Ryan Day recalls past quarterback battles, importance of spring game performance

The upcoming spring game will be one of the biggest since Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has taken over as head coach of the program because of the question mark around the quarterback position.

It is the first non-COVID impacted offseason where Day does not know who is starting quarterback is going to be since the 2019 season.

That was the year Justin Fields transferred into the program. Day remembers that spring game vividly. Not because of how well Fields but because of how nervous he was because of his play.

“I remember the game that Justin was in,” Day said Wednesday. “He actually struggled a little bit early on. I think we threw like a long ball on like the five yard line to — I forget who it was — it might have been Ben Vick. It was Ben Vick. It kind of made the day, okay, because it wasn’t a good day leading up to that. That was concerning coming out of that game. I mean, I was concerned at night that night thinking to myself, do we really have a quarterback here who’s ready to play? We knew his talent was there. Those are the things this time of year you worry about.”

The quarterback competition this year is between Kyle McCord and Devin Brown with Oregon State graduate transfer Tristan Gebbia in the mix as a well-distant third.

However, Day announced Wednesday that Brown will not play in the spring game after having surgery on a finger on his throwing hand.

That will give McCord an advantage heading into the end of spring practice to take control of the quarterback battle. But it won’t be the defining piece that settles the score.

“It’s just another piece of the puzzle,” Day said. “But I think it does tell you when you’re in the stadium how things are going. But to think that Justin would have played the way he did that year coming off of that spring game, that wasn’t a great indication of how he played because he certainly played great. Now for him, he had just been in the offense for a couple of months so that probably played into it. These guys have been in the offense a little longer. Tristan, not as much, but certainly Kyle and Devon. I just think understanding the offense they’re further along those guys were and CJ was at that point too.