Matthew Baldwin ready for shot as QB for Ohio State
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. -- After shaking off a few early misfires, new Ohio State quarterback commit, Matthew Baldwin, settled into a nice groove to guide the Cavaliers to a breezy 38-17 win over Helotes-O’Connor on Saturday night.
Baldwin completed nearly 80-percent of his passes with a pair of touchdowns against a secondary with two solid three-star defensive backs in Millard Bradford and Zaire Taylor. He also ran for a score of his own to put his team through to a state semifinal matchup this Saturday against Katy.
“We knew they had some definite studs on the back-end,” he said. “We prepared for them all week … we adjusted some stuff, fixed some stuff, and came out strong in the second half.”
Before making headlines over the weekend with his play on the field, his decision to commit to the Buckeyes’ garnered plenty of attention. Baldwin had been one of the hottest quarterbacks on the market, after also picking up recent offers from Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and North Carolina.
“It just felt like the right thing to do,” he said. “There’s so many things you gotta think about when making the decision and I thought about them all with my family. They had some great advice for me, and what I’m most excited about is that I’m done thinking about it and I can focus on winning a state championship.”
IN HIS WORDS
On Baldwin’s recent in-home visit with Buckeyes coaches
“Coach (Urban) Meyer and Coach (Ryan) Day were here on Thursday, and that was great,” he said. “They spoke with me about the role of an Ohio State quarterback, the huge responsibility that comes with it, but at the same time the honor it is to be in that group.”
On choosing Ohio State over his other recent offers
“I made it clear that I was going to Ohio State to them,” he said. “Coach (P.J.) Fleck is an awesome guy and I think that he’s going to have success in the next few years.”
RIVALS REACTION
Fleck was brought up specifically after Baldwin seemed very enthusiastic about him following his Gophers offer. He’s a tall, well-put together prospect, and he’s not the same sort of player as fellow Buckeyes commit, Emory Jones - but he very well could prove to be the better passer. Ohio State was smart to target Baldwin even with another highly-ranked quarterback already in its class, and should be given the chance to compete with Jones.