Ohio State’s fall camp is set to begin Thursday – the first of 25 practices ahead of the Buckeyes’ season opener at Indiana on Sept. 2 – and head coach Ryan Day is hoping to name the team’s starting quarterback sooner rather than later.
“In an ideal world, you would like to have someone emerge in the first week or two,” Day said Wednesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center while previewing fall camp. “We usually have that scrimmage on that second week on that Saturday and we have a pretty good feel.”
The competition between junior Kyle McCord and redshirt freshman Devin Brown has been brewing since Ohio State’s previous season ended and quarterback C.J. Stroud eventually declared for the NFL Draft, but the start of fall camp signifies a next step in the battle.
Day said the signal callers will split first-team reps throughout the preseason, but he said that even if a starter is named in the coming weeks, the evaluation for the quarterbacks will continue into the season.
“You never know how it’s all going to shake (out),” Day said. “We’ve had this situation before…going back with C.J., going back with Justin (Fields), going back with Dwayne (Haskins), where after the first couple weeks of fall practice we felt like somebody emerged and we went with the start, but that evaluation continued into the season.
“If you’re asking for an ideal situation, you’d love for somebody to emerge in the first couple weeks and then they’re taking the majority of the reps with the ones as you’re heading into game week.”
As Day and company get closer to making a decision on Ohio State’s starting quarterback, he said Wednesday that another significant factor in the competition is the leadership aspect that each quarterback brings to the team, and that will be as important a factor as any on-field intangibles.
“Those guys have to believe in the quarterback, and that’s a huge part of it,” Day said. “The guys see the work that’s put in, they see the leadership, the ability to stand up in front of a group of guys and project and talk to them and lead them, and those all matter.
“The team has to believe in the quarterback. It’s not all on the field, but ultimately that’s what it’s going to come down to.”
