Ryan Day on Ohio State QB battle: If they deserve to play, they'll play

Ryan Day made it clear that if an Ohio State quarterback deserves to play, he will play. Does that mean both Kyle McCord and Devin Brown?

That’s to-be-determined. Neither quarterback separated himself from the other to become the entrenched starter. The two guys are neck and neck.

That’s pretty much where Day left it Monday during a critical stretch in fall camp.

“There’ve been situations in the past (where) we have two really good quarterbacks on the roster and you know, these things have a way of working themselves out,” Day said. “But I can’t sit here and honestly say, I met with the quarterbacks and they agreed. There’s not one that’s that much further ahead … They’re both playing very well. So that’s really good, and we have confidence in them.” 

The old saying is if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. But Day disagrees with that notion in this case.

“So we’ve talked about this before, you don’t know until you get into the game,” Day said. “What exactly you have. Practice is good, practice gives us a snapshot of what you’re going to see in the game. But once you start getting tackled and you’re in the situations when you’re live, that’s a whole other thing. So we’ll just keep trying to figure it out, one day at a time. 

“But I’ve been in situations, not very many, where you don’t have a quarterback and  that’s not a good feeling. We’re going to have a quarterback and we may have two. And if they deserve to play, they’re going to play.”

Day had let on throughout the spring and summer that a quarterback battle could run for a long while in the lead up to the season and the recent weeks have confirmed that. Day said it was neck and neck earlier this month.

“It’s a good battle,” Day said. “It’s back and forth, for sure. They know that this week is important to them and the scrimmage on Saturday will be important and they’re constantly putting up numbers on a daily basis and so we’ll compare the statistics but there’s also the eyeball test.”

Even further down the quarterback depth chart the Buckeyes have competition, as transfer Tristan Gebbia and true freshman Lincoln Kienholz are dueling for the No. 3 quarterback slot.

The Buckeyes’ season opener against Indiana in Bloomington is just 12 days away and perhaps both quarterbacks will see significant time.