Will Ohio State football seek starting quarterback competition in the transfer portal? Hey, Nathan!
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football began the regular season with a quarterback competition and ended it with a quarterback coronary.
Buckeye fans cringed when Kyle McCord threw a first-quarter interception to set up Michigan’s first touchdown in The Game. That he eventually locked in for another solid second-half performance could only appease them so much when the final score came up six points short.
With four scholarship quarterbacks projected to be on the roster in January — as of now, anyway — how does coach Ryan Day handle the next step in that room?
As with all OSU transfer questions, we need to set the parameters of what actually exists in the room. That starts with an assessment of McCord’s season-long performance.
McCord averages 9.1 yards per attempt with a 161.64 pass efficiency rating and a 24-6 touchdown-interception ratio. That production was a step down from what OSU had grown accustomed to under Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud. They were both more explosive and more efficient.
That production is also a step up from about 90 percent of the rest of FBS. Only 12 quarterbacks had both a better efficiency rating and averaged more yards per attempt. Many of them are seniors or are otherwise headed off to the NFL Draft.
So in terms of proven commodities — players we know have performed at or above McCord’s level — that’s a high bar to clear. That does not mean McCord’s 2023 production is sufficient for 2024. Pretty sure he would be the first person to say that.
But we have no indications at this point that Day is looking for another quarterback in the portal. It might be because he has already stocked the room with other options that, regardless of McCord’s incumbency, deserve a fresh evaluation.
The wild card right now is Brown, and whether he returns in the spring to compete for the starting job. I don’t know if Day needs to engage in another open competition where both quarterbacks essentially start from zero. However, OSU must take a look at what it actually has in Brown after a year of growth.
Day insisted Brown pushed McCord to the edge in the QB competition. McCord won on consistency. If Brown used the past year to close that gap, he will have a chance to prove it in the spring.
A New Year’s Six bowl, if OSU does not hit its draw to the inside straight necessary to make the playoff, might be one chance to get a fresh look at Brown. Might also depend on the severity of his ankle injury and at what level he can play in the next month.
No one would blame Brown, though, if he looked around at other options. That is the Top Gun competition Day has set up in his quarterback room. There can only be one, and at some point, players have to put their careers in motion.
Ohio State also should take a look at Lincoln Kienholz’s development after one year. While the athletic differences between McCord and Brown have been overstated at times, Kienholz actually is the most mobile quarterback on scholarship right now. If Day wanted to change his offense in a substantial way by emphasizing quarterback mobility, he need not mess with the portal.
Air Noland arrives this winter as a five-star, top-40 prospect. We have seen true freshmen show up at other major programs and be so dynamic that they must play immediately, or they take the job early. Too early to tell if Noland can provide the stability Day prioritizes, but it’s also already fair to say the possibility cannot be dismissed.
Maybe a Justin Fields-like unicorn enters the portal and Day feels he has to get involved. If not, Ohio State should have a multitude of strong quarterback options — including the incumbent. McCord wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t the anchor on this offense some perceive him to be. Someone will need to beat him out — and he has an offseason of development ahead of him as well.
