Tate Martell Getting Better Every Day for the Buckeyes
When Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow decided to transfer to LSU this spring, he made a murky position room much clearer.
With Burrow, Dwayne Haskins, and Tate Martell competing for the starting job in the spring, questions arose from every corner. Who is in the lead? Which guy gives you the best chance of winning? What will the offense look like with _____ at quarterback? How do you find snaps for three guys? Is there a danger of a split locker room?
But in an instance, all of hand-wringing went away. With Burrow off to Baton Rouge, Haskins ascended to the unquestioned starting spot and Martell landed as his backup.
This being Ohio State, however, there is still going to be a competition between Haskins and Martell. Their current situation as starter and backup is based on their respective performances in the winter and the spring — and probably a second half in Ann Arbor last November.
Because of his experience, Haskins started out ahead of Martell, and following spring ball that is where he remained. But the three quarterbacks shared reps evenly throughout camp, which allowed them all to make strides.
Following the spring, and seeing the way each of the quarterbacks performed in the spring game, there was no surprise that Martell wasn’t named the starter. Martell only completed 5 of his 16 pass attempts for just 28 yards. He did rush for 69 yards, which was a nice day on the ground, but the lasting memory was of the less-than-stellar passing day.
Ohio State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ryan Day doesn’t just look at one performance when making a decision, however. But even when looking at the one performance, he looks at all of the factors involved.
“A lot goes into every play,” Day said following the spring. “You have to look at it objectively. If there is an incomplete pass, either the receiver was covered, or it was a poor throw, or it was a drop, usually. We’ve gone through all of the incompletions and charted all of them to get an idea on that.”
Entire article:
https://theozone.net/2018/06/tate-martell-improving-buckeyes/
