How soon could Ohio State football name a starting quarterback in preseason training camp?
Ohio State coach Ryan Day expressed hope Thursday that the Buckeyes could determine their starting quarterback early on in preseason training camp.
“I’m hoping it happens in the first week to 10 days,” Day said.
As the Buckeyes held their first preseason practice, they continued a high-profile position battle that featured Will Howard and Devin Brown in the middle of the competition.
Howard, an experienced passer with a year of eligibility left, transferred to the OSU from Kansas State in January, while Brown, a redshirt sophomore pushed Kyle McCord to start last August.
The competition, lasting into early September, culminated with McCord winning the starting job over Brown. After a season behind center, McCord transferred to Syracuse.
Day said he had been hopeful for an accelerated timeline last year as well, but the situation never materialized.
“It has to happen,” Day said. “You can’t force it. Ideally, we’d like to have someone as the starter and go into the season and get going with that.”
McCord, who had a year of experience over Brown, was formally named the starting quarterback after two games.
“I’d like for it to happen,” he said. “It didn’t. Even after the first couple of games, I didn't feel like it happened.”
Prior to last season, Day had named Ohio State’s starting quarterback in late August.
Both of the announcements for C.J. Stroud in 2021 and Justin Fields in 2019 came 12 days before the season opener.
“We’ll see how it shakes out,” Day said. “All the guys are doing a good job. I think we’re going to need them all.”
Five scholarship quarterbacks rotated through drills in the first practice, a group that also included redshirt freshman Lincoln Kienholz and freshmen Julian Sayin and Air Noland and drew praise from Day.
“I thought our guys looked more fit, stronger,” Day said. “I thought they moved better from the spring. They just look like they had three or four months of work on their bodies. The ball came out with more pace. I thought they had a better understanding of the offense.”
Day said last week they would look at paring down the reps after holding the first four practices, which run through Sunday.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @joeyrkaufman or email him at jkaufman@dispatch.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football training camp: When could starting QB be named?
