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Breaking Down The 2024 Buckeye Quarterback Battle · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Guyes tomorrow morning for Friday, February ninth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and four days,
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  the game against Michigan in two hundred and ninety five days, and yesterday show,
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  Tony Gerdan and I shared some thoughts on what we learned from Ryan Day
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  during Wednesday's press conference. They talked for more than an hour, so there
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  was a bunch of stuff we didn't even get to during that show, and
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  a bunch of other stuff we're going to let you hear in a little more
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  detail straight from the mouth of Ryan Day. So there is a lot to
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  go through today. We're just going to focus on the quarterbacks because there's a
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  million things we could talk about today, We're just going to talk about the
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  quarterback position. Let's start with a quick update on Devin Brown's health. I'm
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  not even going to let you hear from Ryan David on this one because we
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  relatively short answer. Devin Brown fine after the ankle injury. He will be
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  full go for springball. No concerns there. So Devin Brown, the addition
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  of Will Howard, Lincoln keenholes eron Noland, the addition of Julian saying you
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  got five scholarship quarterbacks. That is a real luxury these days, but it
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  also presents some challenges in terms of getting guys the rep. So what does
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  Ryan Day think about having five scholarship quarterbacks and this roster this year? Yeah,
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  we had to bring in some extra chairs, I guess, but it's
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  it's good. I think it's healthy. And we say this all the time
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  and recruiting. If you don't want to compete House State's probably not the right
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  place for you. And it makes everybody in that better, in that room
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  better. But it's not just there, it's at every position, and I
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  think they're all embracing it. How is Day planed planning to manage the reps
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  between five different guys this spring because you've got a lot of guys who need
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  to get snaps and there just aren't that many snaps to go around. Yeah,
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  just you going to try to get as many reps as we possibly can
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  of team reps, seven on seven reps, and you know we need to
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  get to the guys as many reps as they can. It's not just a
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  quarterback, it's at other positions. But you know that means there'll be a
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  lot of reps out there for the guys, but you know, we're going
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  to be smart the spring in terms of there's certain guys that have played a
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  bunch of football. Those guys are in a different situation than you know,
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  guys who just came in in January. And then you have guys that are
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  in the middle there who have played some football but really need this spring to
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  grow and build. And so will identify that as the spring goes on to
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  see who needs what reps. But when you have, you know, the
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  quarterback room that we have, we're gonna need a bunch of team reps to
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  make sure we're developing these guys that are learning the offense. And you know,
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  for for Devin, he probably has the most experience, but Lincoln,
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  you know, really doesn't have a ton he need to hasn't gone through a
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  spring yet. Will's brand new to the offense. Air and Julian are in
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  the same boat. So we need to get these guys as many reps as
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  we possibly can. So there'll be some long practices with Will Howard certainly being
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  at the front of the line in terms of who might be the starter for
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  the Buckeyes this fall and he also being brand new to the program, does
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  he need to get the majority of the reps this spring? What we need
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  to do is figure out, you know, how many reps do you really
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  need to get at the end of the spring to you know, be ready
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  to move into the summer. You know. So whatever that is, it's
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  not a percentage. It's just like, all right, here's what we need
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  per practice and then we'll make sure that we get those reps. When we
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  talked to Howard a couple of weeks ago, he talked about himself as you
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  know, viewing himself as the starting quarterback this year. So is that how
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  Ryan Day views him? Yeah, you know, listen, we'll will came
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  here to play football, you know. So you know, I hope that's
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  his mentality, you know, and I hope all the guys have that mentality.
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  So you know, he's gonna learn the office and get going. But
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  he's done a great job so far with the feedback. A big part of
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  the quarterback play here is is what goes on in that that that weight room
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  with coach Mick. You know, the leadership and you know the way that
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  you know, guys work. You have to build credibility up amongst your teammates,
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  and and that's a big part of it. You know, we talked
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  to quarterbacks about this all the time, talk to you know about you know,
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  to CJ when when he first went to the NFL, is like,
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  you have to endear yourself into that building and you have to earn the respect
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  of the guys in the building. And I think you know Will's doing that.
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  You typically only bring in one quarterback per recruiting class. There have all
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  sleep in exceptions in Ohio State history. DJ Stroud and Jack Miller came in
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  in the same year, for example, and Kyle McCord and Quin Viewers came
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  in in the same year as well. But of course that was a little
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  bit of a last minute decision, a last minute reclassification by yours. This
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  year you have sort of a different version of a last minute decision where they
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  already brought in there Noland and then once Nick Saban announced his retirement at Alabama,
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  Julian Sayin decided he was going to go on the portal, and they
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  Ohio State brought in Julian Saying as well to give them two quarterbacks in this
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  twenty twenty four recruiting class. So did ran Day have conversations with the rest
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  of the quarterback room before he decided to bring in a second quarterback in this
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  class. Yeah, that's that's something I try to really do a thorough job
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  of as making sure I communicate when we're doing something like that, because this
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  is not a program that brings in, you know, twenty twenty five thirty
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  guys in the portal. But when we do, you know, I try
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  to share my thoughts on why I try to communicate it, and you know,
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  for the most part, guys embrace it. There's times where maybe they
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  don't like it, you know, but I always feel like it's it's important
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  for me to communicate the best I can. Not always perfect, but I
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  think it's it's important to do all. Right. So, now that that
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  communication is done and both freshman quarterbacks are enrolled, what of Day's initial impressions
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  been of both Aaron Nolan and Julian Sands just getting started. It used to
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  be that when you came in at midyear, it was a big, you
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  know, a significant you know, the fact that you're coming in at midyear.
