Buckeyes quarterback battle entering crunch time after second camp scrimmage
COLUMBUS — Whether Ryan Day ends up naming the 2023 Ohio State starting quarterback — junior Kyle McCord or redshirt freshman Devin Brown — on Monday, or pushes the decision on down the line closer to the season opener Sept. 2 at Indiana, know this: The tote board will keep running in his head.
Such a high-profile and critical position for the No. 3 team in the Associated Press preseason poll can’t be left to a simple gut check.
On that tote board there is a column for the objective data from this month of practices such as competition percentage, third-down conversions, decisions to pull it down and run, proper reads, red zone success, etc.
“Then there is the eyeball test – what do you see when someone walks into the huddle before a drive, on that third and three in the red zone when the game’s on the line, what’s that gonna look like?” Day said way back when preseason camp started for Ohio State. “To me that’s where quarterbacks are at their best, when you have to win the game, they’re the most competitive guy on the field.”
He must make that judgement based on the game-like situations he and the coaches have tried to create the past couple of weeks, not the least being the scrimmages of the past two Saturdays. McCord, the third-year man and backup to C.J. Stroud the last two years, did start and win the game vs. Akron in 2021 in relief of a sore-shoulder Stroud, but otherwise has a only a little more than Brown, a second-year player in terms of real-game experience.
Thus the challenge in a simulated setting has been to make a judgement on the fire-in-the belly factor. Like the way the late Dwayne Haskins, a non-runner if ever there was one in 2018, used his feet when needed to pull out a hard-fought win at Maryland, Day said. Or the way Justin Fields rose from taking a big hit vs. Clemson in the 2020 College Football Playoff semifinal and throw for six touchdowns. Or the way C.J. Stroud “attacked” and was willing to do whatever it took last year for Ohio State in that 42-41 loss to Georgia in a CFP semi.
“That’s what we want,” Day said. “We want the most competitive guy on the field.”
The word, according to Lettermen Row sources, is: Brown has had the more exciting scrimmages, but sprinkled with the occasional big mistake. McCord has been the steadier of the two but, again, the more spectacular plays have come with Brown in the mix.
Put those together and the competition still could be called a push.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh had a similar predicament this time a year ago. Upperclassman Cade McNamara had led the team to its first win over Ohio State since 2011 and to the Big Ten championship and CFP berth in 2021. But J.J. McCarthy showed promise of taking the offense to another level.
“It was just too close to call in the practice environment,” Harbaugh recalled during July’s Big Ten media days. “There’s no question that how you practice predicts game performance, but nothing predicts game performance like game performance.
“I felt the fairest thing to do was … it needed to go into overtime, into the season.”
So much for the notion McNamara owned the spot due to the previous season success.
“Any position, including the quarterback, nobody really owns the position,” Harbaugh said. “They’re leasing at best, you know? That was something I understood as a player, and most everybody else is rent. Like leasing would be a month. You’ve got four games. If you don’t do well in four games, somebody else is possibly sitting there that could pay more rent – you’ve gotta pay the rent.”
McCarthy won the job in real-game analysis as the season progressed. After the season McNamara transferred to Iowa.
“That is the nature, the beauty of football,” Harbaugh said. “You’ve got to earn it, you’ve got to pay that rent every game.”
The decision was made on “As much as could be objective, and there’s objective-subjective,” Harbaugh said. But “As much as you possibly can, objective.
“Gut feel? I’ve never been a big fan of that. Somebody says ‘I had a gut feeling,’ you sure that wasn’t gas?”
So whether the tote board in Day’s mind shows now is the time to make the decision at Ohio State, well, he has a press conference on Monday to make it known if he wishes. Or he could push it back, or he could declare, like Harbaugh did a year ago, that’s going to go into the season.
“Somebody has to emerge to be starter, for sure,” Day said back at the first of the month. “And if you don’t know you just keep pushing forward.”
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