Urban Meyer says Ohio State's quarterback battle is a 'big decision' for Ryan Day

As spring practice gets underway, Ohio State is gearing up for a changing of the guard at quarterback. CJ Stroud is out of the picture as a projected top-five pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which means Kyle McCord and Devin Brown will compete to replace him as the Buckeyes’ QB1.

It’s an important decision for head coach Ryan Day. But his predecessor and former boss, Urban Meyer, think’s it could be a “strenuous” one for multiple reasons in the era of NIL and the transfer portal. The two players bring different skillsets to the table, and Meyer pointed that out when he discussed pending the competition.

“I think Devin Brown and Kyle McCord, they’re different [types] of players,” Meyer told On3’s J.D. PicKell on The Hard Count. “One’s more of a drop-back pocket player and one’s kind of an athlete, run around. I’ve been there. It’s going to be a very strenuous decision because what happens nowadays, when a guy loses a battle, a lot of times, they leave and go start somewhere else, which you can’t fault that player for doing that. This is a big decision.”

McCord has experience on his side entering the spring, appearing in 12 games over the last two seasons with Ohio State behind Stroud. In that time, he threw for 606 yards and three touchdowns, including 190 yards and a touchdown in 2022. Brown, a redshirt freshman, appeared in two games and had one rushing attempt to his name last year. But all eyes are on them as spring ball starts.

Meyer knows a thing or two about quarterback competitions, too, from his time at Ohio State. He shared what he looked for as quarterbacks battled for the starting job — and he said it involves more than just stats. He used to look at qualities beyond the box score and stat sheet.

“I want to see — a quarterback’s job, how he throws it, his completion percentage, does he take care of the ball, those are all very critical — but does he score touchdowns? Does he get first downs and does he get touchdowns,” Meyer told PicKell. “That’s all I cared about. Now I would always have a category two, three, four five. And that would be completion percentage, accuracy on the short, medium and long throws, etc. — those are all tangibles. The other tangibles is that ‘Does he score points and move the team?’”