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Justin Fields Has Now Scared Off Both Of Ohio State's Backup Quarterbacks.....And I'm Officially Nervous

Former five-star and No. 2 overall prospect Justin Fields transferred from Georgia to Ohio State in January, and is running off Buckeyes quarterbacks left and right. Redshirt freshman Matthew Baldwin has entered his name in the transfer portal and will leave the program.

Baldwin’s decision comes just three months after Tate Martell announced his departure to Miami shortly after Fields arrived on campus.

Well, be careful what you wish for, I guess. Just over three months ago, the Buckeyes were loaded at the QB position. Dwayne Haskins was coming off a record shattering winning year, and people were still calling for our backup, Tate Martell, to get some more packages in the game. And on top of that, we still had a 4-star recruit from Texas named Matthew Baldwin rounding out the depth chart. Life was good for the Buckeyes. Then the first domino fell.

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This was expected. Haskins’ stock was never going to get any higher, and he’s looking at probably being a Top 10 pick here in next week’s draft. Tens of millions guaranteed. He was gone. But this one honestly didn’t hurt too bad, because 5-star Georgia QB Justin Fields was rumored to be very interested in transferring to Ohio State should Haskins leave. And Buckeye Nation jumped all in. Forget Tate Martell. Forget Matthew Baldwin. Everyone wanted the #1 player his class’s ESPN 300 (ahead of Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence) to come in and save the day. Tate Martell, however, was not nervous.

Bold statement. Rumors swirling everywhere, and Tate Martell comes out and says he is “100% confident” that he will be Ohio State’s starting QB next season, regardless if Justin Fields transfers in. And Here. We Go.

Booom!!! The rich get richer! The QB room was back to an insane amount of depth. And everyone in the world, except for Tate Martell who was 100% confident he’d be the starter next year, was ready for an epic quarterback battle in Spring and Fall camps. Well….that battle lasted 12 days.

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Shocking, but understandable. Tate was a 5-star at one point in time too, and he was on the verge of never getting to start in college. He still thinks he’s an NFL player. Newsflash: he’s not. But regardless, he found a situation that better fit his needs, and the Buckeyes QB group is weaker because of it. But we still had our guy in Fields, and we still had a pretty solid backup in Matthew Baldwin. Well, until last night…

Well shit. There goes our backup, backup QB. The entirety of Ohio State’s quarterback room now includes Justin Fields and……..West Virginia transfer Chris Chugunov. Yikes. Ryan Day did say he’s going to find another one before the season starts, but who’s going to want to come in and compete to be a backup? No one special. The Buckeyes got what they wanted when Justin Fields transferred in from Georgia. But now all of their eggs are in one basket. A basket that has only thrown 39 passes in his career, most of which came in garbage time against UMASS and Middle Tennessee State. This makes me nervous. We still have the guy we want running out there with the 1st team (even though he didn’t look great in the Spring Game)…..but he NEEDS to stay healthy. I don’t think our backup QB situation will be what it has been in the past.

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