Eight days after picking up an Ohio State offer after an impressive camp performance, four-star Texas quarterback Austin Novosad was back in Columbus for an official visit.
After a great conversation with coach @ryandaytime and @CoreyDennis_ I am blessed and excited to say I have received an offer from The Ohio State University! pic.twitter.com/bzz2Sap7LC
— Austin Novosad (@Austin2novosad) June 1, 2022
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound signal-caller remains committed to Baylor but is considering flipping to Ohio State. C.J. Stroud’s expected departure after this season would leave Kyle McCord and Devin Brown as the only scholarship quarterbacks on Ohio State’s roster, so the Buckeyes are targeting Novosad as a potential addition to their 2023 class.
Novosad didn’t get to spend much time in Columbus while camping on June 1, only staying in town for one night. Following last weekend’s official visit, Novosad has a much better grasp of what Ohio State has to offer.
“It was good,” Novosad told Eleven Warriors of his official visit. “It just happened to be really the only weekend we could get back up there. I think it was good just to see everything in order to make a firm decision on what I want to do. We got a little bit more in-depth than the last visit. I got to talk a little academics, meet with some business professors and then sit down with coach Dennis and talked about how I fit the development of the QB side.”
Novosad met with quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis extensively on his visit. Dennis gave Novosad a full recruiting pitch, addressing head-on the elephant in the room of a projected crowded quarterback room for the foreseeable future.
“Everyone can see the success that the QBs have had,” Novosad said. “You realize that there's always gonna be a good QB room everywhere you go. But (Ohio State is) gonna really help you reach your potential there.”
Dennis also sold the success quarterbacks have had under Ryan Day’s tutelage, telling the Texas product that at Ohio State, his head coach will essentially double as his quarterbacks coach.
Novosad met with Day on two separate occasions on his visit.
“I got to talk to him and see what he had to say about where I fit in,” Novosad said. “He thinks that they can develop me really well and ultimately (have me play). Having coach Day out there at every practice and in the games too, he’s really on the same page as all of his QBs.”
Freshman quarterback Devin Brown was Novosad’s player host over the weekend. Brown gave Novosad a firsthand account of what his experience at Ohio State has been like since enrolling at OSU in January.
“He told me this but all QB rooms you get in, only one can play,” Novosad said. “So instead of making it so competitive, seeing how those guys bond and hang out with each other, everyone really wants the best for everyone. I think that was kind of cool to see.”
The pair of signal-callers also swapped recruiting stories while hanging out together. While their circumstances aren’t entirely the same, Brown was also previously committed to another school (USC) before eventually deciding to flip to the Buckeyes late in his recruitment. Ohio State is hoping to take the same path with Novosad.
“He said that he was kind of under-the-radar until he went out to the Elite 11, which I’m about to go to,” Novosad said. “He said after that, he just kind of blew up. He also had a different situation because Quinn Ewers was there when he made his commitment. So I think ultimately Devin just kind of put his head down and said ‘I’m going to beat out Quinn.’ Well, he ended up (transferring), so it’s looking to work out for him, so that’s kind of cool.”
Novosad will take an official visit to Baylor this weekend and said he won’t make any other officials “unless something crazy happens.” After he visits Baylor, he plans on taking a week and a half to evaluate his options and decide whether he will honor his commitment to the Bears or flip to Ohio State. He’ll likely decide on his future at the end of June or early July.
Novosad is also paying careful attention to the dominoes of the recruiting quarterback carousel. Two of the top five quarterbacks in the 2023 cycle, Dante Moore and Jaden Rashada, are expected to make commitments soon. Novosad said he expects the schools that miss out on those two players to explore other options at quarterback for the current cycle and that he’d be open to listening to other schools.
“Everyone can see the success that the QBs have had. You realize that there's always gonna be a good QB room everywhere you go. But (Ohio State is) gonna really help you reach your potential there.”– Austin Novosad on Ohio State
But for now, he’s operating under the assumption he’ll be at either Ohio State or Baylor next season.
“It’s a lot to think about,” Novosad said of his upcoming decision. “I think I’ll have a better idea after the Baylor official visit to be honest and compare those schools after taking officials to both. You really get the full picture on official visits, I think.”
