Year of the Quarterback: Justin Zwick was the biggest high school football transfer in 2 counties

EDITOR'S NOTE: Months of research led to a series, "Year of the Quarterback," being presented in three waves. The first wave — 10 articles covering the volatile new world of the transfer portal — was published recently. This is the fourthstory in the second wave, which tracksthen-and-now journeys of 10 Stark County quarterbacks.

Like chocolate in Hershey, football fills the air in Massillon, seldom as richly as on Nov. 23, 2002.

Around 3 o'clock in Columbus, Jim Tressel, sweater-vested son of a former Massillon coach, celebrated a roaring win over Michigan that sent Ohio State to a national championship game.

The aura wafted like a moveable feast to Akron, where two leathery towns shoe-horned into the Rubber Bowl to see Massillon fight Warren Harding in the Division I state semifinals.

Around 9 o'clock, a slugfest went to overtime.

Tigertown itched for its first state playoff championship. Warren had just watched one of its own, Ohio State freshman Maurice Clarett, run over Michigan.

Justin Zwick spent the day in the eye of the hurricane, on the Ohio State bench as a prized freshman, a year removed from playing in the state semis for Massillon.

Third-year Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel had arrived without fanfare from Sterling, Michigan.

Zwick, in contrast, was "probably the most highly regarded quarterback to enroll at Ohio State in more than four decades," according to Ohio State's media guide.

Justin Zwick began career by winning OHSAA state championship with Orrville football

Zwick's move from Orrville to Massillon stands as the most conspicuous sports transfer in the history Stark and Wayne counties, bigger than the 1980 relocation of the Spielman brothers from Canton to Massillon.

Zwick started as an Orrville freshman in 1998, quite a thing in a proud town whose team reached state championship games in 1983, 1985 and 1994.

On Dec. 4, 1998, Orrville people filled a side at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

It was a breakfast-special, 10 a.m. kickoff. Orrville and Coldwater headed past lunch hour closer than ham and Swiss.

Coldwater took the lead on a bomb with a minute left, but in the closing seconds, Zwick chucked a 31-yard touchdown pass to Michael Robinson.

After a 23-21 win, 10 Orrville players danced on the "Obie the Tiger" logo at midfield.

In the next night's big-school state final, also in Massillon, McKinley routed Cincinnati St. Xavier 33-10.

The rival from Canton celebrating a second straight Division I state title on Tiger soil disturbed Massillonians, as had a 42-20 home loss to McKinley weeks earlier, after which first-year Tiger head coach Rick Shepas provocatively seethed, “We’re not going to take this laying down."

Justin Zwick transfers from Orrville to the Massillon Tigers

Zwick played another year at Orrville, getting to the 1999 Division III state semis. He then transferred to Massillon, which, on Feb. 23, 2000, hired Bill Zwick, Justin's dad, as assistant superintendent.

Recalling the time frame, Justin Zwick said, "There was a lot of talk in Stark and Wayne counties."

It echoed to a 1982 transfer — Brian DeWitz completed his sophomore year at Orrville and left for Massillon, promptly quarterbacking the Tigers to the Division I state finals.

Kent Smith, who spent three decades as Orrville’s athletic director, knows the history.

“I don’t remember the reaction being as great when Brian left as when Justin did,” Smith said. “Justin was like his two older siblings who came through Orrville before him. They were all good kids, good students and good athletes.

“The year we won the state championship, we had an amazing group of upperclassman athletes. Justin did a real good job as a freshman quarterback.

“Everything was wonderful. On the surface, the family was kind of entrenched in Orrville

“It wasn’t like rumors of a transfer were out there for weeks or months. It was just at the end, and even then, no one believed it would happen.”

Massillon's 1999 team had its first 10-0 regular season since DeWitz's arrival, but the mood soured overnight with a 23-6 playoff loss to Perry.

Then Zwick came to town.

In a 2001 story in Ohio State's student newspaper, The Lantern, Zwick acknowledged "hard feelings."

"I don't know if my friends truly understood what I was trying to do," he said.

Justin Zwick breaks Massillon passing records, earns spot in Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame

Right away in 2000, Zwick was Massillon's starting quarterback.

In Game 1, he threw five touchdown passes in a 40-7 rout of Akron Buchtel. In Game 2, he led the offense to 415 yards in the first half of a 67-35 dismantling of Lima Senior.

Notable in an 8-2 regular season were his 60 throws in a 36-21 loss to St. Ignatius, a loss to Perry, and a win over St. Edward.

Late in a 17-13 loss to Marion Harding in the first round of the playoffs, the eighth holding penalty against the Tigers negated a 53-yard run by Zwick.

“Penalties helped us a lot all night long,” Marion Harding coach Tim Hinton said afterward. “I know the people in Massillon are going to talk about that part of the game for a long, long time."

The 2001 Tigers had a loaded roster. Andy Alleman, a transfer from Hoover, and Shawn Crable became third-round NFL draft picks. Receiver Devin Jordan joined Zwick at Ohio State.

