Ryan Day aims to maximize reps for Ohio State football quarterbacks in spring practice
Ohio State’s depth chart at quarterback is stacked with as many scholarship passers as it has had in Ryan Day’s coaching tenure.
The Buckeyes are set to enter spring practice with five, a position group that expanded last month with the addition of transfers Will Howard and Julian Sayin.
The abundance creates a delicate dynamic as repetitions are to be carefully divvied up among them over 15 practices.
“We need to get these guys as many reps as we possibly can,” Day said, “so they’ll be some long practices.”
Nearly all of the quarterbacks are new to Ohio State, adding to the importance of acclimating them.
Devin Brown, a redshirt sophomore who was the backup behind Kyle McCord last season, is the only scholarship signal caller who went through spring practice a year ago.
It was not until last summer before redshirt freshman Lincoln Kienholz enrolled, while the rest includes newcomers with Howard, a senior who transferred from Kansas State and is the most experienced of the bunch, and Air Noland and Sayin, both freshmen, the three of them trying to grasp an unfamiliar playbook.
Sayin, a former five-star prospect, signed his letter of intent at Alabama in December and enrolled at the school before transferring to Ohio State in the aftermath of the retirement of Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide’s legendary coach.
“What we need to do is figure out how many reps do we really need at the end of the spring to be ready to move into the summer,” Day said. “So whatever that is, it’s not a percentage, it’s what do we need per practice? And then we’ll make sure we get those reps.”
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Day mentioned a priority was to set up portions of practice that includes 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 periods, team situations that would prepare the quarterbacks.
The Buckeyes have also used multiple fields in past practices to maximize reps.
“When you have the quarterback room that we have,” Day said, “we’re going to need a bunch of team reps to make sure we’re developing these guys and they’re learning the offense.”
Day does not appear to think the Buckeyes’ quarterback room is too crowded. He framed the pickup of Sayin, the addition that gave them five scholarship signal callers, as another talented arm who would “enhance” it.
Ohio State went through last season with four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster before McCord transferred to Syracuse in December before the Cotton Bowl.
The potential fallout of having five, including the possibility of attrition when the transfer portal reopens in April, left Day unfazed.
“We don’t really focus on that,” he said. “We’ll just focus on developing the room and go from there, because we can only control what we can control.
“That’s part of the process right now. You can’t hold somebody back. If they want to go, they can go in the portal. That’s part of being transparent in the recruiting process, knowing each room is going to be super competitive and then we try to adapt the best we can from there.”
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch and can be reached at jkaufman@dispatch.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football coach Ryan Day looks to maximize spring QB reps
