‘Quarterback is really a service position’: Tristan Gebbia embracing shape-shifting role for Buckeyes

COLUMBUS — When redshirt freshman Devin Brown fractured his pinkie finger on his throwing hand late in spring ball this year, he looked to fellow Ohio State quarterback Tristan Gebbia.

Gebbia has become a mentor to Brown, who’s known the Calabasas, California, native since he was a middle schooler attending Steve Clarkson quarterback camps where Gebbia was a counselor. Brown and Gebbia actually trained with the same quarterback coach, former Arizona State signal caller Rudy Carpenter, out in Arizona.

Not only does Brown have a connection with Gebbia that goes back years, age gap and all, but he also has a respect for Gebbia’s perseverance through significantly greater adversity.

After starting five consecutive games for Oregon State between the end of 2019 and the beginning of the 2020 season, Gebbia suffered a serious hamstring injury during his rivalry win over Oregon in the COVID-19-affected campaign, which sidelined him for a season and a half.

Discussing that injury, Brown effused admiration for Gebbia, who he said was “bedridden for two years” during his recovery process.

While Gebbia’s injury was indeed career threatening, Gebbia himself comically admitted the circumstances weren’t quite as severe as Brown suggested.

“I think he got a little carried away with that one,” Gebbia said with a smile, drawing a laugh from the media in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. “I was laid up for like a month and a half or something like that. It was a tough injury, for sure.”

Gebbia can control a room, whether it’s a quarterback room or a room full of reporters. He’s started more games than any quarterback on the Ohio State roster, he’s played for three different programs — his college career began at Nebraska — and he’s seen just about everything you can as an FBS player.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound, red-haired grad student seamlessly pivoted from humor to seriousness throughout his press conference ahead of training camp, six months into his Buckeyes stay.

“More than anything, quarterback is really a service position,” Gebbia said. “It’s about serving your teammates, serving the program and putting your teammates in the program before yourself. I think that’s one of the biggest things that I learned. And I think that philosophy is what led to me being a captain three times at Oregon State, even with my injury, and that’s the thing I’m most proud of is is that guys were able to look at me even when I was going through some tough times to be able to lead.”

From left to right: Ohio State quarterbacks Devin Brown, Kyle McCord, Tristan Gebbia and Lincoln Kienholz drill in training camp. (Doral Chenoweth-The Columbus Dispatch)

Gebbia entered the transfer portal after five years at Oregon State. Because of the COVID-19 waiver, plus his medical redshirt, he had a rare seventh year of college eligibility. With an eye toward the next stage of his life, Gebbia decided to double dip in transferring to Ohio State: He got to keep playing football, even if just as a reserve quarterback, and he earned the opportunity to get a head start on his coaching career.

He already learned under Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith, and now he’s taking notes from another great offensive mind in the sport, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

“You talk about somebody who’s come in and done an unbelievable job here,” Day said of Gebbia in April. “He came in with no expectations, really with the plan that he wants to be a coach. And so he sat in staff meetings with us. [He’s] almost like an apprentice, what he’s doing right now. He’s coming in as a player, but he also wants to be a coach.”

Day, who played quarterback at New Hampshire in the late ’90s before starting his coaching career, continued: “What a cool opportunity for him and something hopefully that we can build on moving forward as guys who want to get into coaching who are quarterbacks, who can come in and provide that maturity but also learn the game. And that’s what he’s doing right now.”

Gebbia — after completing 128-of-200 passes for 1,250 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions in his Oregon State career — shed his Ohio State black stripe in the spring season.

He was thrust into the QB2 role for the spring game after Brown’s injury, and he looked the part. Gebbia was 14-of-24 for 127 yards and a touchdown, which saw a well-timed slant turn into a 57-yard catch-and-run score by true freshman wideout Noah Rogers.

“He’s a unique kid,” Ohio State quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis said of Gebbia in May. “He’s been around a lot of college football, seen a lot of coordinators, a lot of things. He wants to be a coach. That’s something that he wants to do, he wants to dive into it. And so he really understands and really embraces his role, right.

“A lot of guys when they come in, they’re too worried about what their role is going to be versus, ‘Hey, let me find my role.’”

That role has already shape shifted a bit for Gebbia. He began the spring as the clear third-string signal caller, behind Brown and junior Kyle McCord, who are competing for the starting job. Then, by the time the spring game rolled around, he was running the second-team offense in the absence of Brown. Now, he’s helping groom true freshman quarterback Lincoln Kienholz, a summer arrival from Pierre, South Dakota.

“What I want more than anything is to be the correct person for whatever job that they have for me,” Gebbia said. “So if that’s starting games, then I’m ready to do that. If that’s being the backup, whatever they have for me — we talk about it all the time, we want Ohio State to be the star, not us. Whatever role that they have for me, let’s go do it.”

Ohio State quarterback Tristan Gebbia speaks with the media ahead of training camp. (Matt Parker/Lettermen Row)

But Gebbia could leave his biggest mark on the quarterback battle between McCord and Brown. Given that he has at least four years of experience on both of them, he has some wisdom to share.

Without overstepping or preaching, Gebbia is making himself available to McCord and Brown. He emphasized the great qualities he sees in each of them, pointing out Brown’s ability to extending plays and McCord’s depth of knowledge in the offensive system.

Gebbia remarked that, if you didn’t know the situation, you would think McCord and Brown had played a lot of games at the college level.

“Tristan’s been an extremely incredible resource for us,” Brown said. “I’ve just grabbed Tristan every day and gone into the quarterback room and just watched tape. We even watch tape of him at Oregon State. It doesn’t matter what we’re watching. He’s just always giving insight to different things that he did and different ways that he performed. And he’s given us a lot of tips that have been really helpful.”

From Calabasas to Lincoln to Corvallis to Columbus, Gebbia said he’s changed a lot and grown a lot.

His marathon college career hasn’t gone the way the former four-star prospect envisioned, but he’s adamant that he wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

“We make plans and God laughs,” Gebbia said. “That’s a saying my family says a lot, and I think that it’s pretty true. Been through it a couple of times now.”

Even in his seventh year, Gebbia is still learning — about himself, the quarterback position and college football. He didn’t know what he to expect when he arrived at Ohio State, a feeding ground for the best high school recruits and a breeding ground for NFL talent.

But he’s fit right in.

“This is a blue chip program,” Gebbia said, “but the guys in here, they’re blue collar guys.”

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