Ohio State junior quarterback Kyle McCord will be under center when the season begins at Indiana on Saturday, but that does not mean that he will be the only signal caller to see the field.
While McCord has been named the starter for Ohio State – at least against the Hoosiers – the expectation from head coach Ryan Day is that both McCord and redshirt freshman Devin Brown will get extended time in the game as the team gives both players a chance in live situations.
“They’ve earned it,” Day said Thursday. “They also know that the number one job here is to be the best quarterback room in the country, and our goals are to win championships here. We have really put down on paper some of the goals we have this season. We need the quarterbacks to play well. The great news is – I’ve said this before – we don’t need them to play extraordinary. We need them to play well, make routine plays routinely and manage the plays that don’t go the way that we designed them.
“When you have the receivers that we have, the playmakers on the perimeter, the running backs, the offensive line that’s getting solidified, you know, you feel like you have a good group around you.”
While Indiana does not present quite the challenge that last season’s opener did in Notre Dame, it’s still a precarious situation for Ohio State to enter the season with a starter that has limited experience in games. McCord has just one start under his belt and attempted just 20 passes last season, while Brown appeared in two games during his freshman season but has yet to attempt a collegiate pass.
But Day and the coaching staff have expressed confidence in both players throughout the spring and fall, and while he is expecting that both signal callers will have big moments, they’ll also experience their share of struggles, and the team is prepared to help them work through that.
“I’d probably argue probably one of the best groups in the country, and so that’s the good news,” he said. “The bad news is that they haven’t played a lot of football yet, so there’s going to be good moments, there’s going to be learning moments, and whoever can kind of come out the back end and learn faster and grow faster will allow us the best opportunity to win.”
