Ohio State’s entire spring schedule was building toward the quarterback showdown we expected to see Saturday at the Horseshoe.
That’s no longer the case. Multiple passers will still put their skills on display in this weekend’s spring game, but only one of them enters with a true chance to win the vacant starting job at Ohio State. Devin Brown was ruled out of the exhibition due to a finger injury that required a minor procedure on Wednesday, which means all eyes at Ohio Stadium will be fixed on Kyle McCord.
Ryan Day made it clear that the Buckeyes’ next starter won’t be determined at the conclusion of the spring. To that end, perhaps McCord can’t win the job with a stellar spring game performance alone. But such a spotlight certainly can’t hurt the player many already viewed as the frontrunner in the position battle – so long as he puts forth an impressive effort.
“It's another step in his progression. I think he's done some good things this spring,” Day said Wednesday. “Again, brings three years of experience under his belt here. So he knows the offense. He does a great job in the meeting, able to take concepts to the field. He's made some really nice throws, he's accurate and he's shown the ability to lead the team down the field to score. So again, another great opportunity for him to – and some of it has been with new receivers, talented receivers, but new receivers. And so a great opportunity for him to go out there and put that on the field and feel like 'OK, I got a game in the Shoe under my belt,' even though it's a spring game.”
Neither McCord nor Brown has truly separated themself as the surefire QB1 thus far into the offseason. Both have had highlight moments in the three extended practice viewing windows open to media members this spring, but both have also experienced plenty of struggles while splitting first-team reps. Following Ohio State’s April 1 Student Appreciation Day scrimmage, Day said he’d “like to see one of the two really step out.”
The spring game was supposed to be an opportunity for either player to do so in the most intense environment of the offseason to date, but now McCord will be the only one with that chance.
However, Day doesn’t believe that automatically gives McCord a leg up in the quarterback battle. If Day’s comments at Wednesday’s press conference are any indication, he and quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis still have a lot to figure out when evaluating both players. And while Day and Dennis initially hoped to name a starter at the end of the spring, it now appears the position battle will wage on into the preseason once Brown returns from injury in the summer.
Minor speed bump. More determined than ever! Go Bucks!
— Devin Brown (@dbrownqb33) April 12, 2023
"It would be nice to have it be black and white. I can't sit here and tell you it is right now. I think they've both done really good things, I think there's things they both will have to improve on. I think if they were sitting right here, they'd both tell you the same thing," Day said. "There's no games, there's no agenda here. It's two guys competing and one day one guy has the upper hand, the next day the other guy might have the upper hand. Those reps have been split up evenly, you guys have seen in practice we've been really making sure we do that. They know that there's things they need to work on, there's things that they've done well.
"This is practice 13, that's still not a ton of practices. You get double that in the preseason. We'll keep building, keep growing. You're never sure how these things shake out anyways. As we know, in the past there's times we needed two quarterbacks, three quarterbacks, whatever it is. I think after the spring we'll go through, take a look at the numbers, who graded out a champion, the completion percentage, those type of things. That'll help us."
As much as Day is playing up the notion of a 50/50 competition at quarterback, Brown still figured to need a big spring game to swing perception in his favor. With one less year of experience in the program and no collegiate passes on his résumé, even a wash in terms of spring performance would seem to leave McCord as the favorite to win the job.
“It's a pretty good indication of how they're going to handle themselves in a pressure environment.”– Ryan Day on spring game QB evaluation
But how much does the spring game truly factor into the competition anyway? Day acknowledged that quarterback performances in the exhibition haven’t always aligned with how the rest of their careers played out but said it is a valuable metric to gauge how a young QB handles pressure.
“It's a piece of the puzzle, for sure. I mean, we've had guys who have gone out and played really, really good in that game and not really had great careers,” Day said. “And then other guys who have really played poorly in that game and had great careers. But I'd say the majority of it, it's a pretty good indication of how they're going to handle themselves in a pressure environment.”
If McCord handles it well, as he did in each of his previous two spring game performances (a combined 26-for-37, 313 yards and three touchdowns), he’ll have another positive indicator in his favor. Not to mention, he already has a start under his belt at Ohio State, leading the Buckeyes to a 59-7 win over Akron on Sept. 25, 2021.
Still, Day didn’t exactly give McCord a resounding vote of confidence when asked how comfortable he’d be with the Philadelphia native as his starter if the Buckeyes were to play a real game this weekend.
“It's hard to say right now because there's still so much more to go here. I don't think anybody's really ready to play right now,” Day said. “So we'll kind of keep building and keep growing and see where we're at in August. Because in the offseason, these guys got an opportunity to get bigger, stronger, watch the spring cut-ups, throw on their own, things like that. And then we have all the practices in August. So we don't have to worry about playing a game right now, so we'll just keep working.”
Perhaps that feeling will change if McCord lights it up on Saturday.
