Believe it or not, Urban Meyer picked Trevor Lawrence as the best quarterback heading into 2020 over Ohio State’s Justin Fields.
If you thought Urban Meyer was a homer, think again. Well, sort of. He’s been pretty brash about Ohio State since signing on to do analyst work for FOX and the Big Ten Network. This, immediately after he retired from head coaching at OSU after the 2018 Rose Bowl because of health concerns.
But still, there are times when you see the objectivity of Meyer come out, and we may have just seen another one. FOX College Football shared a graphic on its Twitter profile Thursday with some of the picks for the best college quarterbacks entering the 2020 season. There are votes from the fans, and also selections from the rest of the FOX College Football crew.
One would immediately guess that Meyer would bleed scarlet and gray all over the pick, but instead, he chose Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence instead of Fields.
Here’s how the Big Noon Kickoff crew and CFB on FOX fans ranked their preseason top 5 QBs
That fell in line with most of all the other picks. In fact, Lawrence was selected as the best quarterback by five of the seven. Fields was at least No. 2 in all the other votes, and finished No. 1 according to votes by the fans and Reggie Bush only.
I’m sure Meyer will hear some backlash about this, but you have to give him credit for being objective here. Most analysts and experts agree that Lawrence is just a hair more complete than Fields right now. We’ll see how that all plays out in the upcoming season though.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.
We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.
Justyn Ross’s injury certainly won’t help Clemson in 2020 as they contend for another national title. How does it effect their odds vs ND?
Yesterday we received news that Clemson star receiver and potential first round NFL Draft pick Justyn Ross won’t play in 2020 due to a congenital fusion that will require surgery and leave his future in football very much in jeopardy.
Obviously the sad news of this is the star player possibly not realizing his full potential on the football field all because of something he has no control whatsoever about.
I was curious what the odds-makers thought about the injury to Ross and if it changed the way Clemson was viewed at all.
Back when we looked over Notre Dame’s odds in seven games listed by BetMGM in April the Irish were a 7.5 point underdog against Clemson.
Checking back today we see that, well, not a lot has changed in that department whatsoever as Clemson is still listed as a 7.5 point favorite for the November 7 showdown at Notre Dame Stadium.
If you look at where Notre Dame has the biggest questions on defense you’d think this may matter a little bit more considering it’s a secondary that comes with virtually no experience playing together. However, if the Notre Dame front seven is unable to to take care of business up front it could just be a Travis Etienne show.
“Want to get in on the action? Place your bet now atBetMGM.”
Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields is back for his second season in Columbus, one in which he is expected to improve upon a pretty stellar 2019. When you reflect back on what he did as a first-year starter, it’s pretty amazing. To become a Heisman …
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields is back for his second season in Columbus, one in which he is expected to improve upon a pretty stellar 2019. When you reflect back on what he did as a first-year starter, it’s pretty amazing. To become a Heisman finalist after having just a few months to learn a new playbook and culture at Ohio State was truly amazing.
So, one would think he would have an even better 2020 with an offseason of seasoning and development. He should be one of the best — if not the best — quarterback in the entire country, perhaps destined for a trip to New York again. Maybe, he can even win a bronze statue as one of the prohibitive favorites.
ESPN agrees. The worldwide leader in sports programming published a piece breaking out different tiers (subscription may be required) of college quarterbacks heading into the new season, and had Fields in a class with just one other, Trevor Lawrence of Clemson. David Hale has both guys by themselves in Tier 1.
So what does Hale say about the two-signal callers he believes are head and shoulders above every other?
[lawrence-related id=31006]
[lawrence-related id=29817]
Next … The narrative on Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence
Pro Football Focus believes Ohio State QB Justin Fields is one of the elite quarterbacks returning for 2020, but where does it rank him?
We don’t have to tell you how talented Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields is. He threw for over 3,200 yards last season, rushed for almost another 500, and threw 41 touchdowns to just three interceptions.