Zwick's Tigers were on top of the world for a while. They beat Marion Harding, McKinley and Hoover in the playoffs by a combined 103-26 score.

A playoff loss to Ignatius in the state semis drew 29,871 to the Rubber Bowl.

Earlier that day, Ohio State won 26-20 in Ann Arbor in Tressel's first Michigan game. It was pure exhilaration for Ohio State fans fed up with John Cooper's 2-10-1 record against the Wolverines.

The upshot was imagining what Tressel would do with Justin Zwick, at QB.

Jared Zwick was the older brother who stayed.

Jared was an Orrville junior in 1994 when he quarterbacked the Red Riders to the Division IV state finals. His 1995 team made the state semis.

Jared went on to Youngstown State, coached by Tressel. He saw some action at quarterback (1,023 passing yards) and played multiple positions as a four-year letterman.

Tressel relocation to Ohio State was a factor in Justin choosing the Buckeyes over Michigan, Pitt, Tennessee and Miami (Florida).

'An exciting time'

A 2001 story in Ohio State's student newspaper campaigned for immediate playing time.

An excerpt: "Zwick is expected to build something great. Maybe not Rome, but close."

In a recent interview with the Repository, Zwick called it "an exciting time."

"There were 24 guys in the recruiting class," he said. "I got to know them early. We worked out in the summer.

"Before the season, the freshmen came in five days before everybody else. It was a cool way to get a taste."

Tressel's 2001 team beat Michigan but was just 7-5 overall, mostly with the unpopular Steve Bellisari at quarterback.

Bellisari was suspended for the Michigan game. Replacement Krenzel had a modest day (118 passing yards), but it was a rousing team game in which Canton's Mike Doss made two game-bending interceptions.

Krenzel had two years of eligibility left, but Zwick seemed under consideration for playing time in summer practice.

"You get some humility when you go to an Ohio State," Zwick said. "I remember being with the 'ones' for an inside drill during practice. The offensive line was mammoth.

"I had a good line at Massillon. These guys were grown men."

Third-year Buckeyes Krenzel and Scott McMullen wound up as the only QBs to see the field in 2002.

"Sitting and watching was not fun," Zwick said.

After Krenzel won the 2002 national championship, Zwick understood more sitting was inevitable.

In 2003, he got in four games, throwing a grand total of eight passes. The Buckeyes opened at No. 2 in the rankings and finished at No. 4 with an 11-2 record.

Justin Zwick starts at QB for Ohio State in 2004, deals with injury

When Krenzel lost some time to injury, McMullen filled in. With Krenzel and McMullen gone in 2004, Zwick got his shot.

The Buckeyes won his first three starts (Cincinnati, Marshall, North Carolina State) but after they dropped the next two (Northwestern, Wisconsin), Zwick came under fire.

In a Youngstown Vindicator article following the Wisconsin game, Buckeyes offensive lineman Kirk Barton, a former Perry Panther, advocated playing time for OSU's other quarterback, Troy Smith.

"I think he deserves a shot," Barton said. "They were neck and neck coming out of camp.

"You can't let people get complacent. If a guy thinks he's got the spot regardless of his performance, then he's got to get on the hot seat."

Any controversy became a moot point in the next game, a 33-7 loss at Iowa in which Zwick suffered a separated shoulder and was replaced by Smith.

When Smith arrived in the same recruiting class as Zwick, it wasn't clear he would stay at quarterback. In 2003, in fact, the former Glenville Tarblooder returned kickoffs.

After Zwick got hurt, Smith beat Indiana, Penn State and Michigan State, lost at Purdue, and then exceled in a 37-21 win over Michigan.

Prior to a bowl game, though, Smith was suspended for accepting a $500 payment in violation of NCAA rules. As outlandish as that seems in light of the big money of the name-image-likeness era, it gave a healed Zwick another chance.

He played well against Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl. His long touchdown pass to Anthony Gonzalez got things rolling in a 33-7 win.

“Justin was playing as well as he has ever played,” Tressel said afterward.

Justin Zwick opens 2005 as Ohio State football's starting quarterback

Smith's suspension extended through the 2005 opener. Zwick faced Miami (Ohio) in a blowout win, telling reporters things went "really well."

Tressel gave a cute answer as to who would start the next game, at home against No. 2 Texas, with Smith available: "I want you guys to have a mysterious weekend, then we'll talk."

A strange Saturday night ensued in Ohio Stadium in the first-ever Ohio State-Texas game.

Zwick started and played two series. Smith operated the next several series but was relieved by Zwick.

The Buckeyes led 19-16 late in the third quarter. There was a sense getting a two-possession lead, behind a defense stocked with Will Smith, A.J. Hawk and other future NFL players, would secure a monster win.

Zwick drove the Buckeyes to the Texas 9-yard line. He hit tight end Ryan Hamby in the hands for an apparent touchdown, but Hamby dropped it. A 26-yard field goal made it 22-16.

