How Buckeye QBs fare in their first starts

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Make no mistake, the Buckeyes will have a first-time starter when they take the field in just a few short months at Minnesota with Justin Fields off to the Chicago Bears and not a single signal caller with a collegiate pass attempt to their name.

That may be a scary proposition but the truth is, in college football you are not going to be able to ride one quarterback for too long. For some QBs like Justin Fields, there was time to play the role of understudy, get a few passes in some games as the back-up and then work your way up to the starting job.

For others like JT Barrett, your number is called and it is a sink-or-swim proposition.

It has been quite some time since an Ohio State first-year quarterback has lost his debut game but not all games have been created equal. Not all of these first starts happened in the season opener, some of them happened against Group of Five foes while others happened against league opponents and for someone like Cardale Jones, it happened on the biggest of big stages.

So while everyone is set to debate if the week one starter should be CJ Stoud, Jack Miller or Kyle McCord, it got us to thinking about how first starts went for some recent Ohio State QBs and we have the breakdown.

Justin Fields was one of the biggest transfer ever to hit the portal and Ohio State wasted little time getting him out on the field as he started game one, a 45-21 win over Lane Kiffin's Florida Atlantic team. The numbers were sharp with 18-25 passing for 234 yards and four scores. Fields also showed that he could run with 12 carries for 61 yards and a score for good measure.

Fields would find tight end Jeremy Ruckert twice in this game, something very un-Ohio State-like, targeting the tight ends. He would also connect with Binjimen Victor and Chris Olave in this one.

It was a validation for Fields, who had been used almost primarily as a running quarterback at UGA. The 25 attempts in game one was not far off of the 39 attempts he had his entire Bulldogs career.

Ohio State would get two solid years under Fields, would win the Big Ten both of those seasons and play in the CFP title game in 2020. His departure now opens the door for a quarterback to line up and make his first start and add to this list.

The Buckeyes made the decision to start Dwayne Haskins in 2018 and that would lead to the transfer of Joe Burrow to LSU and while LSU would win a national title in 2019, Ohio State did quite will with Haskins, even if that national championship remained elusive.

In game one, the Buckeyes welcomed the Beavers of Oregon State and Haskins put up some first-game numbers that had never been seen around these parts. The first-time starter would go 22-30 for 313 yards with five scores against a pick and even would scamper for 24 yards, not a typical part of his game.

This was all overshadowed by the fact that the defense was leaky, giving up 31 points, touchdown runs of 78 and 81 yards and while this game was never closer than 25 points in the second half, the defensive concerns would take center stage, even as Haskins was breaking single-season offensive records.

Ohio State would rack up 721 yards of total offense in this one, Haskins would end up taking the bench and allowing Tate Martell to see a little playing time and while Haskins would put up big numbers throughout most of the season, it was quite the introduction to Ohio State fans compared to some of the numbers that are to follow, even if all of these games have resulted in Ohio State wins.

Nobody was inserted in more of a high-pressure spot in terms of the moment as Cardale Jones., who had to step in for JT Barrett after he was injured in the 4th quarter of 'The Game'.

All Jones has to do is step in for the Big Ten Championship Game, a game that Ohio State needed to win decisively and then hope that the CFP committee would see things their way and allow them to participate in the four-team playoff, moving up over the likes of teams like TCU and Baylor.

Well, 12-gauge did his part and was magnificent in his first start, going 12-17 for 257 yards and three scores in a 59-0 drubbing of the Badgers.

Less than two minutes into the game and Jones and Devin Smith connected on a 39-yard touchdown. Add to that another 44-yarder in the second as well as a 42-yarder in the third and that is more than enough for Ohio State to win the game.

But as a 59-0 score would indicate, everyone brought their 'A Game' to this one and Ohio State really could do no wrong.

To complete the story, Ohio State would go on to beat Alabama and Oregon with Jones leading the team to win the first-ever CFP Championship and Jones would opt to come back to school in 2015. He would get the start early in the season and would end up yielding to Barrett, who had the starting nod prior.

Braxton Miller would get hurt in the preseason, up steps freshman JT Barrett, a Wichita Falls (Texas) product who was lightly recruited nationally, thrust into the starting role for the Buckeyes in a year that would end up being pretty special.

Most people will think about Barrett's second start in a tough home loss to Virginia Tech and will often forget about a week one game against Navy in Baltimore.

Barrett was highly efficient in going 12-15 throwing the ball for 226 yards and two scores against one pick. Barrett's legs would also see him go for 50 yards on nine carries.

Barrett would find both Devin Smith and Michael Thomas in the throw game for scores while the run game really kept the Buckeyes moving forward with Barrett leading all runners with Curtis Samuel picking up 45 yards on the ground and Zeke Elliott having 44 and a score as Ohio State would run for 194 yards as a team.

