Ryan Day Would Like To Make Quarterback Decision Soon

COLUMBUS — Naming a starting quarterback is probably the most important decision every year for a football coach, and that will be the case this year for Ohio State head coach Ryan Day as well.

The Buckeyes have five scholarship quarterbacks to choose from, but through four days of practice now, a pecking order is emerging.

Fifth-year senior transfer Will Howard and redshirt sophomore Devin Brown are currently at the top of the heap, while true freshman Julian Sayin and redshirt freshman Lincoln Kienholz are waging a battle for third. True freshman Air Noland, meanwhile, is having a typical freshman camp, which was expected.

Last year’s quarterback battle wasn’t settled between Brown and eventual starter Kyle McCord until the season was well underway. Day doesn’t want that to happen again this year, but ultimately it’s up to the players to win the job.

“I mean, it has to happen, but you can’t force it,” Day said last Thursday after the first practice of camp. “But ideally we’d like to have someone as a starter and then go into the season and get going with that. So, how that shakes out? I’m hoping that it happens in the first week to 10 days.”

The first four practices were designed to give all five quarterbacks as many reps as they could handle. Fields were split in two, allowing multiple quarterbacks to get snaps at the same time. That will now be cut back when the Buckeyes are back on the practice field Tuesday and the reps will start to get whittled down to the top two or three guys.

And with those reps comes the opportunity to win one of the most coveted jobs in college football. But it’s not just something that will be handed over by default.

“It’s the same thing that happened last year,” Day said. “I’d like for it to happen, it didn’t. Even after the first couple of games, I didn’t feel like it happened. And then it obviously got to the point after we won the big game that it was appropriate. We’ll see how it shakes out.”

The Buckeyes will have five days of practice in a row before taking Sunday off. The Saturday practice will wrap up the second week of camp, which means it could be the most important practice yet, especially for Will Howard and Devin Brown.

“I think all the guys are doing a good job,” Day said. “I think we’re gonna need them all, like I’ve said. But you’d like to have that done in the first couple weeks.”

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