Fixed It For You: Revisiting Quarterback Rankings in 11W's Four Kings Series

The offseason is full of look-back features as outlets work to pass the time until Big Ten media days, which for many kicks off the true beginning of football season from a fan perspective and oh by the way begins in three days. 

Around these parts, 11W's Four Kings series, hosted by Dan Hope, the hardest working man on the OSU beat and Matt Gutridge, our superb data analyst, has been running since mid-June with the goal of identifying Ohio State's four greatest players at each position as determined by community voting. 

So far, the series has tackled guards/centers, defensive ends, linebackers, receivers, defensive tackles and quarterbacks. 

For the most part, even if I disagreed with a name or two tabbed as Kings, or the general order of the top 10 to some degree, I've at least felt like you could make an argument for the full list... except for the quarterback rankings. 

And hey I get it. Beauty is somewhat in the eye of the beholder and more importantly, the reality is there will always be a lot of subjectivity as fans evaluate players against their own criteria of what "best" or "greatest" might mean but damn, I think some of you were huffing paint when voting on the quarterbacks. The quarterback version of Four Kings ran over a month ago but I can't let it go so this article is a bit of therapy. 

Before you get all feisty, just know (1) I love all the guys on this list just like you do and (2) I'm coming at you mostly tongue-in-cheek so don't get too defensive in the comments.

The top two on the list didn't create much of a fuss in my mind as Troy Smith and Justin Fields are my own top two signal-callers in school history – although if I had one game to win, I'd go with Fields over Smith so he's at the top of my mountain. 

Where things start to go sideways comes as J.T. Barrett and Rex Kern were named as the third and fourth Kings, slotted ahead of C.J. Stroud, whose most recent outing was the greatest single-game performance I've ever seen by an Ohio State quarterback. 

But we'll get to that injustice here in a bit. First up is taking to task any crazy person voting Craig Krenzel and Art Schlichter ahead of Braxton Miller (or Joe Germaine for that matter). 

Yeah, Miller was only 10 votes behind Krenzel and nine behind Schlichter but he should've been way in front of those dudes and even as high as fifth or sixth in the overall voting. 

None of the three were deadly accurate passers if we're being real but Miller's 59.4% completion rate was still better than Art's 52.3% and Craig's 56.8%. And Miller was much more careful throwing the ball while still logging more touchdown passes - his TD/INT ratio of 52/17 absolutely demolishes both Krenzel's (28/21) and Schlichter's (50/46). 

Miller was also much better with his feet, racking up 3,315 rushing yards and 35 touchdowns on 5.5 yards per carry. Schlichter was a capable scrambler/runner and finished his Ohio State career with his 1,303 rushing yards and 35 ground scores (2.5 ypc) but that still pales in comparison to Braxton. Krenzel? He cranked out 600 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 2.4 yards per carry. 

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Again, I give Schlichter his due – he was a two-time first-team All-B1G selection and won the Silver Football in 1981, but damn, Braxton was two-time league MVP, two-time B1G offensive player of the year, two-time B1G quarterback of the year and two-time first-team All-B1G. 

What's wild is that Braxton didn't even play that long ago yet his exploits seem to have been overlooked as if he played during the black-and-white TV era yet a quarterback that was honestly more of a game manager than anything is slotted two spots ahead of him in the Four Kings? Blasphemy. Again no disrespect intended but if not for the incredible talent around him and on defense that did the heaviest lifting on the way to the national title, I don't think many would have Krenzel near the top 10. The rankings felt like a classic vote with your heart and not your head scenario. Or, many simply defined "greatest" or "best" by including what the team accomplished in the evaluation. 

Kern as the fourth King also grabbed my attention. I think Kern has a place on the list as he was indeed a top-flight athlete and guided the 1968 offense to the national title. Obviously you can't pay much attention to the passing stats in a Woody Hayes offense. Still, Kern completed 57.3% of his throws that magical season and accounted for 15 touchdowns. Fourth still feels way too high considering the talent at the position over the last few decades.  

I was a J.T. Barrett apologist for a long time and still love the dude. I have him just outside my Four Kings. I have him fifth because he was a freaking gamer more often than not and his leadership skills at the position may never be equaled in Columbus. He was pretty damn good on short/intermediate stuff and he'd get you the tough yards on the ground all day long. But if I've got one game to win – which factored heavily into my own criteria for deciding the Four Kings – J.T. is just outside that realm. 

With Barrett and Kern missing from my top four, that means Stroud is third and Dwayne Haskins is fourth. Haskins' lightning-fast release and pinpoint accuracy were something to behold. 

The Stroud hate from a small faction of fans over the years is still legit baffling to me. I know "he didn't beat Michigan" as if this isn't a team sport but he completed 67% of his passes across those two losses with 743 passing yards and four touchdowns albeit against two picks. Too bad Stroud didn't play cornerback or safety or offensive or defensive line, I guess. He was still good enough to be a two-time league offensive player of the year, quarterback of the year, first team All-B1G and Heisman Trophy finalist. 

A slight on par with Braxton finishing ninth is Joe Germaine not even making the top 10. Joe put up three straight seasons with a passer rating over 150, tossed 56 touchdowns against 20 picks, won the Rose Bowl MVP in 1997 and won the B1G MVP and co-offensive player of the year in 1998. I've got Joe on my list in the six-hole right behind Miller. 

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Another name that failed to make reader-based top-10 was Terrelle Pryor, maybe in favor of Cardale Jones who finished 10th. Nobody can take away what Jones did on the national title march but his sample size is just too small for me to make room for him in my top-10. Top dozen? He's knocking on that door behind Bobby Hoying who I debated hard for a spot in the top 10 but settled on No. 11.

I know Pryor is polarizing and his passes weren't always a thing of beauty but man that dude was a dual-threat beast who completed nearly 62% of his throws with 57 touchdowns against 26 picks. He also rushed for over 2,100 yards on 5.0 per carry with another 17 touchdowns. The craziness he'd pull out of nowhere on what felt like every 3rd-and-long was something to watch.  

So with that, here's my undoubtedly correct top-10 versus the reader voting: 

All right. Let it rip. Show me the error of my ways.