Year of the Quarterback, Part 10: Ohio State football schedule is a portal-palooza in 2024
Editor's note: Steve Doerschuk spent months researching quarterbacks. The result is three waves of a series, "Year of the Quarterback." The first wave revolves around tremendous high school QBs struggling to find the field in college. This is the 10th and final story in the first wave.
One might say it's hard to find the field for a star high school quarterback making his way with the college team that recruited him.
Or one might say finding the field is getting a little ridiculous.
Ohio State's 2024 schedule paints a revealing picture of just how slap-happy college football transferring has become for quarterbacks.
The Buckeyes themselves are deciding whether Will Howard, who came though the transfer portal from Kansas State, will open the season as their No. 1 QB.
A stunning number of OSU opponents are poised to operate with portal people. Here's the lineup as the season nears.
Game 1, Akron
Projected starter Ben Finley started two games at North Carolina State in 2022 and two more at Cal in 2023. The Zips now have the brother of Ryan Finley, who was a fourth-round draft pick by the Bengals in 2019. Akron's other top option, Tahj Bullock, saw some action for the Zips in 2023 after transferring from Virginia Tech.
Game 2, Western Michigan
Projected No. 1 Hayden Wolff gives the Broncos a 6-foot-5 presence. He arrived in 2023 and played in the second half of the season after starting for a 3-9 Old Dominion team in 2022.
Game 3, Marshall
A former Ohio high school star, Cam Fancher of Huber Heights Wayne, spent most of 2023 as Marshall's starter, but he was replaced late in the year by Cole Pennington, son of famed Marshall alum Chad Pennington. Fancher has transferred to Florida Atlantic, leaving the Thundering Herd with Pennington, Braylon Braxton (transfer from Tulsa) and Colin Parachek (transfer from Morehead State).
Game 4, at Michigan State
Aidan Chiles played in nine games as a true freshman at Oregon State in 2023 under head coach Jonathan Smith. Smith jumped to Michigan State, enticed by a seven-year, $53 million contract. Chiles followed him and is ticketed to start. Projected backup Tommy Schuster was a captain at North Dakota last fall.
Game 5, Iowa
In a 2021 duel against C.J. Stroud, Cade McNamara steered Michigan to a 42-27 win over then-No. 2 Ohio State. In 2002, McNamara lost the job to J.J. McCarthy. McNamara transferred to Iowa and was 3-1 as the 2023 starter prior to a season-ending knee injury. He enters 2024 ahead of transfer Brendan Sullivan, who played 13 games for Northwestern across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Game 6, at Oregon
Projected No. 1 Dillon Gabriel started for two years at American before transferring to Oklahoma, where he started in 2022 and 2023. Projected backup Dante Moore started six games at UCLA last year before getting benched. Oregon is forecast to have one of its best teams since Chip Kelly, now Ohio State's offensive coordinator, was head coach of the Ducks.
Game 7, Nebraska
True freshman Dylan Raiola isn't a transfer, but he did commit to Ohio State in 2022 and then to Georgia in 2023 before switching one last time to Nebraska. The Cornhuskers leveraged Raiola with the prospect of instant-starter status.
Game 8, at Penn State
The Nittany Lions signed Ohioan Drew Allar out of Medina High School and started him in 2023, his second year in the program. Allar's top target could be Julian Fleming, who caught 72 passes for Ohio State across the last three seasons.
Game 9, Purdue
Ex-Texas Longhorn Hudson Card is back after going 4-7 as the Boilermakers' 2023 starter. One of the losses was to Ohio State, 41-7. He played the transfer card after putting in three years at Texas, where the landscape changed when Quinn Ewers arrived in 2022, having spent 2021 at Ohio State.
Game 10, vs. Northwestern (at Wrigley Field)
Jack Lausch, who signed with the Wildcats out of high school, emerged from spring ball as the starter, but that was before Mike Wright arrived through the portal in May. Wright was an on on-again, off-again starter at Vanderbilt in 2021 and 2022 and at Mississippi State in 2023.
Game 11, Indiana
Kurtis Rourke, who played 31 games at Ohio U across the last three seasons, transferred in and is expected to start. Tayven Jackson, who started four games for the 2023 Hoosiers after transferring from Tennessee, is the projected No. 2. Indiana's primary 2023 starter, Brendan Sorsby, transferred to Cincinnati.
Game 12, Michigan
The quarterback picture is unpredictable with J.J. McCarthy gone to the NFL. New head coach Sherrone Moore's options include Jack Tuttle, who has transferred from Utah to Indiana to Michigan. The job could go to Alex Orji, who was a true freshman with the Wolverines in 2022 after originally committing to Virginia Tech. Cade McNamara, as mentioned above, is at Iowa now.
It's a veritable portal-palooza. And it's more of the same for Big Ten teams the Buckeyes won't see before a potential meeting in the conference championship game.
A glance at some of other potential No. 1 quarterbacks for 2024 in an expanded Big 10:
Wisconsin: Tyler Van Dyke was a three-year state for the Miami Hurricanes before arriving through the portal in December.
USC: Jayden Maiava transferred in after going 8-4 for UNLV in 2023.
UCLA: Ethan Garbers began his career at Washington. In one of his 2023 chances to start for the Bruins, he won a duel against USC's Caleb Williams.
Washington: Will Rogers could be this year's rent-a-QB after passing for 12,315 career yards for his previous team, Mississippi State.
Minnesota: Max Brosmer is playing Gopher ball after starting in the Division I FCS ranks for New Hampshire the last two years.
Good luck projecting starters beyond 2024. The safest bet in sports: Some will be coming through the portal.
This concludes the first wave in the "Year of the Quarterback" series. The next wave will follow the individual journeys of several famous Stark County high school quarterbacks as they fought to find the field in college.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio State football schedule is a quarterback portal-palooza in 2024
