Two quarterbacks loomed larger than any other freshmen as the 2018 college football season came into view: Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.
One, Clemson’s Lawrence, would beat out returning starter Kelly Bryant and lead the Tigers to a national championship. The other, Georgia’s Fields, would fail to beat out returning starter Jake Fromm and play pretty much only in garbage time.
A year later, having transferred to Ohio State, Fields didn’t officially nail down the starting job with the Buckeyes — beating out a graduate transfer who’d been a backup at Kentucky — until late in training camp, frustrating coach Ryan Day.