Ohio State Football: Ryan Day says C.J. Stroud is separating himself

Although Day declined to name a starting quarterback for the Ohio State football team, he did indicate that one guy is separating himself from the pack.

We are just over two weeks away from the first game of the season for the Ohio State football program. Even though the season starts so soon, they still don’t know who the starting quarterback is going to be. At least, they won’t say they know publicly.

Ryan Day had indicated last week that he could name a starter soon. While he didn’t quite go that far today, he did indicate that C.J. Stroud is “separating himself” from the rest of the pack. That would indicate that it is Stroud’s job to lose at this point.

This is not a surprise. Stroud had looked like the guy all the way back in the Spring Game. He has done nothing to lose that position and has looked quite good in Fall practice so far. It doesn’t seem that Kyle McCord or Jack Miller have been able to make up that ground.

It’s also not surprising that Day has declined to name a starting quarterback publicly yet. What good does it do for him to do so? Force Minnesota and Oregon to look at game film from both Stroud and Miller, and perhaps McCord’s high school games as well.

Forcing other programs to dedicate time to players who won’t start is an easy way to get an advantage. I bet that the rest of the team already knows that Stroud is the guy. Day just wants to keep that under wraps for as long as he can and probably won’t name him publicly until the week of the Minnesota game.

All in all, this news isn’t surprising. But it is confirmation that Day and the staff feel comfortable enough with Stroud to make a statement like that. It seems they like Stroud and have confidence in him to lead this team where it needs to go.