He quickly acclimated himself to a new city, new team, new culture, and new playbook with about as seamless as a transition as anyone could expect. Heck, he’s 14th in program history on the career passing yardage list in just one season.
But when it comes to how good Fields is, he often falls behind one other college quarterback, even though the stats didn’t back it up last year. Pro Football Focus is another source that thinks Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is the only college quarterback better than the Ohio State signal-caller going into 2020.
PFF only provided its top five, which is clearly just an opinion piece, but it’s worth a look because these guys are generally pretty good with their analysis and assessment of players.
The other three quarterbacks on the list behind Lawrence and Fields include Georgia’s Jamie Newman, Sam Howell of North Carolina, and Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan.
Several of the NFL’s and NCAA’s most prominent quarterbacks have spoken out on the George Floyd matter. Here’s why it’s important.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” —Frederick Douglass
During his fight against Major League Baseball in the late 1960s and early 1970s, outfielder Curt Flood — who merely wanted for himself and all other players the right to be free agents — took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. There, in Flood vs. Kuhn, in 1972, the Court ruled that though baseball was a business, the reserve clause — the clause that kept players bound to teams on a year-to-year basis for the entirety of their careers — did not violate baseball’s antitrust exemption. Flood lost the case, 5-3. Eventually, free agency was created by writ of arbitration, and players in all sports benefited with billions of dollars in contracts and the very American ideal of freedom of movement, but that’s another matter.
Jackie Robinson testified on Flood’s behalf during the Flood vs. Kuhn battle. It was testimony that, as Flood later said, “was a soliloquy that would send chills up and down my spine.”
Throughout Flood’s cases that went up through district court to the highest court in the land, only Robinson, former team owner Bill Veeck, and a handful of retired players would testify for Flood’s overriding principle. Not one active player came to Flood’s defense at any point in time.
“We lost because my guys didn’t stand up with me,” Flood recalled in Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary. “And I can’t make any excuses for them. Had we shown any amount of solidarity — if the superstars had stood up and said, ‘We’re with Curt Flood,’ — if the superstars had walked into the court and made their presence known — I think that the owners would have gotten the message clearly, and given me a chance to win.”
It’s not always easy to speak out about a controversial topic in a way that could negatively affect one’s livelihood. You could have asked Flood, Muhammad Ali, or Colin Kaepernick about that over time. But just as it is difficult, it is also incumbent on those athletes whose gifts have afforded them unique privilege in the world to speak out when things go too far and must be corrected.
Which is why it was profoundly encouraging to see so many NFL and future NFL quarterbacks speaking out following the death of George Floyd — the 46-year-old black man who died Monday after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Riots have exploded all over America ever since.
Not only prominent quarterbacks, but white quarterbacks. At a time where these players could have backed off in fear of whatever response, they instead walked into the court, so to speak, and said what they felt.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was perhaps the most eloquent and heartfelt on the subject.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, was pointed in his own personal response.
The black community needs our help. They have been unheard for far too long. Open your ears, listen, and speak. This isn’t politics. This is human rights.
It is not the nature of the language that is the most important thing here; one does not necessarily congratulate or condemn these players because their language is too incendiary or not incendiary enough. It is the fact that several of the human beings who play the most important position in America’s most prominent sport decided, independent of one another, to put their names on the line and say, in different ways but as one voice, that enough is enough. That these human beings and their messages cannot summarily be dismissed because of the color of their skin makes the telling of those messages all the more important.
There are simply times where the only thing left to do is to testify.
Ever done an office confidence pool for football games? I fill out one from 12-1 and pick a winner for all Notre Dame’s games in 2020.
Notre Dame is likely to be a pre-season top ten team when they kick-off the 2020 football season on August 29 against annual rival Navy. The game is currently scheduled to be played in Dublin but a change of plans could be announced sooner rather than later in regards to that.
Of the 12 games scheduled some are potential “game of the week” material where ESPN’s College Gameday could very likely show up. Others are essentially fillers to complete the 12 game slate.
Which are the absolute easiest match-ups and which should scare Notre Dame fans the most?
