Devin Brown officially named Ohio State starting quarterback for Cotton Bowl
COLUMBUS — Devin Brown already said it earlier this month. Ryan Day all but confirmed it on 97.1 The Fan. But now it’s official from the fifth-year Buckeyes head coach.
Brown will start at quarterback for Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29 against No. 9 Missouri.
“We have a really good opponent. So this is a good opportunity for Devin to go in and be the starter,” Day said Wednesday during his National Signing Day press conference. “We want to finish this season the right way.”
Kyle McCord started all 12 regular season games and posted an 11-1 record to go along with a 24:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio, 3,170 passing yards and a 65.8% completion percentage. Except, the junior entered the transfer portal following Ohio State’s 30-24 defeat at Michigan and, earlier this week, committed to Syracuse.
Brown, a former five-star prospect and Elite 11 finalist in the 2022 recruiting class, lost a longstanding and back-and-forth competition with McCord that started, really, last bowl season and carried into the first two games of the regular season.
Day found a role for Brown in the Buckeyes’ offense midway through the year at Purdue when he introduced a red zone package for the dual-threat signal caller. Brown rushed for his first career touchdown against the Boilermakers and nearly had another before he fumbled through the end zone. The following week against Penn State, Brown almost reached the goal line again, but he suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him down the stretch of the regular season.
Brown is fully healthy now, and he’s re-asserting himself as the leader he proved he can be during the spring and summer when he was competing with McCord for the starting job.
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“All year, I’ve always prepared like I was the starter,” Brown said earlier this month. “I mean it’s definitely different [now] knowing that you’re getting a lot more reps because it’s not split up or anything like that. So yeah, there’s nothing to look over my shoulder for or anything.
“Just to go out and have fun and play my game.”
Brown will make his first career start for the No. 7 Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl. It will be his first real audition to become Ohio State’s QB1 for next season. He also has an opportunity to help the program transition from another Michigan hangover to a momentum-building New Year’s Six triumph that could put the wheels in motion for 2024.
Regardless of how Brown performs in the Cotton Bowl, he’ll likely still have to compete with true freshman quarterback Lincoln Kienholz this offseason. The Buckeyes are high on Kienholz, a former three-sport high school star from Pierre, South Dakota, who made his Ohio State debut in Week 11 against Michigan State.
The Buckeyes also signed 2024 quarterback Air Noland Wednesday. Noland — the No. 5 quarterback this cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking — is expected to enroll early in January and will be in the mix as well.
For now, though, Brown has the keys to the Ohio State offense.
And he’s tasked with getting the Buckeyes back on the highway. That requires him to merge the end of the 2023 season with the start of the 2024 season, a process that revs up in the Cotton Bowl.
