Column: Should big programs like Ohio State even bother to recruit high school QBs anymore?
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The current college football landscape is almost completely different than it was even five years ago.
Players can legally and rightfully be paid for their services, 12 teams make the College Football Playoff (and likely soon to be even more) and nobody recruits their own quarterbacks anymore.
Rather than recruiting and developing a player out of high school, having him ride the bench for a couple years and then step into a starting role with a few years of development under his belt, many big programs across the country are electing to bring in an experienced proven commodity from a smaller school who can step in and start right away.
Ohio State has done it in the past.
In 2019 the Buckeyes brought in Justin Fields, and he immediately threw for more than 3,200 yards and scored 51 total touchdowns. In 2024 Ryan Day brought in Will Howard, and the result was a National Championship.
The approach has been successful for Ohio State, but they have still largely gone the way of the high school quarterback.
Julian Sayin, while technically an Alabama transfer, was in Tuscaloosa for less than two weeks, and was heavily recruited by Day out of high school. He was developed in Columbus before earning the starting role in 2025.
That said, the Buckeyes have had a ton of misses when taking highly regarded prospects from the prep ranks.
If we’re counting Sayin, Ohio State has really only had two successful quarterbacks under Ryan Day who came straight to Columbus from high school — the other being CJ Stroud in the 2020 class.
Outside of those two, it’s been nothing but whiffs:
- 2018 – Matthew Baldwin
- Never threw a pass at Ohio State, transferred to TCU and never played
- 2020 – Jack Miller
- Attempted 14 passes at Ohio State, transferred to Florida and played in one game
- 2021 – Quinn Ewers and Kyle McCord
- Ewers never threw a pass at Ohio State, transferred to Texas and was good but not great
- McCord started one unsuccessful season at Ohio State, transferred and had a good year at Syracuse
- 2022 – Devin Brown
- Started a bowl game at Ohio State (lost), transferred to Cal and did not win a starting job
- 2023 – Lincoln Kienholz
- Threw 36 passes over three seasons at Ohio State, transferred to Louisville and is starting in 2026
- 2024 – Air Noland
- Transferred to South Carolina and threw three passes for the Gamecocks in 2025, transferred to Memphis and did not win the starting job in 2026
Four of those seven guys were never going to be Ohio State caliber players.
Ewers could have started at Ohio State, but did not want to sit behind Stroud, who threw for nearly 4,700 yards and 41 touchdowns during Ewers’ first season at Texas in 2022. McCord was great in a low-pressure situation at Syracuse, but wasn’t going to be the player the Buckeyes wanted him to be.
The jury is still out on Kienholz, who looked good in his first game action at Louisville on Sunday night, but he was not going to start over a second-year Sayin.
Then there’s the other guys on the current roster.
Ohio State landed five-star Tavien St. Clair in the 2025 class, expected to be the heir apparent to Sayin. Instead, St. Clair appeared to have not even won the backup QB job this season, with 2026 signee Luke Fahey the first man off the bench in the season opener against Ball State.
There is obviously still time for St. Clair to come into his own, but it’s at least a little bit concerning that your former blue chip prospect is not the clear backup behind the incumbent starter at this point in his career.
All that to say: While the hits have been among the best quarterbacks in college football, the misses have far outweighed them in quantity. Day has been lauded as a QB whisperer, and the product on the field has been mostly great, but there is reason to question what the strategy should be moving forward.
Looking around at the rest of the top programs in the country as well, it feels as though the days of recruiting high school quarterbacks are rapidly coming to an end.
Take last year’s College Football Playoff for example.
All four of the teams to make it to the Semifinal Round (Indiana, Oregon, Ole Miss and Miami) were starting transfer quarterbacks. It was Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza who led the Hoosiers to a national title over Georgia transfer Carson Beck, the same Beck who took down Ohio State in the Quarterfinals.
That trend has carried over to 2026, where five of the top 10 programs in the preseason AP Top 25 are starting transfer quarterbacks.
The traditional high school QBs among the group are all very good, with Sayin at Ohio State, CJ Carr at Notre Dame, Arch Manning at Texas and Marcel Reed at Texas A&M all among the best in the country. That said, transfers like Dante Moore (UCLA -> Oregon), Josh Hoover (TCU -> Indiana) and Darian Mensah (Duke -> Miami) are all great players experiencing success at their new destination.
It begs the question: Is continuing to put in the effort and resources to recruit high school quarterbacks as one of the top programs in the country even worth it anymore?
In the era of NIL, is it not potentially more cost effective to spend $3M-$5 on a proven transfer quarterback who is going to come in and dominate right away? Would you rather spend $1M-$3M on a guy who was good in high school but whose game may not transfer over, who may need to sit for a year or two before they even take the field and who could opt to transfer before that time even comes?
It’s an interesting situation to find yourself in, especially as Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have only really ever gone the transfer QB route out of necessity. They brought in Fields in 2019 because they (rightfully) did not believe in Tate Martell. They went out and got Howard in 2024 because McCord was not good enough in 2023.
The transfer QB has always been a backup plan rather than a strategy, but could/should that change?
Ohio State and Ryan Day will always be able to land top prospects at the position. The Buckeyes have a high four-star in Brady Edmunds committed in the 2027 class. They have the nation’s top QB in Christopher Vargas currently committed in the 2028 class. These are both very good players.
Bringing in guys with talent hasn’t been and won’t ever be an issue, but sometimes those highly touted recruits don’t work out. If you have the option to go out and get someone who has already proven they can be successful at the next level, is that not a better use of your time and resources?
Ohio State isn’t there just yet, but it feels like the rest of the upper echelon of college football is shifting that way. With how fast things move these days, you cannot afford to be left behind.
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