Until Monday night, Dwan Mathis appeared to be locked in to signing with Ohio State when the early signing period began on Wednesday.
Amid rumors that the Buckeyes could be courting Justin Fields or another quarterback off the transfer market, however, Mathis instead chose to decommit from Ohio State on Wednesday and sign with Georgia, leaving the Buckeyes without a quarterback for their recruiting class of 2019.
Mathis' high school teammate, Justin Rogers, tweeted a video of Mathis' announcement.
#GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/dPjxkdjujE
— Justin Rogers (@AllAmerican52JR) December 19, 2018
Mathis had been committed to Ohio State since June 24, when he decommitted from Michigan State to become a Buckeye. Since then, Mathis had insisted that he was fully committed to the Buckeyes, with his father Terence telling the Detroit Free Press just last week that he was "100 percent going" to Ohio State.
Following reports on Monday night that Ohio State could be a frontrunner to land Fields if he decides to transfer from Georgia, however, Mathis sent an ominous tweet suggesting that he could be having second thoughts:
— DwanM (@DwanM3) December 18, 2018
Mathis' father told ESPN's Tom VanHaaren on Wednesday that his son's decision to flip was because of the opportunity he felt he could have at Georgia, not because of what Ohio State might do.
Father of ESPN 300 QB Dwan Mathis tells me his son's flip "Had nothing to do with what Ohio State did. It's an opportunity for him to play at Georgia."
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) December 19, 2018
Now, Mathis has decided to head to Georgia himself and the Buckeyes are forced to move forward without him, leaving them in a challenging spot in terms of landing a quarterback for this year's recruiting cycle.
With the vast majority of top quarterbacks signing elsewhere this week or at least already committed to other schools, there aren't any obvious candidates left on the board to take Mathis' spot in the class.
That means that even if the Buckeyes don't land Fields, they'll likely to bring in a quarterback transfer from somewhere. Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel wrote Monday that he expects Ohio State to "be inherently open to a transfer" if Dwayne Haskins declares for the 2019 NFL draft, and that both Alabama's Jalen Hurts and Notre Dame's Brandon Wimbush "could be explored" as other potential transfer options.
It also means, though, that the Buckeyes will likely look to bring in a second quarterback in the class of 2020, in addition to Jack Miller, to replenish their stock at the position. Because if Haskins leaves Ohio State after this season, and the Buckeyes aren't able to replace Mathis in this year's recruiting, their scholarship quarterback roster could be down to just Tate Martell, who will be a redshirt sophomore next year; Matthew Baldwin, who will be a redshirt freshman in 2019; and Chris Chugunov, a graduate transfer who will be in his final year of eligibility next season.
