Ryan Day, Buckeyes waiting for ‘consistency’ to emerge in quarterback battle

COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Ryan Day knows he’ll have to make a tough decision eventually this month.

With the Buckeyes first game of the season just 19 days away, Day will need to name a starting quarterback at some point, at least for Week One. Whether it drags into the regular season is still up in the air, but the bottom line remains.

One of his quarterbacks, either junior Kyle McCord or second-year quarterback Devin Brown, will lead the offense against Indiana.

One thing was certainly clear Monday morning during Day’s press conference: 10 practices into training camp, he is not ready to reveal who that first-team quarterback will be. It’s not settled yet. And Day just doesn’t see one of them putting the kind of separation between he and the other to name one as of Monday morning.

“You’d like a sizable gap to name a starter, for sure,” Day said. “It’s hard to name somebody when there isn’t a significant gap. So we’re looking for someone to emerge. There have been good things, there have been things that they want back. I appreciate the competitiveness right now. They’re going at it every day.

“We are not ready to name a starter right now. The competition will continue this week.”

Day’s track record of naming starters — he has gone through two quarterback competitions in his first four years as the Buckeyes head coach — suggest that he’ll have one named in the next week. That’s around the time both Justin Fields (2019) and C.J. Stroud (2021) were tabbed as the starting signal-callers.

But this competition is different. Fields and Stroud were the leaders from January and the clear-cut best option for the entire offseason leading to their coronation. For Brown and McCord this time around, there still isn’t a clear leader in the race to replace Stroud.

Day certainly wants to see growth from his two quarterbacks — and he wants to see one pull away from the other. But it also has to be natural. He doesn’t want the two quarterbacks to press while trying to win the job.

“I keep going back to the fact that I don’t think there needs to be extraordinary play. It’s making the routine plays routinely and taking care of the football. Period,” Day said. “We have to understand situational football, I think that’s important, and ultimately leading the team down the field. Those are the areas we have been emphasizing.”

Until that happens on a consistent basis, there will still be an opening at quarterback for Ohio State. The No. 3 Buckeyes are loaded at nearly every position on the offense, especially at wide receiver and running back. Whoever wins the quarterback job will be immediately thrust into one of the most critical spotlights in all of college football.

Neither has done enough through 10 practices to warrant that, even if they’re both showing good signs so far through August.

“I do wish that somebody has really emerged,” Day said. “I don’t think it’s right now where two guys are really blowing it out of the water and I don’t know who’s going to play. But it’s also not like they’re not doing well, either. There’s really good play out there. There’s ability.

“Now we’re just looking for the consistency.”

Whichever quarterback can deliver on what Day is looking for will take over the offense. Whoever does the right things at the right times to show they deserve to become the face of the locker room and program.

So far, neither McCord nor Brown have done enough. So the competition continues until they do — if they do. If not, the Buckeyes are working through a plan to name a starter eventually.

“If someone doesn’t emerge, you have to come up with a plan,” Day said. “We have our head down. Just trying to work. We haven’t made any decisions right now. When we have to make a decision, we’ll make a decision.”

That decision wasn’t made by Ryan Day on Monday. And Ohio State now enters a crucial third week of training camp still searching for its starting quarterback to emerge from the two-man pack.

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