The decision’s coming down the pike, and it could be known internally within the week.
Ryan Day has, on several occasions, said he hopes to know which quarterback will start for Ohio State within the first two weeks of preseason camp, and he appears to be sticking to that plan.
Certainly, he could wait a bit until it’s made public. But the winner of the C.J. Stroud-Kyle McCord-Jack Miller battle could be decided as early as next weekend.
“I think after this week, we're going to have a really good feel,” Day said on Monday afternoon. “I think that Wednesday will be a big day, Saturday will be a big day. We'll take Sunday off and come up for air, and at that point I think we'll have a pretty good feel. I think maybe it'll take another week after that, but we'll see. Now that we're kind of getting into practice five, we're getting into 20 practices now when you include the spring. So this is a pretty good body of work that we're putting together day after day.
“Will it be ready next week? I don't know. But it'll be pretty close to that timetable.”
Day declined to offer any further insight into where each quarterback stands within the competition, claiming nobody has separated themselves from the other two thus far. He has said the trio of signal-callers continue to rotate through reps in practice.
Stroud, to those outside of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, has long been viewed as the frontrunner to win the job. He led the quarterback stretching line, went through positional drills first and took the first starting reps in team periods in the two practices partially opened to the media.
Of course, an impending quarterback decision effectively eliminates any possibility of Quinn Ewers starting to open the season. He’s expected to arrive at some point in the near future but will not be able to get up to enroll and speed quickly enough to win the starting job right away. He’ll have to join the other two non-starters in pushing for opportunities once the season starts on Sept. 2.
Day believes “it takes a village” to get a quarterback room in tip-top shape, so he’s constantly stressing the importance of all three quarterbacks currently on the roster.
“I think that room has gotten a lot stronger, too, because a big part of it is it can't be a bunch of individuals in that room,” Day said. “It has to have some cohesion in it. When you think about the last time we won a national championship here, it took three guys. So I brought that up to that whole room in that there's going to be one starter. That's the only thing I know for sure – the first play against Minnesota, there's going to be one quarterback in the game, unless we decide to put two out there, but that's probably not going to happen. That's just what's going to happen. And it's a long way all the way to January. So how can those guys come together for a season and pull for each other and pull for the room? That's where it's more than just the Xs and Os.
“I think Corey (Dennis has) done a great job with that, Keenan Bailey, Todd Fitch. We have a lot of people who are helping in that area just in terms of communication with those guys and building that room up. I'm obviously in there a lot and talking to those guys. So they have great resources and people there. I think it's going to be a long road all the way to January, but we're off to a good start.”
