceptional.”
That’s particularly good news for Ohio State going forward A) in case Barrett gets injured; and B) in light of Barrett departing after this season.
A good No. 2 is important.
So far, both Haskins and Burrow look up to the challenge, though there is no clear definition of who is considered No. 2 on the depth chart and who is No. 3.
“I want to watch the film and have conversations with our coaches,” Meyer said. “We haven’t had that yet. I know it is very close. But I’m not prepared to say who is 2, who is 3, etc, yet.”
Burrow said he isn’t concerned about depth chart talk right now, opting rather to just “focus on getting better every day.”
He was pleased with his spring performance.
“It felt good to be out there again,” he said. “That’s 2-0 in spring games (including last year). Not bad.
“I had a fun time today. The receivers played real well, the offensive line played really well. It just seemed to flow today.”
Haskins said he has been diligent in his work, from daily meetings to viewing film to writing notes and asking coaches what he can do to improve.
“We’ve been doing back and forth, rotating with the 1s and the 2s, and doing what we need to do to make each other better,” said Haskins of the competition with himself and Burrow.
McCall steps up
Incumbent starting running back Mike Weber saw limited action in the Ohio State spring game on April 15, carrying the ball five times for 13 yards.
That gave Demario McCall (North Ridgeville) a chance to show what he could do running the ball.
McCall didn’t disappoint. He carried six times for 83 yards, with a long tote of 34 yards. The next leading rusher was freshman Antonio Williams with 37 yards on six carries.
McCall also hauled in a 40yard touchdown pass from Burrow in the second quarter.
McCall has the ability to help Ohio State in two positions, both at running back and in the slot/H-Back position. He is expected to see significant action in both capacities come this season.
Don’t touch
The first quarter featured zero tackles.
In essence, the first quarter was two-hand touch football, which was by design, Meyer said.
“We’ve done that before,” Meyer said. “It’s either you don’t play some guys or you kind of restrict the tackling and keep guys up. And I wanted them to experience the crowd and play and finish a good spring.”