Diving Deep Into Austin Novosad's Recruitment Following Ohio State Offer

NIL 7 figs?

It's fine for him to take all the free trips and visits that he can and to enjoy them. He's certainly earned them.

So long as he returns to play his college ball in the Heart of Texas.

And maybe his girlfriend (?) prefers magnolias to playing in the cold??

Here's a good article I found on a Buckeye site about his visit to Columbus. Highlights are mine. No mention of NIL, though.

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football-recruiting/2022/06/131121/new-quarterback-offer-austin-novosad-impressed-by-ohio-state-the-best-of-the-best-and-biggest-of-the-biggest

Even though he's been committed to Baylor since December, Austin Novosad felt like he couldn't pass up the opportunity to compete for an offer at Ohio State.

Novosad wasn't necessarily looking for offers from any other schools when Ohio State quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis visited his school earlier this year. But Dennis was able to persuade him to make the trip to Columbus for Ohio State's first camp of the summer on Wednesday.

"I just thought that that, you know, it was Ohio State, so I had to go see it. And it was just a good experience to go see what they had to offer," Novosad told Eleven Warriors on Thursday. "It's just kind of the best of the best and the biggest of the biggest, really. It's the top-of-the-line QB factory and competition level, really, that is the biggest stage to play on."

What Ohio State had to offer Novosad on Wednesday was a scholarship. He was the only quarterback to receive an offer at Wednesday's camp after he went through a throwing workout alongside Nevada quarterback commit Jax Leatherwood with Ryan Day watching closely for about 40 minutes.

As only the eighth quarterback in the 2023 class to receive an offer from Ohio State, Novosad knows just getting an offer from the Buckeyes is an accomplishment in itself.

"It's definitely something to be proud of," Novosad said. "Not many kids get it. So I think it's definitely an exciting time getting to throw for Coach Day and then leaving with an offer."

Now that Novosad has an offer in hand, the four-star Texan just might be the Buckeyes' top quarterback target or at least the one they have the best chance of landing in the class of 2023.

Novosad isn't as highly rated as the other seven 2023 quarterbacks who have offers from Ohio State. The other seven are all ranked within the top 100 of 247Sports' composite rankings, while Novosad is ranked just 308th overall in the class. All but two of them have already committed to other schools, however, and none of the other quarterbacks with offers are currently scheduled to visit Ohio State this month.

As of now, Novosad remains committed to Baylor, where he'll take an official visit from June 17-19. The only other school he plans to visit this month is Stanford, where he'll be this weekend.

He says he will consider returning to Ohio State for a game visit this fall, but doesn't have any timeline for when he will make a final decision on whether he will honor his commitment to Baylor or go to another college.

"Just taking it slow," Novosad said. "My Baylor OV coming up and then the Elite 11 out in LA right now is what I'm focused on. And then just kind of letting things play out, really."

If Novosad ends up deciding between Baylor vs. Ohio State, his choice will ultimately come down to determining which factors are most important to him in a school. He views those two potential destinations as very different from one another.

"If you're gonna compare Ohio State and Baylor, I would say they're complete opposites," Novosad said. "There's a lot of pros and cons. One's close, one's far. One, you might play your first year; one, you might play your last year. One's in the Big Ten, one's in the Big 12. So I mean, it's just like, so many different variables that go into it. So we're just sitting back and comparing them right now and really just thinking about what we want to do."

Two factors Novosad says are important to him are playing time and distance from home, both of which would seemingly favor Baylor. He'd have to beat out higher-ranked quarterbacks like Kyle McCord, Devin Brown and/or Dylan Raiola for the chance to be the starter early in his career at Ohio State. And Waco is only a two-hour drive away from his hometown of Dripping Springs, Texas.
Novosad says he wouldn't be scared off by the competition in Columbus, though.

"I think Coach Day's really passionate about just, he doesn't care how much you play as long as you're getting developed and as long as you stay your course, he thinks everything's gonna turn out," Novosad said. "So I kind of like that. I think he just really wanted to get good passers up there and then develop them over the years."

He's gone, 100%.

NIL $$, and a much better chance of always being in the TV spotlight and playoffs, will always have Baylor in the back seat for the top talent.

His comments read as completely uncommitted. He's pretty up front about that, it seems to me. And, of course, that's part of recruiting.

My position on these types of things going forward is to remain optimistic but hope the coaches have a backup in mind. Ohio State is able to summon up a ludicrous amount of money for the recruits they really want, and frankly, it would be stupid to not take a seven-figure deal like they have offered for some of their recruits. Graduating with a free degree and seven figures in the bank isn't a bad gig

He'd be dumb not to listen to what a team like Ohio St has to offer. A free trip to Columbus? Why not? tOSU, as mentioned in the article, has offered a number of other QBs already, which sounds like it could factor into Novosad's decision if 1 or 2 of those commit to tOSU. The dude wants a legit shot at early PT.

He would be dumb to go to Ohio State. He might get to play his Sr. Year but he will be fighting against 5 star QBs every year. Once they don't think he will play that NIL money will go away and he will have nothing to show the pros.