Ryan Day explains why CJ Stroud leads the quarterback battle at Ohio State

The current quarterback room at Ohio State is one of the most talented in college football history. The Buckeyes currently have three of the highest-rated quarterbacks in OSU football history on their roster; Kyle McCord, Quinn Ewers, and CJ Stroud. That’s three five-star quarterbacks on the same roster and that’s not even mentioning Jack Miller III; a four-star signal-caller from the 2020 class. With so many talented options to choose from, choosing a starting quarterback could be a difficult task for any head coach.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day recently said redshirt freshman CJ Stroud leads the pack in the competition for the starting quarterback position for the Buckeyes. He spoke with the Big Ten Network recently about what separated Stroud from the competition.

“Yeah, I think it’s a body of work over 27 practices. When you count the spring. We try to just take it one day at a time and look at the body of work. It’s not one thing, but day in, day out, [he’s] making really good decisions, leadership. Obviously taking care of the football and the ability to win in the red zone and win on third down are critical. At the end of the day, we’re gonna have one person playing quarterback against Minnesota on September 2nd and then it’s a long year from there.”

Stroud’s teammate wide receiver Garrett Wilson, recently gave scouting reports on a few of the Ohio State quarterbacks. Here’s what he had to say about CJ Stroud:

“I say with C.J. (Stroud), he really drops the ball in there. The best way to put it is like Russell Wilson — the ball — it falls on you. So it makes it really easy to catch the deep ball.”

CJ STROUD HIGH SCHOOL CAREER

CJ Stroud was one of the most decorated signal-callers in the country coming out of high school, earning a five-star rating from every recruiting service in America. He reached “The Opening” finals–an elite 7-on-7 camp that Nike runs each year. Other players at various positions participate in the camp as well. Stroud also attended the Elite 11 quarterback camp, a camp where the nation’s top 20 quarterbacks compete against one another. The Rancho Cucamonga (Rancho Cucamonga, California) product was named MVP of the Elite 11 camp, one of the highest honors any high school quarterback prospect can earn. The uber-talented signal-caller also played in the US Army All-American game.

In his senior season for Rancho Cucamonga, Stroud sparkled, throwing for 3,878 yards and 47 touchdowns in 13 games. In 754 career passing attempts in his high school career, Stroud only threw 15 interceptions.

QUINN EWERS STILL LEARNING

Quinn Ewers was one of the highest quarterback rated prospects in the modern recruiting era before enrolling at Ohio State recently. On3 recently tabbed Ewers as the second overall rated prospect in the 2021 recruiting class.

As talented as Ewers is, he’s still a long ways away from being the starting quarterback at Ohio State. Head coach Ryan Day noted that he was “easing him in”, and that there’s a lot for the true freshman to learn, including the playbook.

On3’s Chad Simmons noted this would be the case a few weeks ago once Ewers decided to reclassify to the class of 2021 and enroll at OSU. Here were his thoughts about Ewers competing in fall camp for the Buckeyes:

“He is a special talent, and the no. 1 player in the country for multiple reasons, but he’s not going to show up at Ohio State weeks before the season starts and be expected to make a significant impact.”

C.J. Stroud and the Ohio State Buckeyes kick off their 2021 campaign against Minnesota on September 2nd. Kickoff is slated for 8:00 PM EST and the game will be televised on FOX.