Chip Kelly not tipping hand about quarterback competition timeline

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said last week that he’d like to have a starting quarterback within the first week to 10 days of training camp.

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly was asked about that timeline Tuesday after the fifth practice of Buckeyes training camp.

More specifically, Kelly was asked if that timeline’s on the path toward happening.

“That’s a great question by you, and I know exactly where you’re going with that — I don’t have an answer for you,” Kelly said before letting out a bit of a laugh.

Kelly, a former NFL and college head coach and a football lifer, could see a question like that coming from a mile away. He wasn’t taking the bait. He swatted it away as if it was a gnat on a summer day.

Likewise, when Kelly was pressed about Kansas State grad transfer Will Howard taking most of the first-team reps during team periods Sunday, he hinted at a wide-open race for QB1.

“Yeah, I just wouldn’t read into anything with that because the next day he may have gone with the threes,” Kelly said of Howard.

Kelly explained that the Buckeyes are still rotating quarterbacks with split-field action, meaning that Ohio State has been practicing with two offenses and two defenses — one on each field — and mixing and matching first and second-team players, mainly on the offensive side of the ball. The idea is, the split-field setup provides more reps, about 40 in a 12-15 minute span, according to Day.

Day said at Big Ten Media Days that the plan was to halt split-field work after the first week of camp and then more deliberately parse out reps in a five-player quarterback room. But Kelly alluded to the fact that Ohio State still ran split-field team periods Tuesday.

“As I told the players, ‘Don’t count your reps, make your reps count,'” Kelly said. “And I think they’re doing a good job, all of them. We’re still kind of going through that. I would say probably toward the end of this week, we’ll start to kind of hone in on it.

“The lineup changes every day, like who’s in with what group, and just kind of mixing and matching right now, but we’re all just trying to make the most of our reps and be valuable because of how we’re doing it.”

Kelly went on to add: “When we start to consolidate and stop doing the two-field works, and start to get into one-field work, then I think you got to start to kind of cut the reps down for some people.”

Howard is the favorite to win the job. After all, he transferred in with 27 career starts and a Big 12 title under his belt, not to mention the 33 total touchdowns he scored last season with the Wildcats. But redshirt sophomore Devin Brown — who made his first career start in last year’s Cotton Bowl — has more experience in the program, and he never backs down from a challenge.

Plus, Brown was in a similar spot this time last year when he was competing with eventual starter Kyle McCord (who is now at Syracuse). That said, now Brown is a year older, more consistent and more confident.

“For me, it’s just different going into my third year,” Brown said, “not having to really stress about anything. I’m just going out there playing football again. I mean, it’s really no different than last year in terms of just how it all works and how it’s all playing out.”

Brown added: “Being in my third year in the offense, I mean, I pretty much know everything in and out, and so not really having to think too much in the installs, I’m just going out and playing.”

On the other hand, everything was new for Howard when he joined the Buckeyes back in January. He admitted Tuesday it wasn’t until the seventh or eighth practice of spring ball that he really started to settle in. Since, Howard has made noticeable strides, as a leader and, perhaps more notably, as a passer.

“I’m just trying to be the best version of myself every single day,” Howard said. “That’s all I’m trying to do. Whenever I get thrown in there, I’m going to go in there and make the best out of my reps and show this team that I’m going to fight for them and do everything that we need to do to win. That’s all that matters to me, just getting better and being the best teammate I can be.”

In Day’s time as a head coach, either acting or full-time, he’s never publicly named a starting quarterback before Aug. 19.

If that’s going to change this summer, Kelly won’t be the the one leaking it.