Luke Fahey Has a Chance to Join Buckeye Royalty on Saturday Night Against USC

Ohio State is certainly trending towards starting true freshman Luke Fahey on Saturday against the USC Trojans. If he does start, he will be just the fifth ever quarterback in Buckeyes' history to start a football game as a true freshman.

That stat was gathered by the 11 Warriors team. Of the current four, the Buckeyes have a 3-1 record in those games.

The combination of Terrelle Pryor, Braxton Miller, and Kyle McCord all started their college careers with a 1-0 record. The lone loss by a true freshman quarterback was all the way back in 1978, when Art Schlichter lost 19-0 to Penn State.

It is shocking to believe that out of all the elite signal callers that the Buckeyes have had, only these four have started as a true freshman.

Luke Fahey has the opportunity to join that group on Saturday. If he is able to win this football game at the start, he will join two of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the program, Miller and Pyror.

Fahey certainly has an advantage over each of those guys. Fahey has already gotten some game action in his young career, so it won't be a totally new experience for him to be out on the field.

However, what he brings into the game with his experience, he trades off with the environment that he is going into. McCord started his first game at home against Akron; Miller was at home against Colorado; and Pyror started at home against the Troy Trojans. 

Fahey would potentially have to have his first-ever start as an Ohio State Buckeye inside the Los Angeles Coliseum against the unranked Trojans. 

Regardless of where the Trojans are in the standings, this environment is a crazy one, and it will be a major challenge for Fahey.

While that is true, I do believe that Ryan Day is really good in these situations. I think back to Julian Sayin's first start, McCord's first start, McCord's first entire season, and the way that he approaches games like this. 

The Texas game last year for Sayin was a coaching masterclass. He protects the quarterback and gives them easy throws, easy completions, and allows the rest of the elite talent on the Buckeyes roster to control the game. 

If this is the way that it goes on Saturday night, Fahey simply has to just stay within the game plan, take the easy completions when they are there, and let Ohio State's defense dominate, the offensive line to control the tempo, and Jeremiah Smith make big plays bigger when he gets the football in his hands.

It's a simple formula, and if he executes, he will join the likes of two Buckeye legends to win their first-ever start.