Ryan Day is happy with where his Ohio State quarterback room is. Will Howard has four touchdowns, no interceptions, and 520 passing yards through two starts in his first season as a Buckeye. Behind Howard, Devin Brown, Julian Sayin, and Lincoln Kienholz have kept themselves prepared for snaps. And they’ve gotten them.
Brown and Sayin have 124 yards, no interceptions, and a touchdown between them – a 55-yard connection with Bennett Christian for six against Western Michigan in Week 2 – while Kienholz has real game action under his belt; if with no passing attempts.
Day praised their on-field efforts as well as their support for each other.
“I thought Devin did a nice job on that first drive that he went in there [for],” Day said postgame on September 7. “He hit a nice play-action pass, did a couple nice things. Threw an over out to [redshirt freshman wide receiver] Bryson Rodgers, which was well done, made a couple nice checks in the run game. So I thought that was good. He got a couple drives.
“I felt like we wanted to get Jules in there and Lincoln as well. Those guys are working, and they deserve an opportunity to play in those types of situations. The more we can do that, the better. I would love to get them more and more reps, but when you have that many quarterbacks, it’s hard to do. But, again, I think this team overall is unselfish, and I think that everyone’s cheering for each other, they’re pulling for each other, and the ball got spread around today overall, and that was good.”
Ohio State football has a crucial opening in Big Ten
The Buckeyes haven’t been challenged yet. Akron and Western Michigan hardly represent the most difficult competition out there. Their top competition in the Big Ten, Michigan and Oregon, have, though.
Michigan failed its test against Texas. The Longhorns metaphorically planted their flag on the Wolverines at “The Big House” with a 31-12 win during regulation time and then literally did so via a postgame flag-plant from sixth-year Texas linebacker David Gbenda.
Oregon has had trouble taking down Boise State and Idaho through the first two weeks of the season. Dan Lanning’s Ducks have taken a step back with Bo Nix off to the NFL.
USC looks like the biggest threat for the Big Ten Championship and Nebraska or Penn State looks like the Buckeyes’ toughest game on the schedule. There’s an opening right now for Ohio State since the teams initially pegged to be their biggest competition don’t look nearly as tough as expected.
