Ohio State Football: Buckeye QB with a strange new number

The Ohio State football team started Spring practices yesterday and quarterback Devin Brown came out with a new number on his jersey.

The Ohio State football team started spring ball yesterday as fans and media alike get their first glimpse of the open quarterback competition. Some, however, might have thought that defensive end Jack Sawyer switched to quarterback as No. 33 was throwing passes.

Need not worry, Sawyer is remaining on the defensive side of the ball, but Devin Brown has apparently changed his number to 33. He called it the original quarterback number and that it was a tribute to the great TCU quarterback Sammy Baugh. He wore it growing up and thought he’d give it a shot now that he’s in his second year at Ohio State. This from Cleveland.com:

"“It just kind of came through my family,” Brown said. “My dad had always talked about it and so I put it on when I was seven years old and had never taken off until high school.”"

Ryan Day also weighed in on the matter:

"“He said that was something that he’s done for a while with his family and was something that was important to him,” Day said. “I said, ‘OK, you’re going to stick out a little bit, you know. Are you alright with that?’ And he said yeah. I said, as long as you guys are good with it, I’m good with it.”"

All that I can say is that if he’s going to change his number to 33 permanently then he better be pretty darn good. You can’t wear a number like that and stink up the field. Quarterbacks haven’t worn numbers like that since the 60’s so it’s going to take some getting used to from a visual standpoint.

But, as I said, if he’s good and wins a Heisman or something, the number won’t matter. In fact, it might even be pretty cool. I could see kids all across Ohio buying No. 33s and slinging it around in their backyards.