On the second episode of his new FOX Sports web series “Ring Chronicles,” Urban Meyer was joined by Dwayne Haskins to talk about their journey together from Haskins’ recruitment out of high school to their final game as Ohio State’s coach and quarterback, the 2019 Rose Bowl, in which Haskins earned offensive player of the game honors and led the Buckeyes to a 28-23 win over Washington to send both of them out with a ring.
In an approximately 22-minute conversation with host Rob Stone, Meyer and Haskins also talked about Haskins’ development as a leader over the course of his Ohio State career, how Haskins stepped up to lead the Buckeyes to a comeback win at Michigan in 2017 and the battle between Haskins and Joe Burrow for Ohio State’s starting job before the 2018 season.
Ring Chronicles is back with @coachurbanmeyer and @dh_simba7!
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 3, 2020
They relive the biggest moments in Haskins' career at @ohiostatefb, including his QB battle against Joe Burrow and their journey to the 2019 Rose Bowl title https://t.co/V1G3MqgT22
The entire video above is worth a watch if you’re an Ohio State fan, but if you don’t have time to watch right now, we’ve recapped the highlights for you below.
“I ran a whole lap around my high school, I was so excited”
If you watched Ohio State at all during the 2018 season, then you’re probably already familiar with Haskins’ childhood dream of becoming a Buckeye, as evidenced by the now-famous video of Haskins visiting Ohio State when he was just 11 years old and correctly predicting he would be a future Buckeye himself. During his conversation with Meyer and Stone on Monday, Haskins recalled just how excited he was less than six years later when Meyer and Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson – the Buckeyes’ area recruiter for Haskins’ home state of Maryland – called to offer him a scholarship.
“Oh man, I remember it like it was yesterday,” Haskins said. “I was a sophomore in high school, it was my eighth scholarship offer, I was waiting on Ohio State to call me forever. I was with my friend who was my offensive guard at the time, and (Meyer) called me, it was right after school, it was him and Coach Johnson, Larry Johnson, on the phone, they wanted to tell me I had a great opportunity to get a scholarship to go to Ohio State. And I literally muted myself, I ran a whole lap around my high school, I was so excited.
“Because that was like my dream school. My aunt used to live in Columbus, she was a doctor at one of the local hospitals there. I used to go there every summer, when Coach Tressel was the coach, I’d go to his summer camps. So that was a dream come true for me … For Coach Johnson and Coach Meyer to be on the phone giving me an opportunity to go to Ohio State, it was like, ‘When can I commit?’”
Despite that immediate excitement, Haskins initially committed to Maryland in 2015 – while Meyer and the Buckeyes initially pursued other quarterbacks more heavily – before flipping to Ohio State in January 2016 after Tristen Wallace flipped to Oregon. That trade certainly worked out in Ohio State’s favor, and by the time Haskins arrived on campus, Meyer knew he was bringing in a potentially special quarterback.
“I went to see him work out after his senior year, and this is I believe when he already committed to us, and I spent two hours. It was the best quarterback workout I have ever witnessed in high school,” Meyer said. “He was the most prepared quarterback that I’ve ever recruited. I tell people that when I watched him, I got in the car, and I said, ‘If we don’t screw this guy up, he’s a first-round draft pick.’”
Learning to become a vocal leader
When Haskins arrived at Ohio State, the biggest area in which Meyer felt the young quarterback had to improve was his leadership. Being a vocal leader didn’t come innately to Haskins like throwing the football did, so Meyer and his then-quarterbacks coach Ryan Day worked with Haskins on breaking out of his shell.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘I’m just not a vocal leader,’ and my comment is, ‘You can’t play quarterback then,’” Meyer said. “That’s one position, that’s not negotiable. And so we worked real hard on it, Ryan Day worked hard with him, and he got better and he got better.”
Meyer encouraged Haskins to watch videos of Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady to learn from their leadership, and that made an immediate difference for Haskins in becoming a field general for the Buckeyes’ offense. Haskins and Meyer laughed when recalling one area that Haskins was “terrible” with early in his Ohio State career, though, including in his first big-game appearance at Michigan in 2017: Not clapping his hands loudly enough.
“I used to have fun with Dwayne now. Clap like a grown man, will you? I mean, clap your hands. You have to clap in front of 110,000 people. But he figured it out,” Meyer said.
Fond memories of “silencing” the fans up north
When Haskins thinks back on his iconic relief effort in Ann Arbor as a redshirt freshman in 2017, he first thinks back on what happened one week earlier against Illinois.
With Ohio State up 38-0 early in the second half and rain pouring down at Ohio Stadium, Haskins was in the game with the rest of the second-team offense when he lost a fumble that was returned for a defensive touchdown, leading Meyer to pull Haskins from the game and give him an earful. But Haskins responded when he returned to the game in the fourth quarter, leading the Buckeyes on a touchdown drive, and that response increased Meyer’s confidence in Haskins while teaching Haskins about the importance of being prepared.
“I’m like man, I effed up,” Haskins said recalling the fumble against Illinois. “And I came back in the game, and just that whole last two series, just got myself together and Coach Meyer told me, ‘That’s how you play quarterback at Ohio State.’ And that week really propelled me into preparation as far as getting ready for that game against the team up north, because it taught me to always be ready whenever my number was called.
“That week against Illinois really opened my eyes to like, ‘OK, something can happen at any point, and they’re going to need me. I need to be at my best.’ And I wasn’t that week. So going into team up north that week, I had to make sure I was at my best. I studied harder than I ever studied that whole season. And I didn’t wish injury upon anybody, but it just so happened that J.T. got hurt, and I was more ready than ever just to be ready to go into the game and help my team win.”