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  Now it's a little bit more normal. Guys are planning there, you
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  know, Sophomore junior years around graduating at midyear, and it allows everybody an
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  opportunity as they come in in the summer to not be a freshman anymore.
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  So everything that's going on is new, and so you know they're gonna have
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  to embrace everything that's going on new, and I think that's that's hard.
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  You know, you got julian Is coming in from from California, you have
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  air coming in from Georgia, and when everything's new, there's just there's an
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  adjustment phase. And and that's like that for every freshman. And so you
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  know, they're every day that goes by, they're getting more and more comfortable
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  here and getting their feet underneath them. They're gonna have to learn the offense
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  here and get going on the field. But it's great when you have like
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  Lincoln didn't go through that last year. And we knew that. You know,
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  Lincoln was a tremendous basketball player and a tremendous baseball player, and we
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  sat down with the family and said, we're going to be a little bit
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  behind here if we come in during the summer, and we knew that,
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  so that was part of the agreement. But we knew that he was going
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  to be a little behind. I feel like with these guys coming in now,
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  they'll be further ahead and be able to make more of an impact in
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  the fall. When we talked to Will Howard again a couple of weeks ago,
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  he talked about the fact that he had a decent sense that he was
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  probably going to end up at Ohio State before the Cotton Bowl game ever got
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  played, but that decision got pushed until after the Cotton Ball game got played.
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  So what was the deal with the timeline on that decision. Yeah,
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  I think when you look back on December and you know, the coaches had
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  a meeting at our conference and just talked about what December is like. And
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  you know, first off, having to go on the road, having signed
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  day preparing for bowl games. Now we're gonna have to pare for the playoffs,
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  the portal being open. I mean, December is really a nightmare.
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  And the way that it's all designed right now is chaotic. That's all kind
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  of a blur quite honestly to me, like that that all played out.
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  But you have to try to have contingency plans in place for things that happen,
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  whether it's you know, at certain positions, whether it's in your coaching
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  staff because things change quickly as we as we've we've learned and will continue to
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  learn and so and I think that's what's really important is that you know,
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  it's our job as coaches, and my job as the head coach to continually
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  make the right decisions for planning ahead, to sustain what we've done and now
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  obviously chase that top you know, one percent, two percent to finish off
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  some of these games at the end of the season that we need to do,
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  and and reacting but not overreacting as well. And so you know,
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  you have to have contingency plans in place, but you also have to make
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  sure that you're being transparent and I think we found that balance. You obviously
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  have to get your quarterbacks enough reps to figure out who your starters are,
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  but you also have to figure out who's number three, who's number four,
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  who's number five on that depth chart. So when you have five guys you're
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  trying to get snaps during the spring, how do you make sure you're getting
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  an accurate evaluation of all of those guys. Yeah, we're going to try
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  to do everything we can to get in as many reps as possible. Certainly,
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  the Julian thing was not something that we planned on. You know,
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  when you sit back at this time last year, you don't say, Okay,
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  here's how we're we're gonna look at this point next year. But when
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  it became a situation that was available, we felt like it was something that
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  we could really enhance the room, and so we did it. And we've
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  had situations before where that room has been crowded, but the cream usually rises
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  to the top on this thing, and so we're going to do everything we
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  can to get as many reps as possible and then rely on you know,
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  myself, Bill, our experience of you know, seeing quarterbacks of the years
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  and recognizing the trades that it takes to be a starter. And finally,
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  I thought this was an interesting one on Will Howard who said earlier he doesn't
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  really think himself as a running quarterback. His stats would say otherwise. He
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  had roughly one thousand yards rushing on the ground at Kansas State. So this
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  was an interesting answer from Ryan Day on Will Howard as a run One of
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  the things we got to do to win the last game of the year is
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  run the football, and in order to do that, you want to have
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  somebody that at least needs to be accounted for in the run game. If
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  the other defense says, well, he's not a thread at all to run,
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  that certainly changes the angles, changes the numbers, leverage, all the
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  above. And so that was one thing that I wanted to make sure we
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  had. And I think when you look at the guys we have on our
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  roster right now, they all have the ability to do that. Started with
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  that, then from there, okay, how do they throw the football,
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  what's their size, what's their intelligence? All those things, but we wanted
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  to make sure there was enough of it. Doesn't need to be run around
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  doing all kinds of you know, running with the ball, but needs to
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  be able to at least be accounted for by the So there you go.
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  That was just a small piece of the hour we got with Ryan Day.
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  A lot of really interesting stuff to talk about coming out of that. It
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  has been a fascinating month or so of Ohio State football, lots of storylines,
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  lots of news, lots of drama. We're still started waiting to hear
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  what the end of the Bill O'Brien saga will be. Will he get hired
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  at Boston College, will he stay at Ohio State. What if the Buckeye
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  is going to do with that tenth assistant coaching spot. Even if Bill O'Brien
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  does stay, they still got one more available. So we're gonna be following
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  all of that for you at Buckeye huddle dot com along with the recruiting drama
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  and the transfer portal drama and all the other fun stuff as we head into
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  the month of February and we're about a month away from the start of spring
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  ball, so there's been a lot of stuff to talk about. We would
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  love to have you there with us at Buckey hudle dot com talk about it
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  all with us. So hope you guys enjoyed that show. We'll be back
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  tomorrow with another one. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day. We will talk to you tomorrow