Ryan Day addresses Ohio State's plan for play-calling in 2023

Big Ten Football Media Day is underway, and the Ohio State committee in attendance is addressing each and every storyline the program has faced this offseason. One of the more notable for the Buckeyes was the promotion of wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator.

Hartline has a ton of experience in other areas of coaching. However, he’s still very green when it comes to play-calling at the collegiate level. That is why there has been speculation that head coach Ryan Day will be the team’s primary play-caller this season. And to that, the Buckeyes headman had this to say.

“Brian and I are going to talk about that as we get in the first week or two of camp. We haven’t really sat down and talked about it,” said Day. “I certainly would like for him to have the opportunity to do some play calling. How much? We got to figure that part of it out. But we’ll get a feel for that as we get back in here in August.

“I think the big thing about being an offensive coordinator is it isn’t always about the play calling. It’s just the day-to-day organization of your staff, the corrections, the installs, (and) the game plan. Like there’s so many things that come with being a coordinator and one last thing to play calling. Now, there are certain things you learn over time about play calling you can learn from, but the organization and the day-to-day stuff is way more important.”

For now, the Ohio State headman is not worried about the play-calling responsibilities. According to him, there is still some time to figure out how that will work during the team’s fall camp. Right now, he just needs Hartline focused on developing in the more important areas of being an offensive coordinator.

Day responds to possibility of playing two quarterbacks early in season

Day also addressed who would be on the other side receiving those plays in the huddle, as the Buckeyes have yet to name their starting quarterback for 2023. Their quarterback battle is coming down to the wire just a month out from the Buckeyes’ 2023 season opener. It’ll be either veteran Kyle McCord or blue-chipper Devin Brown — but that’s as far as Day will open up.

Still, Day made sure to remind the Buckeye faithful that this isn’t the first time Ohio State has been in this position before. More importantly, it has worked out every time. Day also isn’t ruling out potentially playing both QBs situationally depending on how the offense is succeeding.

“Going on seven years now, we’ve been in this situation quite a few times at Ohio State and just not knowing who the quarterback is going to be going into the season,” Day said during Big Ten media day. “You had a new one with Dwayne [Haskins], had a new one with Justin [Fields], had a new one with CJ [Stroud], and now here we are again.