Ohio State QB Devin Brown suffers injury on goal-line play vs. Penn State

For the second time in Saturday’s game against Penn State, Devin Brown came in at quarterback for Ohio State in the red zone during the third quarter. He took the ball to about the 1-yard line, where he was stopped by the Nittany Lions before scoring.

On the play, though, he hit the ground with an injury.

Brown was attended to by the trainers after the play, which saw him get rolled up on in the middle of the pile by Nittany Lions defenders. Kyle McCord came back out on the field afterward as Brown headed to the locker room on a cart.

FOX Sports’ Jenny Taft later reported McCord suffered a right ankle sprain.

Brown lost the quarterback competition at Ohio State this year to McCord, but Ryan Day said he’d still see some action this year. The Buckeyes have run multiple red zone packages for him this year as he has 197 passing yards, 30 rushing yards and three total touchdowns to his name.

Ryan Day: Ohio State will continue building on Devin Brown package

Just this week, Day said the plan is to continue building out the package for Brown because of his ability to both throw and run the football.

“When you get down in those type of situations, the numbers start to work against you on offense,” he said. “When you add the quarterback into it, it can change those numbers. The great thing about Devin is he can throw the ball well. You see the throw he made to Brandon at the end of the game. So he’s not just a running quarterback. However, he is big and strong and athletic and competitive.”

As for why Brown gets so much usage in the rede zone, Day said it’s something Ohio State has experimented with and indicated it’s a good way to mix things up.

“We had been messing around a little bit with it, but felt like going into that game with the weather situation, we can’t get caught in a situation like we had in the past,” Day said. “So that was part of it. Then we added that down in the red zone and felt like it was a good package schematically. Wanted to let Devin go and kind of get his feet wet in that area and flush out any possible mistakes that may happen.

“I thought he ran hard. I thought he competed. He hopefully learned his lesson there on that one, but it certainly does give us a different wrinkle and we’ll continue to build on that package.”