Here are my confidence picks for Notre Dame games in 2020. Feel free to play along by commenting either here, by mentioning us on Twitter or on our Facebook page.
ESPN believes the Bears are among the teams that will be looking to draft a quarterback come 2021.
If there’s been one constant with the Chicago Bears over the years, it’s that they haven’t been able to hit at the quarterback position. Whether that was before Jay Cutler or all of the failures between him and Mitchell Trubisky, the Bears continue to search for their franchise quarterback.
Trubisky was supposed to be the answer to Chicago’s quarterback woes, but he’s proven to be just another statistic in their quarterback failures. He has one final season to prove he can miraculously turn things around, but first he’ll have to win the starting job over Nick Foles, who was brought in to compete and potentially replace Trubisky.
If Trubisky isn’t the guy, Foles isn’t the guy either. Foles appears to be more of a bridge to a new quarterback. Perhaps one in the 2021 NFL Draft. ESPN believes the Bears are among the teams that will be looking to draft a quarterback come 2021.
Many around the league expect the Bears to decline Trubisky’s fifth-year option, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Such a move would indicate the Bears have all but moved past Trubisky as a future starter. The Bears would face a significant cap hit for moving on from Foles before the 2021 season, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be shopping in the draft (again) for the next Sid Luckman.
Some of the quarterbacks expected to be available next year include Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, Texas’ Sam Ehlinger, Georgia’s Jamie Newman and Iowa State’s Brock Purdy.
While Lawrence most likely won’t be available for the Bears — he’s expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 — there are other options for Chicago, including some that might not be known yet. Look no further than Joe Burrow, who no one mentioned prior to last college football season and then played his way to a Heisman Trophy and the No. 1 overall pick.
Obviously, the hope is that Trubisky magically turns things around and becomes the franchise quarterback general manager Ryan Pace believed he could be. But, at this point, that’s more wishful thinking than realistic expectation.
So the Bears likely will be in the market for a quarterback heading into the 2021 NFL Draft.
Alabama freshman quarterback Bryce Young isn’t the favorite to earn the starting job week 1, but QBs of recent years could offer insight …
Since 2010, there have been six freshman quarterbacks to receive high praise and recognition nation-wide. Nick Saban and Alabama may have the seventh on their roster for the 2020 season.
Bryce Young is about to begin his first season with the Crimson Tide. The five-star, No. 1 ranked dual-threat quarterback is native to California and flipped to Alabama after having initially committed to USC.
With Tua Tagovailoa forgoing his senior season to declare for the NFL draft, Coach Saban is tasked with finding Tua’s successor.
The expected starter for the 2020 season is redshirt-junior Mac Jones. A former three-star from Florida, Jones played under Jalen Hurts and Tua which has allowed him to slowly climb the depth chart.
Young, however, has stirred up discussions over a quarterback competition ever since he announced his commitment to Alabama.
He has made quite a name for himself in high school at Mater Dei in Pasadena. In four years he tallied 13,250 passing yards and 152 passing touchdowns. He also earned the title of top-ranked dual-threat quarterback. He ran for 1,084 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns.
There’s a common argument that’s made which claims Young is a true freshman. This insists he lacks experience and skills of an older quarterback.
Being young may mean the coach has to spend a little bit more time molding, but it certainly hasn’t stopped others from climbing the ladder to national stardom as a freshman.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston were both redshirt freshman when the spotlight landed on them in their respective years. Manziel won the Heisman at Texas A&M in 2012, and Winston won the award in 2013 at FSU to become the youngest to ever hoist the Heisman trophy.
There wasn’t another freshman quarterback star until 2016, where there would be four true freshmen in the National Championship in three consecutive years.
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
The idea isn’t new to the Crimson Tide fanbase. Jalen Hurts, a true freshman, helped guide Alabama to a Peach Bowl win and a National Championship appearance in 2016.
Young would not be the first true freshman dual-threat quarterback to start at Alabama. Hurts, a former four-star dual threat quarterback made it easy for fans to marvel over how different of a quarterback he was. He threw for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns to go along with nine interceptions. He also ran for 954 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Two new stars emerged from the 2017 National Championship.
