Ryan Day addresses Ohio State's quarterback plan after Cotton Bowl loss

Coming into the 2023 season, the quarterback position was a hot-button topic for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Following their 14-3 loss to the Missouri Tigers in the Cotton Bowl on Friday, it is an even bigger question as the Buckeyes head into the offseason.

It is not common for Ohio State to have more questions than answers when it comes to the starting signal caller. Unfortunately, after this year’s starting quarterback Kyle McCord jumped into the NCAA transfer portal, landing at Syracuse, putting Ohio State in quite a bind. So, where does the status of the Buckeyes’ quarterback room? According to head coach Ryan Day, he doesn’t have an answer to that currently, but it will be looked at in the offseason.

“Yeah, [I’m] just fresh off the game, so it’s hard for me to process all of it right now,” said Day. “But we’ve gotta figure out what’s the best for the team moving forward. And that’s in a lot of areas. So [we] got to take a hard look at that and get that figured out. But everything will be looked at.”

Ohio State’s quarterback situation

McCord, a junior, led the Ohio State offense this season. He did a commendable job leading the Buckeyes to an 11-1 record, with their lone loss coming in the closing minutes of their monumental rivalry matchup against the Michigan Wolverines. McCord finished the regular season, completing 229-348 pass attempts for a 65.8 completion percentage, 3170 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and just six interceptions.

In place of McCord, redshirt freshman quarterback Devin Brown got to start for Ohio State at quarterback. Unfortunately, Missouri’s pass rush got to the young signal-caller early in the game, knocking him out of the contest with an ankle injury. From there, true freshman Lincoln Kienholtz took over. And despite a valiant effort, he could not do much against Missouri’s defense. Kienholtz finished the Cotton Bowl, completing 6-17 pass attempts for 86 yards. The freshman also had a late-game fumble, which helped seal the victory for the Tigers.

Day has plenty of options to explore in terms of what to do at the quarterback position for Ohio State. However, if he intends to recruit an individual out of the transfer portal, he might have to act quickly. Doing so will give Ohio State the opportunity to be competitive in recruiting some of the top-end talent still out there.