How adversity shaped toughness for Ohio State football quarterback Justin Fields

KENNESAW, Georgia -- Matt Dickmann coached football for nearly three decades without ever having a quarterback break a finger.

Then the player who will likely stand up as the greatest quarterback Dickmann ever coached suffered that injury twice in three years. Harrison High School’s coach learned a lot about Justin Fields, now Ohio State’s quarterback, in how he handled those setbacks — beginning almost immediately after the first break.

“It was about three weeks later, he was throwing,” Dickmann said. “I go, 'Are you supposed to be doing that? You know, because I’m worried that he’s gonna make it worse. And he’s like, ‘I don’t know, but it feels fine.’ ”

Consider that a precursor to what Big Ten football fans saw late this season from Fields. After suffering what he called a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee against Penn State, Fields jogged off the field faster than the athletic trainers who had attended to him. A week later, after aggravating the injury against Michigan, he returned after six plays and threw a touchdown pass on his first snap back.

When athletes make their exploits look so easy, it can be easy to assume they have always had it easy. Fields was the No. 2 national prospect in his recruiting class, has now played for two college football powers and was a Heisman Trophy finalist, so his story is not a tragedy.

He has, however, endured his share of setbacks. He twice suffered season-ending injuries in high school — including as a senior when Harrison was on the cusp of making a deep state tournament run. He went to Georgia ready to prove himself, only to leave humbled and frustrated a year later.

Fields’ toughness emerged as a theme over the course of his first season as a Buckeye. Those experiences helped mold the determined leader Fields has become.

“I see how much he’s grown, whether it’s a setback or the adversity he had to go through when he transitioned from high school to college and then from Georgia to Ohio State,” said his mother, Gina Tobey. “It took a lot of patience and trust in God for him to get through that.”

When he first broke a finger as a sophomore, Fields remained on the outskirts of the college prospect hype machine.

By his senior season, he was one of the star attractions. He had shot to the top of the national recruiting rankings and committed to nearby Georgia, which at the time was beginning its drive to the national championship game. Fields also was one of the players featured on the Netflix series QB1, which provided a behind-the-scenes look at his life and his team.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart was in attendance for a late October game against regional rival Dalton, having arrived via helicopter. ESPN2 was broadcasting. Harrison led 28-23 late in the third quarter, with Fields having already rushed for over 200 yards and a touchdown and thrown for 185 and another score.

PART 1: Why is Justin Fields a quarterback? ‘It’s the position he was made for.’
PART 2: Why Justin Fields’ intelligence sets him apart
PART 3: How Justin Fields’ baseball background helped shape his football future

As he tried to spin away from contact on a rushing play, a Dalton defender landed direct contact on the hand. Fields never took another snap for the Hoyas.

Leslie Mockalis, a Harrison chemistry teacher watching with other faculty members in folding chairs at one end zone, vividly remembers the aftermath.

“That was a nightmare,” Mockalis said.

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After undergoing surgery to repair the damage, Fields wore a cast on the hand. But he remained with the team, taking it upon himself to help his replacement — then-sophomore Gavin Hall — adjust to leading the varsity.

Hall said everyone felt the initial shock of the injury. Fields was quicker than most to move on.

“The next week he really took me under his arm,” said Hall, who signed last week to play at Toledo. “He showed me how to watch film and would even sit me down and go over some plays. Out there practicing he would even show me the correct reads and how to read a defense and all that, which really helped out.”

Dickmann said Hall threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns in his first game and led Harrison to two more victories before their state championship dreams ended.

Fields, after his healing process, had other dreams to pursue. He enrolled at Georgia for the second semester so he could participate in spring football. Then-freshman Jake Fromm had just led the Bulldogs to the College Football Playoff championship game, but Fields went to Athens with expectations he would compete for a starting role.

The family feels that opportunity never actually unfolded. Fromm remained the starting quarterback, and Georgia installed a package of plays that primarily utilized Fields as a runner.

“The most challenging part was just wanting to get out there and play the game that I love,” Fields told ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, another former Buckeye quarterback, on a College GameDay pregame show earlier this season.

“It was kind of hard week-to-week knowing how much playing time I would get. I think I learned a lot from that year, learning from Jake, learning from all of the coaches there. It was kind of a humbling experience.”

Fields announced his intention to transfer after the season. He petitioned the NCAA for a hardship waiver under a rule allowing immediate eligibility for factors that are "outside the student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete.”

A major part of that case for Fields was a mid-season incident in which a Georgia baseball player directed racial slurs at him.

That situation worked out for Fields in the long run. He started immediately at Ohio State, became the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Year and may be the Heisman Trophy front-runner going into next season.

At the time, however, Fields endured a period of stress and uncertainty.

It wasn’t the first time he had confronted that experience. It may not be the last. Each time he appears to emerge a little stronger than before.

“I think all of that stuff is for a purpose,” said Ron Veal, Fields’ former trainer and a former quarterback at Arizona. “The purpose is to either make you humble, or to make you understand that there’s something better than you and higher than you that’s guiding you through this life.”

In Fields’ case it may be both, and that’s why he keeps bouncing back.

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