Stop me if you have heard this one before.
A young, talented quarterbacks coach tells Urban Meyer about a relatively unknown quarterback prospect from Texas and convinces the head coach to bring him to Columbus.
Much like Tom Herman sang J.T. Barrett's praises in 2013, Ryan Day got Matthew Baldwin on Meyer's radar midseason and before Baldwin's high school season was over, he had committed to become the latest quarterback to become a Buckeye.
After a relationship with Emory Jones appeared to sour, Ohio State was back in the market for another signal-caller in the 2018 class. Meyer said Day came to him with game film from one of Baldwin's games during Ohio State's game prep for then-No. 2-ranked Penn State, which caught him off guard.
"We're sitting there getting ready to play Penn State, and he's coming up to me saying, 'Hey, let's watch this kid from Lake Travis,' and I'm ready to pass out, saying it's 10:30 at night, I've got 3rd-down-and-6 in my mind and we're trying to watch another quarterback," Meyer said. "But that's the way it is. And so you're squeezing a recruiting process into a small time frame."
Before evening turning on the game film, there was something off the field that caught Meyer's eye. What stood out about Baldwin to Meyer was his loyalty to his high school program which he could have easily transferred out of after not starting until his senior season.
"I saw a kid that had a chance to leave Lake Travis, and nowadays every kid, I'd say 90 percent of those players leave because they have to go get theirs, and here's a guy who was loyal to his school," Meyer said at his signing day press conference. "It was a great high school, one of my first experiences down there. That's as good a football as there is in the United States of America."
When recruiting a quarterback, Meyer said there are five skills that he looks for: Competitive spirit, toughness, leadership, intelligence and getting out of a bad play.
Meyer said Baldwin checks all of those boxes, much like the quarterback Herman brought to Columbus more than four years ago.
"I think you see so many mistakes made at that position because people don't categorize like that, and he checks the box off perfectly going right down the list, and when you see NFL make mistakes in drafting guys, it's because they didn't fit those top four categories, top five categories," Meyer said. "You have a non-competitor at quarterback, it's a bad day. You have a guy that is not very intelligent, not very tough and can't lead, really, really bad day, and we've been lucky around here four years; we've had one."
After singing the praises of Baldwin, Meyer made sure he didn't leave out Day, who he said had an opportunity to earn a head coaching job in the SEC. The Ohio State head coach said after watching Baldwin practice, he was sold on the quarterback that Day had pitched him during Penn State week.
"Ryan Day did a heck of a job," Meyer said. "I went and watched him practice, too. I trust Ryan Day. Ryan Day did a phenomenal job."
Baldwin's high school career is set to come to an end this weekend, as his team is set to play in the state championship game against Allen High School, which features Grant Tisdale, a 2019 recruiting target for the Buckeyes, also at quarterback.