Ohio State was forced to turn to Haskins in the third quarter of the following week’s game at Michigan, trailing 20-14, after J.T. Barrett aggravated a knee injury he had suffered at the beginning of the game when a cameraman ran into him. And after a couple costly false start penalties that Haskins said happened because he wasn’t clapping loudly enough, Haskins completed a 27-yard pass to Austin Mack on 3rd-and-13 that led to a go-ahead touchdown and ultimately a 31-20 Ohio State win.
“After that play, I’m like, ‘OK, we got them now,’” Haskins said. “The whole crowd went silent because they thought they had us because we were down 20-14 going into halftime. And man, silencing them, other than a couple games I had later during the (2018) season, that was probably one of my favorite moments playing quarterback for Ohio State.”
Dwayne Haskins led Ohio State to a comeback win over Michigan in 2017, which helped propel him to his record-breaking season leading the Buckeyes offense in 2018.
“For almost two years, me and Joe couldn’t stand each other”
Before both went on to become record-breaking college quarterbacks and NFL first-round picks, Haskins and Burrow went head-to-head in a battle to climb Ohio State’s quarterback depth chart. First, they battled to become the backup quarterback in 2017, then they battled to succeed Barrett as the Buckeyes’ new starter in 2018.
Haskins ultimately pulled ahead in that battle after Burrow broke his hand during a 2017 practice, and he did what he needed to do to secure the starting job in 2018. But Meyer said Monday, as he has contended since the battle between them was actually happening, that the competition between the two of them was very tight before Burrow ultimately left as a graduate transfer to LSU in the summer of 2018.
“It was as close as you can get,” Meyer said. “It was a monumental, historic battle between two elite quarterbacks that are now first-round picks and they’re going to be faces of franchises. So we wanted to do it right, we did do it right, it was very close and Dwayne came out on top. And I think I speak for Dwayne that we were all heartbroken when Joe left, because we loved Joe.”
Haskins said he was “very proud” of Burrow for the Heisman-winning and national championship season he had at LSU last year, and Haskins said they still talk to this day. Haskins admitted they weren’t the best of friends, though, when they were competing for the job against each other.
“Man, I love Joe, but during that battle, like for almost two years, me and Joe couldn’t stand each other,” Haskins said. “Because it was just every day, whether it was winter workouts or we had to do mat drills and it was me and him on the mat drills, it was gritty. Or it was practice and me and him were trying to get in front of each other to get a rep to throw with one of the starting receivers, and it was always this heated competition. But we knew we got the best out of each other, and we always made each other better.”
"Man I love Joe, but during that QB battle we couldn't stand each other." @dh_simba7 looks back on the fierce competition with Joe Burrow ahead of @OhioStateFB's 2018 season pic.twitter.com/MJCq7q7H1e
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 3, 2020
An emotional final game
Less than three days after Haskins threw for a school-record 499 yards to lead Ohio State to a Big Ten Championship Game win over Northwestern, Meyer informed the Buckeyes that he would be retiring as their coach following the season-ending Rose Bowl, making that last game far more than just a consolation prize after missing the College Football Playoff. Haskins said Monday that he cried after learning that Meyer was retiring – though not in front of the team – and that he and the other leaders on the team talked about making sure they sent Meyer out the right way.
Meyer, meanwhile, knew that would probably also be Haskins’ final game at Ohio State – though Haskins still says he didn’t know whether he was leaving at the time – so he thought as much about Haskins and the Buckeyes’ seniors going out the right way as he did about finishing his Ohio State career with a win.
“I’ve been pretty good over my career on being able to lock in and focus on what’s important,” Meyer said. “But you always remember your last game, especially if it’s the Rose Bowl, and as coaches I’ve always looked at it, we’re secondary. This is all about making sure those guys are ready to play their best game.”
That Rose Bowl win still holds a special place in both of their hearts, and Haskins – who says that someday when he has kids, he plans to take them to the Rose Bowl and show them the plaque that will forever bear his name as the game’s MVP – says there are three moments from that day that still resonate in Haskins’ mind, including one that was reflective of the deadpan humor Meyer often demonstrated in press conferences.
“When I was awarded the trophy, they gave me the opportunity to talk and I just said just how much I appreciated Coach for coming into my home recruiting me, molding me into the man I am today and just being a great influence in my life,” Haskins recalled. “He gave me a hug, and I’ll always remember that.
“Then I remember leaving the field and all the Ohio State fans were like ‘Dwayne, one more year! Please, one more year!’ And I was like, ‘Man, this is too much.’ It was a lot. And then the third memory that I have was the post(game press) conference, when Coach and I did the interview, and Coach looked at the stat sheet and he said, ‘We had a good game, but it looked like Dwayne missed some throws,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I did. I did miss some throws,’” Haskins said, laughing.
"I'll never forget leaving the field and all the @OhioStateFB fans yelling 'Dwayne! One more year!'"@dh_simba7 shares his top three moments from the 2019 Rose Bowl with @CoachUrbanMeyer pic.twitter.com/eX8Q567bE9
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 4, 2020
Haskins said he considers that Rose Bowl to be one of his four favorite games from his Ohio State career along with the 2018 Big Ten Championship Game win and each of his two wins against Michigan, including the aforementioned comeback in 2017 and the Buckeyes’ 62-39 win in 2018.
