As of late college sports in the state of Ohio has been a hot bed for significant news, Urban Meyer retires, Ryan Day hired, Marvin Lewis parts ways with the Bengals, Luke Fickell a hot name in P5 jobs, will Dwayne Haskins declare or not and is Justin Fields transferring from Georgia to Ohio State. I know I’m probably missing other things, but you get the point right?
After rumors for the last month that Justin Fields was leaving Georgia for Ohio State over the weekend it became a reality. Fields was ranked the No.1 prospect in the 2018 class and is the highest ranked recruit Ohio State has ever had passing Terrelle Pryor. The five star recruit played in some mop up duty for Georgia, but because Jake Fromm still has at least two years left of eligibility he has decided to take his talents and battle Tate Martell in Columbus.
Fields plans to apply for a hardship waiver from the NCAA, which could make him eligible to play in 2019. When or if it is approved will affect his battle with Martell, the redshirt freshman isn’t one to back down from competition and has been very vocal about not conceding to Fields. Martell was No. 127 ranked overall player in the 2017 class so he has a right to feel confident. He went 23-of-28 passing for 269 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns. Fields went 27-of-39 passing for 328 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for four more touchdowns.
The dynamic is most believe Haskins will declare for the NFL Draft soon and Martell has tenure at Ohio State redshirting one year and playing last season. Haskins just had a battle with Joe Burrow who eventually transferred to LSU, so that worked out well for both players. If Fields can play it would be a full on battle for the job in 2019, if Fields were to lose would he transfer? Same goes for Martell if he loses does he transfer? If Fields doesn’t get the hardship Martell will have a year to show what he can do on the field and make it harder for Day to make a decision. This will be a wait and see situation, but I’ll say this, this is a hell of a good problem for a first year head coach to have.
