Ryan Day reveals Ohio State's backup quarterback plan after Devin Brown injury

Ohio State left Ohio Stadium with a big win over Penn State on Saturday, but not with a healthy backup quarterback, as Devin Brown left the game with an ankle injury and is now expected to miss multiple weeks.

Brown lost the offseason quarterback competition narrowly to starter Kyle McCord, and was just starting to get into his rhythm within his own red zone package highlighted by his rushing abilities. But now the Buckeyes will have to turn elsewhere for a backup quarterback between veteran Tristan Gebbia and freshman Lincoln Kienholz, which head coach Ryan Day addressed this week.

“I think we’ll go through the week and give those guys reps and see how that goes,” Day said. “Tristian has experience, the other, I think they might be five or six years apart, talk about different guys. But I think you know where those guys are, one’s a more experienced guy, one is a younger guy that we think has a really bright future here. So both are at different spots in their career and we’ll kind of see how this week goes.”

Gebbia joined the Buckeyes this offseason for his seventh year of eligibility, spending time at Nebraska at Oregon State before touching down in Columbus. While Kienholz is currently in the midst of his first collegiate season, rated as a four-star recruit and the No. 15 ranked quarterback of the 2023 recruiting class according to On3’s Industry Ranking.

“Devin’s been getting the majority of the reps with the twos, so those guys haven’t really got a ton or reps. We do practice on Sunday afterwards and allow the younger guys to get reps so that’s where Lincoln’s got a bunch of those reps. I think he’s done a great job of staying engaged, Tristian’s done a great job in his role, but now that role’s gonna change this week. So we’ll see how the week goes and who knows, maybe they both will have an opportunity,” Day said.

It sounds like the rookie and the vet could both have a shot at securing the backup quarterback role this week at practice in Brown’s absence as the team prepares for a road matchup with Wisconsin.

Day was also asked if there was a chance that one of his skill players could also potentially play at the quarterback position with Brown out of the lineup.

“We do have guys, Xavier [Johnson] played a little bit of that in high school and we’ve messed around with a couple things with Emeka [Egbuka] .But it certainly makes it going on the road with the environment, put somebody in there like that, I mean that’s kind of a tough spot to be in. So we usually like to use the quarterbacks.”

Brown has posted 197 passing yards, 30 rush yards, and three total touchdowns this season in his playing time, and it will definitely be interesting to see if his red zone package will be replicated in any way this Saturday as the Buckeyes visit the Badgers.