ANALYSIS: Ranking Ohio State’s best first-year starting QBs

The top provided some difficult choices, though perhaps less so if one was just going to go by stats.

I did not do that for multiple reasons.

One, the eras obviously have changed so no one really would have a chance before Ryan Day arrived in Columbus, let alone Urban Meyer, if we just went by raw numbers.

Also while I am not one who subscribes to the theory winning is everything for quarterbacks, it still matters.

Here is my top five:

If you’re wondering how C.J. Stroud slid all the way out of my top five, well, he’s the only one of the top eight in quarterback efficiency who did not beat Michigan or helm a Big Ten champion — and the others all did both.

Is that a high bar? It sure is, but that’s kind of the point.

Ohio State has had great quarterback play lately, and the Buckeyes have won a lot, too. The signal-callers from the 1990s and 2000s were part of that winning, too, and though they might not have always put up the same type of raw numbers, they still did pretty well.

Credit: Chris O'Meara

Credit: Chris O'Meara

Justin Fields jumped right into the fire transferring to Ohio State from Georgia when the Buckeyes were unexpectedly in need of a new starting quarterback and facing life without Urban Meyer as head coach.

A five-star prospect, Fields delivered with an incredibly productive and efficient season. He had a lot of help, but without him the season could have been a disaster. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity and led the Buckeyes back to the College Football Playoff after a two-year absence.

The numbers Dwayne Haskins Jr. put up in his one year as a starter are impossible to ignore.

He shattered some records that were only set recently and left his name all over the Big Ten’s book, too. Haskins also had a lot riding on his right arm without much ability to use his legs to bail him out of trouble or the same running game some of his competitors could rely on.

J.T. Barrett was thrust into a starting role when Braxton Miller was injured in training camp, and he ended up being a great fit for Urban Meyer’s spread-option offense because he could get the tough yards with his legs and (especially that first season) was good at distributing the ball to playmakers on the outside. He also developed into a big-time leader even at a young age, and the team relied on him more and more as the season went on until losing him to a broken leg in the Michigan game.

Credit: Brian Bahr

Credit: Brian Bahr

Troy Smith likely would have put up similar or better numbers than Barrett if he played for Meyer, but even in Tressel’s hybridized spread/I-formation offense he still did things not previously seen in Columbus as a dual-threat.

Smith posted what was at the time the second second-most efficient passing season in school history (actually better than his 2006 Heisman campaign), and he beat Michigan in a thriller in the Big House and won the Big Ten.

Credit: MARK J. TERRILL

Credit: MARK J. TERRILL

Craig Krenzel was my choice for No. 5 not only because he was a winner but because he was more productive than people might realize or remember — especially for his era.

His 140.9 efficiency rating is almost 50 points lower than Stroud’s… but it was 14th in the nation in 2002. Krenzel threw for over 2,000 yards, which believe it or not was not a sure-thing for an Ohio State quarterback at the time, and his 368 rushing yards were a lot for that time as well.

Then of course there is that whole “upsetting a historically great Miami Hurricanes team in the Fiesta Bowl to win Ohio State’s first national championship in more than three decades” thing, a game in which Krenzel was the leading rusher.

That put him ahead of Stroud and Joe Germaine, who had what is still one of the best seasons in Ohio State history.

Full rankings: