The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
QB choice might come down to gut feeling
COLUMBUS » A gut feeling may very well play a significant role in coach Urban Meyer’s decision on who will be the starting quarterback at Ohio State this fall.
Fifteen spring sessions, capped by the annual Spring Game at Ohio Stadium on April 14, haven’t seemed to push Meyer in any specific direction on choosing Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow or Tate Martell as the starting quarterback when Ohio State hits the field Sept. 1 for the season-opener against visiting Oregon State.
But Meyer indicated after the Spring Game that intangibles and a gut feeling are very much part of the process he and his staff will embark upon in the coming days or weeks.
“Data is second,” said Meyer. “It’s something that helps you. It’s factual. But intangibles is going to be part of the decision.
“I’m sure 30 years of gut (experience), that’ll be part of it, too.”
Each of the three quarterbacks in the derby showed something in Gray’s 37-14 win over Scarlet in the intrasquad game, though the score was rather meaningless since all three quarterbacks played for both the Scarlet and Gray teams at different times as they wore black non-contact jerseys.
Redshirt junior Joe Burrow was 15-for-22 for 238 yards and two touchdowns.
Redshirt sophomore Dwayne Haskins was 9-for-19 for 120 yards and two touchdowns.
Redshirt freshman Tate Martell threw for only 28 yards, but ran 11 times for 74 yards and a touchdowns — rushing totals that would have soared past 150 yards if the scrimmage was any more than one-hand touch football for most of the afternoon.
“We’re going to have to make some decisions,” Meyer said. “Those decisions have not been made yet.”
Meyer said the football staff charted “everything” this spring. They’ll meet early next week and go over that data.
Meyer has said he feels he owes Burrow a status report of where he stands in the quarterback competition heading into fall. The result of that conversation could determine if Burrow stays at Ohio State or transfers.
Meyer said he hopes all three are in fall camp to battle for the job. But that he stopped short of guaranteeing all three will be in camp shows the delicate nature of the situation.
When any decision is made — even if it is just a lean toward who might go to fall camp as the starting quarterback could change the position’s landscape and force a transfer.
“We’ll do what is best for Ohio State and what is best for those players,” Meyer said.
It very well come could down to a gut decision.
A few other observations from the annual spring game:
• Demario McCall (North Ridgeville) looks like he has made the successful transition from running back to slot/Hback.
McCall is still listed as “running back” on the rosters Ohio State passed out before the game, but he never lined up in the backfield.
However, he did lead the team in receptions. He caught five passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns for the Gray team, then added six catches for 65 yards for Scarlet when he changed jerseys.
He finished with 11 catches for 165 yards and two scores.
Granted, many a player has shone brightly in a spring scrimmage and evaporated like the morning fog when the real season arrives.
But McCall, who also lined up with the punt return team, looks like he has found a home at slot/ H-back.
• Chase Young is going to be unblockable this year.
The 6-foot-5, 265-pound sophomore from Maryland terrorized his Buckeye teammates on April 14, coming off the edge on pass rushes. The only thing that kept the OSU quarterbacks from being scraped off the ground was the no-hit rule on the quarterbacks.
Ohio State won’t have the depth at defensive end that it had last year, but the rotation of Young, Nick Bosa, Joe Cooper and Jashon Cornell is going to be scarier than people think.
And along those same lines . ...
• Meyer said the best spring went to redshirt junior defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones.
Jones (6-3, 290) could have gone to the NFL after his redshirt sophomore year. But he chose to come back.
“The player who had the best spring of anyone on our team is Dre’Mont Jones,” Meyer said. “He was outstanding. He had a great spring If he continues his development, he can be the best in America when he goes (to the NFL).”
Imagine an offensive line that has to defend Young, Bosa, Cooper and Cornell on the edge and Jones up the middle. Someone is going to get one-on-one blocking, and that could be a field day for the OSU defense.
• One position that might benefit from that strong defensive front is the offensive line, the deepest offensive line Meyer said he has had since he came to OSU.
Meyer said this is the first time since he has been at Ohio State that he feels the team has a solid two-deep depth chart on the offensive line.
The daily battles between the offensive line and defensive line should make both that much better.
Kampf can be reached via email at JKampf@NewsHerald.com; on Twitter @ JKBuckeyes.