Georgia’s starting quarterback was Jake Fromm, the former four-star who decided to stay in-state to play. Georgia had a healthy 13-0 lead and looked like they were on pace to have a national title.
The Bulldogs ended up leaving the game empty handed after then-sophomore Hurts had been pulled from the game and replaced by true freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Both, Fromm and Tagovailoa had an impressive game that ultimately led to successful collegiate careers and spots on NFL rosters.
Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
One season later, Alabama is back in the National Championship game. This time against a Clemson team led by true freshman Trevor Lawrence.
Lawrence got the win over Alabama in impressive fashion and helped the Tigers become first team to have an undefeated season paired with a College Football Playoff win.
Coach Saban and Alabama have faced three of the aforementioned quarterbacks in their freshman seasons, and lost to two of them. Bryce Young starting in 2020 is a legitimate possibility. If one coach knows something about how special true freshman can be, it’s Nick Saban.
Though Mac Jones will likely earn the starting job for the season-opening game in Dallas vs. USC, be on the lookout for Young’s opportunities early in the season to propel himself to the top of college football.
Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on Bryce Young and his journey through his freshman year.
Notre Dame got good news when Ian Book decided to return for another season, but did they get another year of a top-five college quarterback
There is no question that the importance of having a very good, if not great quarterback in college football has only grown in recent years. Look at the likes of Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and DeShaun Watson who have won the last four national championships.
There is also no question in regards to the significance of Ian Book choosing to return to Notre Dame for his final year of eligibility in 2020 as the Irish return a two-year starter to lead them at quarterback as they hope to return to a second College Football Playoff appearance in three seasons.
Bill Bender of The Sporting News released his top 25 college quarterback rankings ahead of the 2020 season today and Book checks in with a very generous ranking of fifth overall.
Bender says of Book:
Book opted to return for his senior season, and he will add to his total of 57 career touchdowns with the Irish. Book is 20-3 as a starter, a record that is underappreciated given the pressure of playing that position at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly.
Only Trevor Lawrence (Clemson), Justin Fields (Ohio State), Sam Howell (North Carolina) and Sam Ehlinger (Texas) rank above Book while last year’s freshman sensation at USC, Kedon Solvis, checks in sixth.
I like Book and Notre Dame is fortunate to have him back for a fifth season. That said, I’m not sold on him being the fifth-best quarterback in college football right now. The young man competes each week which is the best compliment you can give a player but still has a good amount of issues with pre-snap reads (see Michigan game), being too quick to tuck and run and overall arm strength, although I do think that particular trait gets over-analyzed too often.
If Book can improve even slightly in all three of those I think you’re looking at someone who is close to that top five, but I wouldn’t have him there just yet.
And if he does perform as a top five quarterback this season, chances are great that you’re looking at an 11-plus win team this regular season.
If he doesn’t?
You’re still looking at a team that could likely muster up nine or 10 regular season wins but one that still has an obvious gap at the quarterback position between themselves and the truly elite programs.
Morant and Lawrence traded a few friendly tweets with each other on Wednesday night over their love for football.
[jwplayer 8MZWb8SZ]
After calling for college football to return, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Memphis Grizzlies rookie Ja Morant traded a few friendly tweets with each other on Wednesday night.
The exchange kicked off when Morant responded by sending off a goat emoji to Lawrence to which he recognized back. Morant then asked Lawrence to keep the Tigers on top next season once football can safely return in the fall.
Morant is a South Carolina native and a noted fan of Clemson. In fact, he wanted to play basketball for the Tigers but they did not have a scholarship available to offer and he decided to play at Murray State.
Of course, Clemson lost to Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and LSU in the 2020 CFP Championship Game on Jan. 13. Lawrence struggled in the matchup, throwing for 234 yards after completing 18 of 37 passes and no touchdowns.
With Lawrence back for his junior year, Clemson enters next season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll.
