A QB doesn't just go from mediocre to great in a single year. They develop and hone their abilities over a long period of time, if they are being well coached. Having watched Ohio football for awhile, under the prior QB coach, quarterbacks showed little, if any, improvement during their years at Ohio. Under Isphording, quarterbacks have consistently improved during their time at Ohio. That doesn't mean that QBs have never had a bad year, as Rourke did in 2023, which I believe to have been related to injuries, but he was clearly improved from being a freshmen to 2022. His brother, Nathan, also improved substantially in his years at Ohio. In fact, if he had any doubts about the coaching at Ohio, would his brother have come to Ohio?
It's nice to see Rourke doing well at Indiana because he's a fine young man, and it's good to see him succeed. We we all hoping that Nathan would make the NFL for the same reason.
The bad thing about Rourke doing well at Indiana is that it highlights that Ohio does have good QB coaching, and that they do a good job at developing QBs, so we may see more teams trying to poach Ohio Qbs in the future. The good thing about it is that it may make it easier for Ohio to recruit quality freshmen QBs. Thus, Ohio may have a revolving door at QB in the future.
So I guess that our current QB1 should be racking up some pretty serious stats next year since he’ll be older and be more experienced. Can’t wait
Do I expect Navarro to continue to improve as the year progresses? Absolutely. Has he already improved from his early years at Nevada? Without a doubt. His passer rating was about 70 at Nevada, and it's about 150 at Ohio. I don't know if he has another year of eligibility left or not, but if he returns, I expect him to improve.
Similarly, I expect Poulos to improve a lot, and turn out to be a fine QB. What about Wither and Winter? Not having seen them, I don't know their starting point, but I expect them to improve as well during their time at Ohio.