'It definitely feels like home': Air Noland settling in, embracing Ohio State development

Air Noland was candid Tuesday. After the fifth Ohio State training camp practice wrapped, the true freshman quarterback faced reporters in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. He admitted he got homesick after joining the Buckeyes as an early enrollee.

That didn’t make him waver on his commitment to the program, though.

“I was still all in with the Woody and all in with the workouts, all in with my teammates. Of course, I got homesick when I first got here, but it was no distraction for me.”

The College Park, Georgia, native has had a roller coaster start to his college career, most notably because the Buckeyes added another top-five quarterback from his class, Julian Sayin, during Noland’s first month on campus.

Sayin transferred in from Alabama after legendary coach Nick Saban surprisingly retired this winter. In turn, Ohio State ended up with five scholarship quarterbacks, including two from the 2024 recruiting cycle.

Sayin hit the ground running this spring. That wasn’t necessarily the case for Noland, who had his ups and downs throughout March and April. Noland finished on a high note, completing 5-of-7 passes in the spring game for 47 yards and rushing for 42 more yards on five carries while piloting back-to-back touchdown drives.

Despite being a pair of highly-touted prospects and highly-competitive quarterbacks from the same class, Noland and Sayin are growing close. Noland emphasized that Sayin is his “guy” and that they make each other better.

But the fact of the matter is, the quarterback room is crowded, and that means there are fewer reps to go around, especially as the Buckeyes do more and more team periods without split-field action. Noland is often the fifth and final quarterback to go in the rotation.

“Yeah, that’s challenging,” Noland said of the rep balance, “but I know when I get in to just do the best I can and just be myself.”

Noland added: “Just knowing the read and knowing where I’m going with the ball, having a plan and then knowing the why and knowing the how.”

That’s what Noland said offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly preaches: always having a plan at the line of scrimmage. Noland noted that, with Kelly coaching him, the game slows down.

That’s one way Noland has improved since arriving. He talked about how he’s gotten better at going through progressions — both with one high safety and two high safeties — and corner reads as well as calling out protections.

He also pointed out that he’s put more velocity on the ball and gained 20 pounds, now standing 6-foot-2, 192.

“It’s been a development year,” Noland said. “It’s been a year that’s been very important to me. Just coming out and keeping the main thing the main thing and bonding with teammates, being myself and just competing at a high level.”

Noland had a remarkable junior season at Langston Hughes High School, where he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 55 touchdowns while completing 73% of his passes en route to a 6A state title. That Langston Hughes team was loaded and set the Georgia state record for most points (792) in a season.

The lefty’s production took a dip last year. His completion percentage fell to 66.5%, he averaged 78.5 fewer passing yards per game and tossed only 22 touchdowns. Still, the Elite 11 Finals participant came into college with high expectations.

When asked Tuesday what he’d tell himself back in December on Signing Day, he took a moment to reflect.

“I would say just know to come in and be ready to be developed,” Noland said. “There’s gonna be hard days, and there’s gonna be days where it’s good days. So just going through the ups and downs and just keeping myself composed. And just leaning on the older guys [who are] helping me out.

Noland added: “It hasn’t been an easy thing. It’s not easy to just come out and just be an Ohio State quarterback. You got to lean on guys. You got to tell yourself the mental part of it is not easy. Just look yourself in the mirror sometimes.”

Noland’s transition to Ohio State hasn’t been seamless. What’s most important, however, is that he’s still there developing — and that he’s learned to call Columbus a home away from home.

“Yes, it definitely feels like home,” Noland said Tuesday.