Why Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields’ intelligence sets him apart

KENNESAW, Georgia -- The call comes in from the sideline at Ohio State football practice, and quarterback Justin Fields and center Josh Myers make their respective reads.

Quite often, those minds are in synch. Occasionally, however, disagreements arise as the play clock runs.

“Every now and then I’ll be like, ‘No, this,’ and he’ll be like, ‘No, that,’ and we go back and forth,” Myers said earlier this season. “He’s come such a long way. His knowledge of the offense is incredible, especially for being here for such a short time.”

And who wins those presnap disagreements?

“He does, every time,” Myers said.

A lot of numbers were associated with Fields during his time as a high school prospect:

The 6-3, 225-pound build that raised his profile in the first place.
The No. 2 national ranking bestowed upon him in the 247Sports.com national composite of the 2018 class.
The 42 programs that offered him a scholarship, including most of the Southeastern Conference and other elite national programs.

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One overlooked number was the 3.9 GPA Fields carried as a student at Harrison High School in his hometown of Kennesaw, Georgia. Intelligence helps any quarterback, but it proved especially crucial for Fields because of the relatively short time he had to learn the Buckeyes’ offense.

He enters the College Football Playoff semifinals against Clemson with the fourth-best passing efficiency rating in the country. Fields’ athletic skills make him dangerous to opposing defenses, but his intelligence lifts the entire Ohio State offense.

“He just makes really smart decisions,” OSU backup quarterback Chris Chugunov said. "For being so young, he doesn’t force the ball, which is huge for someone his age. He’s really confident in his athletic ability, so he can hold on to the ball and he doesn’t feel like he has to force it into small windows.

“He’s just a smart young player, and he’s a freak.”

Fields’ mother, Gina Tobey, followed the advice she read in baby books about how she could help her first born’s development. She played classical music in his crib and did various activities meant to help shape a child in those important early years.

He was not yet 4 years old when she remembers buying him a book called “God Made Me Special” on a trip to the grocery store. In addition to all of Fields’ photos and trophies of his football, baseball and basketball triumphs, Tobey still has that book.

“At that time, I was helping him sound out words and syllables and all that,” Tobey said. “And maybe a few weeks later, that’s the first book he read. And I remember calling his dad and he read the book over the phone to his dad. He was 3 1/2, reading his first book.”

Academics were important enough to Tovey that, when Fields’ recruiting picked up in high school, it wasn’t names like Alabama and Florida State that excited her. It was the offers from Yale, Northwestern and Harvard.

Harrison High chemistry teacher Leslie Mockalis has begun mixing in Ohio State football games with her beloved Auburn on Saturdays. During his junior year, Fields often helped other students in that chemistry class solve problems. Mockalis remembers him as an honor roll student who “would not back down” from a chemistry question the same way he stood up to opponents in sports.

“In chemistry there’s a lot of moving parts — and he would work at it to figure out," Mockalis said. “He wasn’t just going through the motions. He wanted to be able to do it.”

Going into Fields’ junior year, Harrison football coach Matt Dickmann decided to overhaul his offense. By installing a fully run-pass option attack, he forced teams to either lay back and give up yards to Fields on the ground or come up to take him and leave themselves vulnerable to his vertical passing prowess.

Dickmann also knew he was turning the offense over to Fields’ brain as much as his body. Dickmann saw other teams with similar offenses where coaches were still pulling the strings from the sidelines via various hand signals. He let Fields determine on its own whether coverages were “clear” — favorable for passing — or “cloudy,” which meant handing off or running it himself.

“He had things down so much his senior year it was probably kind of boring for him to be in meetings and watch film, because that’s just the level he was at,” Dickmann said. “He left early (to enroll at Georgia). I think it was good for him because he needs to be challenged, because he’s so bright and articulate.”

Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said Fields exemplifies Urban Meyer’s adage that coaches “better come prepared for the meetings” for certain players. Wilson has seen it firsthand in the meetings he has conducted, with Fields asking follow-up questions about how to attack certain coverages and account for blitz issues.

Then comes the next step — bringing that information into the stadium on Saturdays and processing it in real time against whatever a defense puts in front of him. OSU quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich says Fields’ smarts affect every aspect of his performance as a quarterback. When he can think quickly, his eyes are in the right place at the right time, then so are his feet and so on.

“He can take the chalkboard to video, video to the field,” Wilson said. “Some guys can’t do that. He has a great understanding of, visually and conceptually, what you’re trying to do. He’s got a lot of talent, and intelligence is very high on the list of what he’s very talented that.”

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Fields is enrolled in Ohio State’s pre-business school. Tobey has encouraged him to study wealth management, with an eye on his NFL potential.

Her son has the physical dimensions and tools NFL teams covet. He also has the skills necessary to think the game at an advanced level.

“The way the coaches prepare and the way they have us prepare, he has no choice,” Chugunov said. “He’s just a smart young dude and the sky’s the limit.”

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