Ryan Day on CJ Stroud, reveals key to strong quarterback play

Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud has been a big key to the Buckeyes’ dominant offense this season. Stroud has had a great season, leading to Ohio State being in the thick of the race to the College Football Playoff. After Ohio State dominated against Purdue, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day praised Stroud and revealed the key to strong quarterback play.

For Day, he thinks that the week of preparation is the most important part of being a good quarterback.

“I thought it was during Wednesday or Thursday practice. He just seemed on it,” Day said of Stroud. “Right off the bat he makes a couple of good calls, we make a couple of good checks early on. Quickly in those first couple drives he’s just seeing it. When he can come over and verbalize what’s going on in the moment and it’s good information, that’s how you know he’s seeing it properly.

“So much of that has to do with the preparation you put in. That way you’re anticipating what’s going to happen as opposed to reacting. To me that’s the key to quarterback play.”

Stroud had a monster day in Ohio State’s win vs. Purdue

Stroud was certainly on his game against Purdue, completing 31 of his 38 passes for 361 yards, five touchdowns, and zero interceptions. 28 of Stroud’s completions went to Ohio State’s three-headed wide receiver monster. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had nine catches for 139 yards and a touchdown. Garrett Wilson returned to action with ten catches, 126 yards and three touchdowns. Chris Olave also had nine catches for 85 yards and a touchdown.

Directly after the game, Day again praised Stroud and noted that his preparation last week played a big role in his success on the field.

“First off, I think CJ had the best preparation of the season this week,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said during his postgame press conference. “He was on his game. They brought some different things that made it challenging, but he really put a lot of work in – and I was glad to see him get paid off like that. But two, we also talked about that it may have been a higher completion percentage game with maybe not as many yards based on how we were putting the game plan together.”

Ohio State’s offense might be the best in the country with Stroud at the helm. The Buckeyes lead the nation with 550 yards per game and 46.3 points per game. Ohio State’s 353.6 passing yards per game is sixth best in the country.

Stroud will need to continue his stellar play over the final weeks of the season. Ohio State has pivotal matchups with Michigan State and Michigan over the final two weeks of the regular season. The results of those games will have big impacts on the College Football Playoff.