Haskins for Heisman talk heats up
It’s easy to start getting caught up in the hyperbole surrounding Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
The sophomore has only started six games in his college career, but he’s 6-0 and throwing the ball like nobody’s business.
Third-ranked Ohio State’s 49-26 victory over Indiana last Saturday was just the latest chapter in his success story. Haskins completed 33-of-44 passes for 455 yards and six touchdowns. The yardage total turned out to be three yards short of the school record set by Art Schlichter in 1981, the TD passes tied an Ohio State mark held by J.T. Barrett and Kenny Guiton, and his 33 completions and 462 yards of total offense broke school records.
That brings his season totals to 26 touchdown passes, four interceptions and a 71.7 completion percentage.
So if Haskins’ name is continually mentioned in Heisman hype, he has the numbers to back it up.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was asked after Ohio State’s latest win whether Haskins is deserving of such recognition.
“455 yards now. And high, high end percentage completion. … I mean, I’m not going to hold him back.”
That was Meyer’s tactful way of saying Haskins absolutely should be in the running.
“He’s an accurate passer now,” Meyer said. “You give him time and you give him a good group of receivers, he’s a dangerous guy.”
Haskins’ teammates agree wholeheartedly.
“First of all, we’re biased because he’s our guy,” said wide receiver Terry McLaurin, the recipient of two Haskins touchdown passes last week. “But I feel like a guy who is a first-year starter … I’m not going to take any credit from the guys doing what they’re doing at other schools … but he’s beat two top 15 teams on the road in tough environments and through a lot of adversity.
“For a first-time quarterback to come in do that with our offense, the numbers he’s putting up … ”
Haskins is looking forward to potentially another big game this week at home against Minnesota (noon ET, FS1) after his huge day against Indiana.
“You know, even though we won, it didn’t feel like one of the best games we played,” Haskins said. “Gotta keep getting better. But letdown, no, but room for improvement.”
One area of improvement that Meyer plans to focus on is defense after Ohio State gave up 406 yards of total offense (322 through the air) and 26 points to Indiana.
“At the end of the day, you have to play great defense to get where you gotta get,” Meyer said. “And I’m confident that we will — because at times we’ve played great defense and we have to get everybody healthy and get back to that.”