For a time, it looked like we'd seen the last of Justin Fields in an Ohio State uniform.
Thankfully, the recent re-installation of the Big Ten season means that won't be the case.
As head coach Ryan Day has noted a few times, Fields never wavered in his desire to return to school for one more shot at a Heisman Trophy and more importantly, a national title, following last season's heartbreaking loss to Clemson in a College Football Playoff semifinal.
While the regular season will be an abbreviated one, those goals remain intact. And if Fields is to achieve both, there's a great chance he'll set a few new Ohio State single-game, single-season and career records along the way.
A sampling of marks in his crosshairs include the following:
SINGLE-SEASON COMPLETION PERCENTAGE
Dwayne Haskins holds the current record with a ridiculous 70.0 percent mark in 2018, completing 373-of-533 throws.
Last season, Fields hit on 238-of-354 passes for a 67.2 percent result. Yes, that's a good bit away from Haskins' mark but with all the talk about how Fields has improved in the offseason, knowing what the young man already brought to the table, this one feels like it's at least worth keeping an eye on.
In case you're wondering, Fields completed 69.2 percent of his albeit limited throws (27-of-39) as a true freshman reserve for the Georgia Bulldogs.
TOUCHDOWN PASSES IN A SINGLE GAME
Ohio State is going to be looking to rack up style points due to a cushy schedule and just eight regular season games (plus a B1G championship matchup) to prove itself worthy of a playoff bid.
Throw in that reality with the fact Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson combine to give Fields a pair of elite targets, along with a host of younger talent stacked behind, and it seems plausible he will throw for six touchdowns (or more) in a single-game.
If Fields turns reaches six, he'd join Haskins (twice), J.T. Barrett (twice) and Kenny Guiton in accomplishing the feat. Might he beat them all with seven? I wouldn't bet against it. Day could be out for blood and you know he wants to reward Fields for staying put amid the madness when he could've easily opted out and remained, at worst, a Top-10 NFL draft pick.
SINGLE-SEASON PASSING EFFICIENCY
Fields actually set the school's single-season record for passing efficiency last year when he put up a 181.4 mark, bettering Haskins' 174.1 from 2018.
The question here is whether or not Fields can improve on his 2019 result to own the two best single-season passing efficiency tallies in school history.
Oh, and if you're wondering, he's how the NCAA calculates passer rating according to captaincalculator.com:
NCAA Passer Rating = ((8.4 x Passing Yards) + (330 x Touchdown Passes) + (100 x Number of Completions) – (200 x Interceptions)) ÷ Passing Attempts
Seems simple enough.
CAREER PASSING EFFICIENCY (MIN. 300 COMP)
Haskins holds the school's career mark, which is also the Big Ten record, with a 173.9 spanning the 2017-18 seasons.
As we already touched on, Fields posted a 181.4 last year but he's not the career leader because he doesn't yet have enough completions to qualify.
Last year, Fields connected on 238 throws so he needs 62 more this year to reach the minimum of 300.
Assuming the current schedule isn't interrupted, it feels like a foregone conclusion he'll hold both the school and conference passing efficiency records.
CAREER AVERAGE TOTAL OFFENSE PER GAME
Again, Haskins holds the career mark here with 254.1 average yards per game over his 2017-18 efforts. The inputs there are 5,396 yards in 22 games.
Fields, just like with passing efficiency, only needs a few more outings featuring his typical production because he averaged 268.4 yards of total offense per game last year in 14 games (233.8 passing, 34.6 rushing).
