COLUMBUS, Ohio — You can’t help but feel a little sorry for the next four-star, top-100 quarterback Ohio State football signs to a recruiting class.
Only in Columbus, and only in the context of the Buckeyes’ current quarterback-hoarding trend, would such a signing seem underwhelming.
Quinn Ewers, the No. 1 quarterback in the 2022 class per the 247 Sports national composite, committed to Ohio State on Thursday night. Not content with the highly ranked freshmen on campus backing up Justin Fields, or the one arriving next spring to battle them for the starting job, Ryan Day arranged a fourth option.
No one, including Day, expects all four to be on campus in fall 2022. Anyone fretting about what this talent-stacking approach means in the era of supersonic transfer decisions is not paying attention to Day’s explicitly stated objective.
By courting and accepting Ewers’ commitment, Day made clear he is not building a quarterback room, or even a quarterback factory. He wants Ohio State to annually host the fiercest quarterback competition in the nation.
• What Quinn Ewers’ commitment means for Ohio State football: Buckeyes Recruiting
Three men enter, one man leaves with the starting job, and they do it all again 12 months later. That may hurt some feelings. Day acknowledges that reality, but does not indulge it.
By taking CJ Stroud and Jack Miller for 2020, Kyle McCord for 2021 and now Ewers for 2022, Day is establishing a damn-the-prevailing-culture paradigm. The message is clear. If you don’t want us bringing another great quarterback behind you, then don’t come in the first place.
“Like we always say, you come to Ohio State, you come here to compete, and if you don’t want to compete, this probably isn’t the right place for you,” Day said last week.
“If a quarterback’s coming here, they’re coming here to be in the Heisman Trophy conversation, to win a national championship and be a first-round draft pick. So if they can’t beat out the guy who’s here, how are they going to go become a Heisman Trophy winner, and a first-round draft pick? It’s all about competing.”
Ewers’ commitment would seem to most directly affect McCord. My understanding is his camp was not caught off guard by the development, nor shaken by it. No guarantees are available beyond competing for the starting job in the spring of 2021, and none were requested.
Adding Ewers for 2022 does change the landscape for what happens after next season’s quarterback competition is decided. Again, no one understands that better than Day. Someone from this four-man group will transfer out of Ohio State.
When they do, they’ll have spent at least one year in the program that developed a young Joe Burrow, a record-setting Dwayne Haskins and a flourishing Justin Fields.
“I get it — guys want to play,” said Day, the former New Hampshire quarterback. “And maybe we’ll have to say Ohio State’s not for everybody.
“But the guys who come here, they want to be great. They want to compete, they love Ohio State and they understand what they’re getting themselves into.”
Miller was a consensus top-50 prospect at the time of his commitment to OSU. Stroud was also by the end of his high school career. McCord ranks in the top 25 for 2021. Some services rank Ewers No. 1 for 2022 regardless of position.
Will Ohio State line up another five-star second coming for the 2023 class? Maybe not. A point may arrive at which prospects simply do not want to begin their career as the third or fourth option in an already loaded room.
That means the Buckeyes will have to “settle” for either McCord or Ewers as their starter in 2023 and ‘24.
Day will take that outcome and let someone else worry about an embarrassment of riches.
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