What can the past tell us about proper expectations for the new starter and the team?
Here are seven things to know:
1. Six of the seven national championships Ohio State claims since 1951 were won with first-year starting quarterbacks.
Dave Leggett started this trend in 1954 followed by Frank Kremblas three years later.
It was John Mummey’s turn in 1961, though he shared quarterback duties with Bill Mrukowski and Joe Sparma.
Rex Kern was also a first-year starter (along with crack relief man Ron Maciejowski, a fellow sophomore) in 1968, as was Craig Krenzel in 2002 and J.T. Barrett in 2014.
2. More than half of Ohio State’s Big Ten title teams in that span had a first-year starter.
The Buckeyes won the Big Ten 31 times since 1951, and 19 of those seasons featured a first-year full-time starting quarterback.
That might seem like a number inflated by recent success, but it is not.
It happened three times in the 1950s, three times in the ‘60s, three times in the ‘70s, three times in the ‘90s, four times from 2000-10 and three times in the 2010s.
3. Eight of the top 15 marks in quarterback efficiency in Ohio State history (single season) were set by a first-year starter.
That includes C.J. Stroud’s mark of 186.6 in 2021, the school record.
4. The last four first-year starting QBs for the Buckeyes all broke the school’s single-season passing efficiency record.
That started with Barrett in 2014 (169.8) and continued with Dwayne Haskins in 2018 (174.1).
Justin Fields picked up the baton in 2019 (181.4) only to be surpassed by Stroud.
5. Ohio State’s first-year starters have won a lot of Big Ten honors.
Four first-time starting QBs for the Buckeyes have been named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year: Joe Germaine (1998), Haskins, Fields and Stroud, and four were named Big Ten Quarterback of the Year: Barrett, Haskins, Fields and Stroud.
Four were named freshman of the year: Terrelle Pryor (2008), Miller, Barrett and Stroud.
Two won the Big Ten Silver Football from the Chicago Tribune: Germaine and Haskins.
6. They have won more often than not against Michigan.
Since 1951, Ohio State is 20-14-2 against the Wolverines (a 55.5 winning percentage) in years they have a first-year starting quarterback and 40-29-2 overall (56.3).
That is skewed by recent history as eight of those wins came in the 21 contests since 2001 compared to 12 in the previous 50 editions of The Game.
7. Since 2000, Ohio State’s first-year starting QBs are only first-year starting quarterbacks for Ohio State to lose to Michigan are C.J. Stroud and Braxton Miller.
Both of those games — 2011 and ‘21 — were played in Ann Arbor, and in both the quarterback still put up good numbers.
Stroud was sacked four times but completed 34 of 49 passes for 394 yards and two touchdowns.
Miller completed 14 of 25 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for a touchdown and netted 100 yards on the ground despite being sacked four times.
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