Zwick made a few more plays, including a 12-yard scramble and a 20-yard throw to Santonio Holmes, but the most the Buckeyes could muster was a missed 50-yard field goal try.

In front of a record crowd of 105,565, Vince Young led Texas to a 25-22 win, en route to the 2005 national championship.

"I knew going into that year I had a chance to really change people's minds," Zwick said. "With Troy suspended, I was going to get at least the Miami game.

"It was a weird deal. I didn't find out I was starting (against Texas) until the night before. It's a different feeling knowing they might have a quick hook.

"I got the first two series. I didn't see the field again until the second half.

"If it goes a different way, maybe you win and they can't come up with a reason to bench you."

Arguably, a Hamby catch would have led to an Ohio State win, and Zwick would have started the next game, with momentum. Instead, it was wrenching loss in which Zwick lost a fumble in the late going.

'You lost by one': Justin Zwick sits, Troy Smith becomes Ohio State star

He recalls being tipped off that coaches, coming off the game, took a vote on the starting QB going forward.

"One of the GAs came in and, under his breath, said, 'You lost by one,'" Zwick said. "They thought going with Troy was going to be better for the team.

"Troy had an amazing Michigan game our sophomore year. It's just personal preference by the coaching staff, how they feel about the team rallying around somebody, what they feel they can get out of a particular quarterback.

"I'm a guy who thinks you should only have one quarterback."

Smith went 9-1 the rest of 2005, with wins at Michigan and in a bowl game against Notre Dame.

In 2006, Smith won the Heisman Trophy on a team that was 11-0 before losing to Florida in the national championship game. Zwick made seven cameo appearances, attempting 23 passes.

His football life turned on the Texas game.

"It is what it is," he said. "It happens to people all the time. Coaches get fired because teams miss field goals at the end of games. It lands on somebody.

"That was what happened to me in a way. The coaches decided to go in a different direction after that loss. The rest is history. Troy went out and won."

In an interview with the Repository, Tressel revisited playing both Zwick and Smith against Texas, calling it a matter of "finding out who might take charge."

Tressel said he admired Zwick's attitude amidst Smith's rise.

"With Justin or with someone else who winds up being No. 2, it's very difficult," Tressel said. "It takes a good person to say, 'You know what I'm going to keep fighting to get this job back, and in the meantime I'm going to do what the team needs."

'Between a rock and a hard place' in pre-transfer portal college football days, Justin Zwick stuck it out at Ohio State

There was no transfer portal then. Zwick would have had to sit out a year had he switched to another Division I program.

He says he would have considered transferring, had there been no waiting, as is the case now.

Zwick dislikes what the portal has done, saying, "The college football we loved is gone." He is slightly conflicted, though.

He "roots hard" for Joe Burrow, who transferred to LSU when it became clear, after 2018 spring practice, he would have begun his fourth year at Ohio State behind Dwayne Haskins. With no waiting, on the grounds he had earned a diploma at Ohio State, Burrow started for LSU in 2018 and led the 2019 team to a national championship.

"If Joe hadn't been able to transfer and play right away, he's at Ohio State being like me, being a good teammate, and being a good backup for a couple more years, probably staying in Columbus and finding something to do," Zwick said.

"I'm not saying I would have gone on to win the Heisman and been the first pick in the draft, by any means, but having another opportunity somewhere else … it worked out for him and it's worked out for a lot of different people.

"I probably would have looked into it. My only option back then was to go to a smaller school in a different division if I wanted to play right away.

"I was between a rock and a hard place. I decided to stick it out and see what happened."

Time has flown.

Looking back, Orrville's Kent Smith, says, “I remember vividly, some of Justin's friends and teammates felt betrayed and were really hurt when he left. Over time that's healed. Any time you win a state championship, you look back with fond memories.

“My memories of him and his whole family are very positive.

“I think he could have gotten to Ohio State from Orrville just as easily as from Massillon. That’s just me.

“Not everybody feels that way. I’m sure his father didn’t feel that way.”

Zwick, 38, stays close to football via a podcast and working as a pregame analysis for ABC Channel 6 in Columbus. He lives in Dublin and works for Arthur Krenzel Lett Insurance Group — Craig Krenzel is one of the owners.

What of missing out on a long run as an Ohio State starter?

"That's life," he said. "Not everything is going to go be perfect.

"I had a lot of success. My ultimate goal as a kid was to get my college paid for. I didn't want my parents to have to worry about it. I reached that goal.

"Everybody who plays college football wants to go on and do that for a living. That wasn't in the cards for me.

"I sit back now and have two wonderful little daughters, an awesome wife, a great family. My parents are around.

"Would I have loved for that to have gone differently? Yes. But who knows what kind of situation I would be in now."

"Life is good. I'm very happy."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Justin Zwick talks Ohio State football, transfer to Massillon