Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday that junior quarterback Kyle McCord will start in Week 2 against Youngstown State, but after redshirt freshman quarterback Devin Brown played in just two series against Indiana, Day said he would like to get Brown more involved against the Penguins.
“Yes, (the plan is to start Kyle) but try to get Devin in more,” Day said. “As the week goes on, we’ll continue to evaluate it based on how they practice. I would have liked, again, to get Devin in the game, but like I mentioned, I wanted to do what was best to win the game at the time. That was the first goal. I felt like that was the right thing to do.”
McCord, in his first start of the season, finished 20 of 33 for 239 yards and an interception as the offense struggled to find a rhythm through the first half. He rebounded in the second half, completing long passes to Julian Fleming and Cade Stover that helped to set up scores.
The close nature of the contest led to Brown seeing the field for just six total snaps against the Hoosiers, rushing for a 3-yard loss and completing just one pass – the first of his Ohio State career – for a 2-yard loss, but Youngstown State should afford the opportunity for Brown to see more time on the field. Despite Brown’s limited playing time against Indiana, Day did not commit to McCord as Ohio State’s starter for the season.
“I’m not trying to draw too many hard lines when it comes to this right now,” Day said. “I talked to the guys about saying our goal is to be a really good quarterback room and win games, and as these first few games start to develop, we get a better feel for what that looks like. Learned some things about Kyle on Saturday, saw some things that were really good, saw some things that he’s got to improve on.
“Again, disappointed that we couldn’t get more on the field with Devin, but hopefully this week we can and continue to evaluate it. But Kyle will start again this week and we’ll keep going from there.”
