Scarlet Sunrise: Ryan Day wants to settle QB competition in first week to 10 days of training camp
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Ryan Day wants to settle QB competition in first week to 10 days of training camp
Since he started serving as Ohio State head coach, including his stint as acting head coach ahead of and then during the 2018 season, Ryan Day has never settled a quarterback competition sooner than Aug. 19.
He could reset that date this summer.
“You can’t force it,” Day said Thursday following the first practice of Buckeyes training camp. “But, ideally, we’d like to have someone as a starter and then go into the season and get going with that. So how that shakes out?
“I’m hoping that it happens in the first week to 10 days, but it’s the same thing that happened last year — I’d like for it to happen. It didn’t [last year]. Even after the first couple of games, I didn’t feel like it happened. And then it obviously got to the point after we won the big game that it was appropriate, but we’ll see how it shakes out.”
Kyle McCord backed up C.J. Stroud for two years and ended up getting his chance in the spotlight last season, but only after a longstanding competition with Devin Brown. Both quarterbacks took turns in the lead of the position battle, except McCord’s experience in the system — plus having one career start under his belt — gave him the edge.
McCord got the nod for Week 1, publicly on Aug. 29; played the majority of the first two games, despite the competition technically remaining open; and then was named the full-time starter on Sept. 12 ahead of a Week 3 matchup against Western Kentucky.
That said, during Thursday’s presser, Day made it sound like McCord wasn’t really the guy until after his heroic game-winning drive against Notre Dame in a top-10 showdown in South Bend.
McCord is now at Syracuse. Brown is still competing for the QB1 job at Ohio State. Kansas State grad transfer Will Howard, however, is the frontrunner for the gig in a crowded five-man quarterback room that also includes second-year signal caller Lincoln Kienholz and true freshmen Julian Sayin and Air Noland.
“I think all the guys are doing a good job,” Day said. “I think we’re gonna need them all, like I said. But you’d like to have that [competition] done in the first couple of weeks.”
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