Sources: Ex-UGA QB Fields visiting Buckeyes
Former Georgia quarterback Justin Fields is visiting Ohio State this weekend and all indications are that he plans on joining the Buckeyes and enrolling in classes at OSU next week.
Sources told ESPN last month that Fields was leaning toward transferring to Ohio State, after deciding to leave Georgia, where sophomore Jake Fromm is entrenched as the starting quarterback.
Sources told ESPN that Fields has removed most of his belongings from his dorm room at Georgia and has informed the coaching staff that he’s leaving.
Fields, the No. 1 overall player in the 2018 ESPN 300, is expected to apply to the NCAA for a hardship waiver, which if granted, would make him eligible to play at Ohio State in 2019.
Fields has reportedly hired Atlanta-based attorney Thomas Mars, who successfully helped current Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson and five other former Ole Miss players obtain hardship waivers after the Rebels received a bowl ban for the second consecutive season in 2018.
Sources told ESPN last month that Fields and his father, Ivant Fields, had multiple meetings with Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart about his future.
Fields, from Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Georgia, completed 27 of 39 passes for 328 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in 12 games this season. He was used sporadically throughout games, with much of his action coming in mop-up duty, and didn’t play in the Bulldogs’ 28-21 loss to Texas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The Buckeyes are expected to lose third-year sophomore Dwayne Haskins Jr., who threw for 4,831 yards with 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions in his first season as a starter in 2018.
ESPN’s Todd McShay ranks Haskins Jr. as the No. 18 player available — and No. 1 quarterback — for April’s NFL draft.
The Buckeyes bring back redshirt freshman Tate Martell of Las Vegas, who was ranked the No. 127 player overall and No. 6 dual-threat quarterback in the 2017 ESPN 300. Martell completed 23 of 28 passes for 269 yards with one touchdown in 2018, while rushing for 128 yards with two scores.
In a tweet on Dec. 21, Martell seemed to warn Fields about picking Ohio State as a transfer destination: “word of advice: — don’t swing and miss … especially not your second time.”