Ohio State has become increasingly intentional with how it’s divvying up quarterback reps over the course of its first seven days of preseason camp.
The Buckeyes split up their roster to have two sets of offensive and defensive players going head-to-head simultaneously for most of their first four practices, allowing all five of their scholarship quarterbacks – and players at every position – to get more reps. At the end of their third and fourth practices, however, the Buckeyes began running full-team 11-on-11 drills in which Will Howard took most of the reps behind the first-team offensive line while Devin Brown took most of the reps with the second unit.
The split-team periods were gone on Thursday when Ohio State reopened practice to the media for its seventh day of camp. But the trend from the weekend continued in team drills as Howard took the vast majority of first-team reps at quarterback while Brown took nearly all of the second-team snaps.
In his second press conference of preseason camp after Thursday’s practice, Ryan Day wasn’t yet ready to name Howard as Ohio State’s starting quarterback but indicated that Howard and Brown have separated themselves as the Buckeyes’ top two quarterbacks ahead of Julian Sayin, Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland. And he made it clear that he has been impressed by what he’s seen from Howard so far this month.
“We've been mixing it up a little bit, but you're starting to see he and Devin get a little bit more lion's share of the reps with the ones,” Day said when asked if Howard had emerged as the frontrunner to start at quarterback. “I will say that he's taken command of the huddle at the line of scrimmage. I think he's much more confident out there.
“No decisions have been made. We're going to probably scrimmage a little bit on Saturday. By then, we'll take an evaluation and kind of see where we're at. But both guys are getting reps with the ones.
“I will say that Will really has taken some strides here in the last couple of practices, taking control of the offense, making plays on third down. Again, hasn't won the job, but we have seen some positive play there.”
Day believes Howard has shown “a total command of the offense” in the Buckeyes’ first seven practices of camp while he’s also gotten in better shape physically since the spring, slimming down from 249 pounds to a range of 233-235 pounds.
“He's put some work in, I think, this summer, not only on his body – and by the way, I think it was 2% body fat that he changed – and so that part was big, but also just understanding of the offense,” Day said. “He's worked on his throwing mechanics. But if you just said, give me the one thing that looks different this preseason, it's his command of the offense, the way that he's making decisions, and his movement.”
It would have been a surprise if Day had named a starting quarterback on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s first full scrimmage of the preseason, which will not be open to the media. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Howard becomes Ohio State’s starting quarterback by next week, however, if he can build off the momentum he’s built so far in camp with a strong scrimmage performance.