We all know what happened in week two, national pundits wrote Ohio State off and the whole treatment, but Barrett would go on and rewrite the passing record book in a lot of categories, namely built on his longevity as someone who saw action at quarterback over four years, something that is a rare feat in today's game.

This first game would not be an indicator of future results as Braxton Miller had very pedestrian numbers in game one of his career, a week four start against Colorado as the Buckeyes were relatively unimpressive with Joe Bauseman starting.

Miller would throw two scores against no picks but would only be 5-13 throwing the ball and would have just as many yards rushing as passing, 83.

Miller would find Devin Smith for both of those passing touchdowns, from 32 yards out early in the second quarter and then from 17 yards out early in the third.

As Ohio State fans know, Miller would lead the Buckeyes to ranked wins over Illinois and a last second win over Wisconsin along the way but most people will think about the loss at Nebraska when thinking of the 2011 season, a game where Ohio State would hold a 27-6 lead before a Miller turnover would lead to points and then a Miller injury would have the bottom fall out of the offense as the Huskers would score the next 28 points in about 22 minutes of game time for a 34-27 win.

It was the year between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer for the Buckeyes, Luke Fickell was the coach and Joe Basuerman got the call at quarterback, stepping in for the departed Terrelle Pryor. As fans know, or maybe want to forget, Bauseman bounced around the minor leagues of baseball for several years before ending up back in college football with the Buckeyes and got the start in the 2011 season.

If we are just basing things off of first start numbers, it was not all that bad with a 12-16 game for 163 yards, three touchdowns against zero picks. Ohio State would also see Bauserman carry the ball six times for 32 yards and a score in a drubbing of Akron to open the season.

It seemed as if the Bauserman to Jake Stoneburner connection was going to be there all year with all three touchdowns going to the Ohio State tight end. As we know, the 2011 season was a tough one, first evidenced by a loss at Miami against a mediocre Hurricanes team and then would see a two-game and a four-game losing streak along the way, but even with all of the issues on the year, Ohio State was just a slight overthrow away from upsetting Michigan, but that was with a different QB at the helm, as mentioned above.

It had been 30 years since the Buckeyes had started a true freshman at quarterback, going back to Art Schlichter in 1978 and while it was not a huge stats game, Terrelle Pryor would pick up that all-important first win as a starter after coming in to spell Todd Boeckman as the starter in wee four.

Pryor would throw for 139 yards on a very Jim Tressel-ian 16 pass attempts (10 completions) for four touchdowns against just one pick. As we all know, Pryor could run and we saw 14 carries for 66 yards.

This start came off the heels of a bad, bad game at USC and a chance was made and Pryor would hook up with Brian Hartline twice for scores along with Rory Nicol and Brian Robiskie. This game was not without its own level of drama as the Troy Trojans would close it to just a four-point margin at the end of the half, trailing just 14-10 but Ohio State would score the final 14 points of the game, all in the 4th quarter to secure the 28-10 win and start the Pryor-era.

It is difficult being the guy after the guy and that is what was asked of Todd Boeckman, coming in after a Heisman campaign by Troy Smith and being expected to pick things up. For all intents and purposes, Boeckman had a strong start of the season and things started to unravel as the year went on.

If you remember back, there were stories out there comparing Todd and Troy's numbers and while the Heisman campaign for the St. Henry (Ohio) product was non-existent, there was at least conversation that Ohio State's offense was not really suffering.

Boeckman would come in for the season opener against Youngstown State and do more than enough in a 30-point-plus win, throwing for two scores on 17-23 passing for 225 yards. Todd the runner was not a thing as he put up minus-13 yards but that is not what they were asking him to do.

Just to finish the story, it was not until the Michigan State game that things started to crack and while Ohio State did win a three-game stretch against MSU, Penn State and Wisconsin, it all came apart the next week against Illinois, seemingly knocking the Buckeyes out of the BCS derby. A win over Michigan plus a lot of other chaos would get Ohio State to the title game but the team would come up short against LSU in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl.

Rewind to 2004, the Buckeyes were sitting 0-3 in conference play (despite going 3-0 non-con) and heading into the Indiana game. Justin Zwick is out as the starter and in comes Troy Smith, even though both QBs were splitting time. Now, this is a different Smith than people saw during the Heisman campaign of 2006, but it was the beginning of something as Smith would see more and more time from this point on.

Hs numbers were good, not great but he was still 50-percent throwing the ball, 12 of 24 and threw for 161 yards. He would find Ted Ginn Jr. in the first 90 seconds of the game on a 59-yard touchdown strike and then would find Santonio Holmes about seven minutes later on a five-yard strike.

We also had a chance to see Smith the runner as he had 11 carries for 58 yards and while he was kept out of the end zone, Ohio State was able to get that first conference win of the season over the Hoosiers, 30-7.