Buckeyes not rushing QB battle in spring practice
Ohio State opened spring football practice on Tuesday with five scholarship quarterbacks rotating through drills as they vie for the starting job..
But Buckeyes coaches do not appear in a hurry to resolve the highprofile position battle to replace Kyle Mccord following his transfer to Syracuse.
“Every time I’ve been involved in one of these, when they’re organic is when it’s best,” said Chip Kelly, newly hired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “I don’t think you can anoint somebody or force the issue, because of the players.
“The players will understand. They see it every single day. There’s a team chemistry part of this thing.”
Ohio State has not settled a quarterback competition in spring practice since Ryan Day succeeded Urban Meyer at the helm of the program in 2019.
All of the battles overseen by Day have lasted late into the summer, continuing through preseason training camp.
But at this time a year ago, Day had expressed optimism that a duel between Mccord and Devin Brown for the top spot on the depth chart could be sorted out at the end of spring practice. It ultimately took five more months, carrying over two games into the season in September.
No one gave an ambitious timeline this year.
“You’ve got to let them play it out on the field,” Kelly said. “That’s where it has to be decided.”
In at least the first three or four practices, the Buckeyes will shuffle quarterbacks. Day referred to it as rolling them, meaning all of the passers will see a mix of reps between the first and third teams as they continuously follow one another in a rotation.
The arrangement won’t immediately favor Will Howard, the veteran transfer from Kansas State who is seen as the favorite, or Brown, who pushed Mccord a year ago and was first in line in practice on Tuesday in periods seen by reporters.
But it won’t leave Lincoln Kienholz, a returning redshirt freshman, or true freshmen Air Noland and Julian Sayin, as afterthoughts in the derby.
“We’re going to let them compete,” Day said. “It’s hard for us to say to someone like Julian Sayin or Lincoln or Air or whoever that you get to come here and compete when the first thing they do is take a bunch of reps with the threes. We want to roll you whatever drill it might be, and you’re getting reps with everybody so you can show what you do.”