After competing for Ohio State's starting quarterback job this spring, Joe Burrow announced Tuesday that he will leave Ohio State to complete his college football career elsewhere as a graduate transfer.
After weeks of struggling with this decision, I have decided to leave Ohio State and explore other options. My teammates and coaches all know the love I feel for them. I will decide where I will play next year in the coming weeks.
— Joey Burrow (@Joe_Burrow10) May 8, 2018
A redshirt junior who graduated from Ohio State on Sunday, Burrow will be able to play immediately for another school and has two remaining seasons of eligibility.
Burrow competed with Dwayne Haskins and Tate Martell for Ohio State's starting quarterback job this spring, and appeared to make a real case for winning the job. He led all three quarterbacks with 15 completions on 22 attempts for 238 passing yards in the spring game. Burrow also told reporters after the spring game, however, that he would consider a graduate transfer if he did not win the starting job.
"I came here to play," Burrow said. "I didn’t come here to sit on the bench for four years. And I know I’m a pretty darn good quarterback. And I want to play somewhere."
While Ohio State hasn't made an announcement on who its starting quarterback will be, Burrow's decision to transfer likely means the starter will be Haskins, the presumed frontrunner for the starting job after he led Ohio State to a comeback win at Michigan as the No. 2 quarterback last season. That said, the Buckeyes could opt to wait and see how Haskins and Martell perform in fall camp before officially naming a starter.
Good luck to you brotha! Appreciate you for making me better, see you at the top https://t.co/aGUS8WpGE8
— Dwayne Haskins, Jr (@dh_simba7) May 8, 2018
My dawg, this hurts to know you wont be here anymore because you made everyone on our team a better person when you were around. Thanks for being someone I could lean on during my struggles. The next school is going to be getting a special player! Love you brotha. https://t.co/laGH6xYLPp
— TATE MARTELL (@TheTateMartell) May 8, 2018
Burrow, meanwhile, will immediately become one of the most coveted players on the graduate transfer market, as he offers the potential to be an upgrade for any team that came out of its spring without a solid starting quarterback of its own.
In three years at Ohio State, Burrow never started a game but appeared in 11 games, completing 29 of 39 passing attempts for two touchdowns, with no interceptions, while running 15 times for 53 yards and a touchdown.
Because he wanted the chance to be a starting quarterback and eventually have the chance to take his game to the NFL, Burrow felt like transferring from Ohio State was the decision he had to make. That doesn't mean, however, that it was an easy decision for him to make.
"I’ve put so much into this, and I’ve put my heart and soul into it, and if I were to leave, it would be pretty devastating for me," Burrow said after the spring game. "But at the same time, I would understand how they went."
With Burrow's decision to transfer, the Buckeyes are now down to three scholarship quarterbacks on their roster: Haskins, Martell and Matthew Baldwin. Burrow's transfer leaves the Buckeyes with 86 scholarship players accounted for on their roster, one over the 85-man limit.
