Saturday's spring game won't feature a head-to-head matchup between Ohio State's two top quarterbacks after all.
Ryan Day announced Wednesday that second-year passer Devin Brown will miss the exhibition game after having a minor medical procedure on a finger on his throwing hand. Day said Brown “should have pretty much a full summer" after recovering from the injury.
Minor speed bump. More determined than ever! Go Bucks!
— Devin Brown (@dbrownqb33) April 12, 2023
Brown and third-year Buckeye Kyle McCord had been splitting first-team reps under center throughout the spring as Ohio State looks to replace two-time Heisman Trophy finalist C.J. Stroud ahead of the 2023 season.
"He's not gonna be available to play on Saturday. He will be throwing again real soon, but he won't be able to actually play in the game on Saturday," Day said. "So the other four quarterbacks will play, really important for Kyle and Tristan (Gebbia) to get out there and compete. I think there's been really good quarterback play this spring. There's been a lot of ups and downs along the way, and so we'll kind of see how Saturday goes and then take a look at the spring and go from there."
Before the Buckeyes' spring schedule started, Day hoped to name a starter by the end of spring. Following Ohio State's Student Appreciation Day scrimmage on April 1, though, Day said "I don’t think we’ve seen" either quarterback truly separate from the other. Day doubled down on that notion Wednesday and said the coaching staff will evaluate each player's passing numbers after Saturday's spring game.
"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."
However, Day said the spring game will be a "great opportunity" for both McCord and Oregon State transfer Tristan Gebbia to continue honing their skills and gaining experience in the Buckeye offense on Saturday.
