As we crawl toward the better half of the year, we are a couple of months away from the start of a new era at Ohio State. This year, on both sides of the ball, the team will feature a few new faces at critical positions, but they will also feature some familiar ones as they hunt as a team, a unit for a CFB Playoff berth after falling short of that feat at the end of the season.
At the end of spring practice, there was a lot of uncertainty at arguably one of the most important positions on a football team, and this competition between this particular group went down to the wire.
Enter Dwayne Haskins. He recently received the go-ahead nod from his head coach giving him the first shot at the starting gig. The spring game was mesmerizing, watching him battle it out with Tate Martell and Joe Burrow. Securing the starting job and living out his dream of starting at Ohio State came and it cost them a guy like Joe Burrow, who recently announced that he is transferring to LSU.
Joe Burrow lit all the fireworks in the spring game, especially with the last second bomb to the sideline that resulted in another touchdown before time expired. The all-important exclamation point, but neither Burrow or Haskins gained an edge over the other. With his departure, the team is left with Haskins as “the guy”, Tate Martell as his backup, and Matthew Baldwin as the 3rd teamer, who is still on the mend. There are also walk-ons in Danny Vanatsky and Kory Curtis who both are there as well.
What To Expect:
Dwayne is now the man and one would expect the offense to rely more heavily on the passing game due to his obvious talent for tossing the pigskin around but expect the offense to be truly balanced. With JT (God bless his soul), he was a true dual-threat that was overutilized as a runner and it left the running backs as an afterthought when they needed yardage.
With Haskins, he is not as fast or as shifty as Barrett, but expect the QB draw usage to decline during his era. Comparing Barrett and Haskins would be a mistake because they are two different players with different skillsets, but with Haskins, the WR’s and the TE’s will get more chances through the air.
Haskins has the arm strength and the poise (TTUN game) to stand in the pocket and hit his receivers in stride, which is what has been missing since Devin Smith left for the pros. The deep ball will make its return to the scarlet and gray and that will free up space for the RB’s to frustrate the opposing defenses. He has a well of weapons at his disposal and a few more will be joining the team in a few weeks.
Tate Martell earned enough consideration to have his own set package of plays to add another dimension to the offense. He didn’t do too hot in the passing game, but man is he elusive. He could do some serious damage and he would be utilized as such because of shiftiness and speed.
All in all, I expect the PPG to go up a little bit more and more balanced focus on the passing and running game. With Haskins leading the team, there is a lot of potential and explosiveness that could be on the horizon and I am excited just imagining it in my mind. We won’t truly know how the position battle will pan out, but I cannot wait.
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