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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The major moves in the transfer quarterback market have begun without the influence of Ohio State football.
Former Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel committed to Oregon. Former Oregon State quarterback Aidan Chiles followed his coach, Jonathan Smith, to Michigan State. Others scheduled official visits, and the recruiting crystal balls began trickling our predictions.
Meanwhile, Devin Brown and Lincoln Kienholz are preparing for the Cotton Bowl. Five-star freshman Air Noland is preparing to move in. No top transfer portal quarterbacks have been attached to an Ohio State visit thus far.
That has not curtailed speculation. Imagine that, in a new era of college football where a little extra leverage might pull a few extra NIL dollars out of a their true destination.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day assembled this quarterback room with a long-term plan. Kyle McCord’s decision to enter the transfer portal interrupted it, but did not gut it. Day needs a new plan going forward, but does not need to act out of panic.
To land any top quarterback available, Day would likely need to guarantee the 2024 starting job — something, per sources, he was not willing to do for returning starter McCord.

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Back in 2019, the first-team head coach could do that for Justin Fields. The one-time elite quarterback prospect towered talent-wise over the other options on that Buckeye roster. Day did not officially name Fields the starter until Aug. 19, but no one believed any other answer was possible.
Fields was leaving a Georgia program where the staff’s deference to Jake Fromm effectively blocked him. Only programs with unquestioned need for a starter made sense.
Of the top quarterbacks remaining in the portal — Toledo’s Dequan Finn, Kansas State’s Will Howard, Duke’s Riley Leonard, UCLA’s Dante Moore, Washington State’s Cam Ward — does Day consider any worth committing to over his three in-house options?
None of them ranked higher than 31st nationally in pass efficiency rating or 30th in yards per attempt. Both were Finn. Gabriel did, but at 5-11, 205 pounds, he did not fit the profile of a Day starter. Leonard, who missed most of his season with an ankle injury, barely cracked the top 50 as a full-time stater in 2022.
McCord ranked in the top 15 in both stats. Of course, the comparison is no longer to McCord, but to Brown, the guy he beat out last season, and two younger, even less proven options.
Another changing dynamic: The 12-team playoff. In the entire previous history of college football, one loss jolted a team’s championship chances. Two losses ended it. Now, two losses for Ohio State at worst means a first-round playoff game on the road. As coaches consider their options, picking a quarterback with a longer development arc has less downside.
Day could double down on trusting the process already in place over committing to no sure thing out of the portal.
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