Air Noland will leave his native Georgia to become the Ohio State Buckeyesā next Justin Fields.
The Ohio State Buckeyes landed a very important commitment on Saturday night for the 2024 class in four-star quarterback Air Noland.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Noland is the No. 8 quarterback in the country, the No. 12 player from Georgia and the No. 84 player nationally. He had 33 official offers including Alabama, Auburn and Clemson before committing to the Buckeyes. Although the Fairburn native was not recruited by his home stateās powerhouse program, he could be Ohio Stateās next Justin Fields.
After seeing No. 1 overall prospect for the 2024 recruiting class, five-star quarterback Dylan Raiola, decommit at the very end of last year, good for the Buckeyes poaching a top-flight talent out of The Peach State.
Letās discuss what this commitment means for the Buckeyes, the Big Ten and college football.
Ohio State lands Air Nolandās four-star commitment to be next Justin Fields
No, it is not just that Noland and Fields hail from the same Metro Atlanta area that makes this an apt comparison, nor is it that they both favor the Scarlet and Gray. Just look at Nolandās 247Sports profile. The player he compares the most favorably to is Washington Huskies star Michael Penix Jr., who plays a lot like Fields. So much arm talent and dynamism from the quarterback positionā¦
If Noland is half the player of Penix or a third of the player as Fields was in Columbus, this is massive for the Buckeyesā chances of reasserting its dominance in the Big Ten. Arch rival Michigan may be here to stay, but if Ohio State honestly confronts some of its issues, it can continue to contend for College Football Playoff berths annually. Noland could be their next star by 2025 or so.
As for what this means outside of the Big Ten footprint, Nolandās commitment suggests Georgia is in great position to land Raiolaās five-star commitment. He may be a Nebraska legacy and may be drawing interest from USC, but Georgia is not backing down when it comes to courting the best quarterback in each recruiting cycle. They came up shy of winning the Arch Manning sweepstakes.
Overall, the Buckeyes have landed a promising quarterback prospect they can win with by 2025.
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