Ohio State Football: Ryan Day gives timeline for naming starting quarterback
By Del Barris
How good the Ohio State football team is will be predicated on how good the starting quarterback is. Ryan Day gave some sort of indication as to when he would name a starter.
Ohio State football fans and media alike have waited for months for Ryan Day to give some indication of when he will name his starter at quarterback. When he met with the press recently at Big Ten Media Days, he finally gave us some insight on his timeline for a decision,
“I’m not going to put a date on it, but you like to have (a starter named) by the first two weeks of the preseason, in a perfect world.”
There you have it. C.J. Stroud, Jack Miller, and Kyle McCord have two weeks to separate themselves from the others and show Day he is THE guy. Things could obviously change if Quinn Ewers enters the mix. If fall camp lasts four weeks, you’re probably wondering why Day won’t wait until the end of that third week to name a starter. He explains,
“So you can start to get them the reps ready to play in that first game.”
Obviously, the third-year Buckeye head coach feels his new starter, whoever it may be, is going to need two weeks to prepare for the opener against Minnesota on September 2nd. However, Day says this doesn’t mean the starter will be getting nearly all of the reps in practice,
“But, even still, we’re going to spread the reps around, because there’s going to be three guys in this thing all the way to January or as long as we can play.”
Take that statement to mean there will be competition among Stroud, Miller, and McCord throughout the season. Naming a starter in August does not mean that guy can’t be supplanted at some point. Day’s decision will not be written in stone and this is a good thing. You don’t want your starter looking over his shoulder after every mistake, but you also don’t want him complacent.
As he wrapped up his answer to the media, Day reiterated,
“So, I guess if you’re looking for kind of a ballpark, it might be about two weeks into camp.”
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Fall camp begins Tuesday, August 3rd. Look for an announcement on a starter from Day right around the 17th. I don’t see him going much beyond that date. A lot of Buckeye fans will be counting down the days to finally learning who will get the first crack at leading the offense.