Ryan Day: Ohio State will continue building on Devin Brown package

Devin Brown might have lost the quarterback battle to Kyle McCord this offseason, but Ohio State showed Saturday there’s still room for him to make an impact. The Buckeyes brought in Brown on a couple of red zone situations against Purdue, resulting in a pair of touchdowns — one passing and one rushing.

Brown entered the game early on Ohio State’s second drive as the team faced third-and-1 and took off on an eight-yard run to get the first down. Then two plays later, he again kept to for himself to punch in a two-yard touchdown.

The Buckeyes went back to him again on the next drive, but unfortunately that one didn’t go as well as he fumbled the ball at the goal line. Brown didn’t come back in after that until the fourth quarter, immediately throwing a long ball to Brandon Inniss for a 58-yard touchdown.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day addressed the play from Brown in his weekly press conference on Tuesday, noting Brown’s ability both as a runner and a passer.

“When you get down in those type of situations, the numbers start to work against you on offense,” he said. “When you add the quarterback into it, it can change those numbers. The great thing about Devin is he can throw the ball well. You see the throw he made to Brandon at the end of the game. So he’s not just a running quarterback. However, he is big and strong and athletic and competitive.”

Brown had appeared in Ohio State’s first three games of the season, but did not see the field in the next two matchups. He threw his first touchdown of the season in Week 3 against Western Kentucky, throwing a perfectly placed ball that reached Carnell Tate for a 28-yard touchdown.

Day went on to say that the Buckeyes had been working on the package for a while before rolling it out Saturday. He also added that the team will “continue to build” on it moving forward.

With a big-time matchup coming up against Penn State this weekend, it will be interesting to see whether we see Brown again in the red zone.

“We had been messing around a little bit with it, but felt like going into that game with the weather situation, we can’t get caught in a situation like we had in the past,” Day said. “So that was part of it. Then we added that down in the red zone and felt like it was a good package schematically. Wanted to let Devin go and kind of get his feet wet in that area and flush out any possible mistakes that may happen.

“I thought he ran hard. I thought he competed. He hopefully learned his lesson there on that one, but it certainly does give us a different wrinkle and we’ll continue to build on that package.”

Kickoff between Ohio State and Penn State is set for noon ET on Saturday in Columbus.