Ryan Day Wants Ohio State’s Quarterback Competition to Be Settled Two Weeks Before Season Opener vs. Texas

Ryan Day Wants Ohio State’s Quarterback Competition to Be Settled Two Weeks Before Season Opener vs. Texas

Ryan Day wants Ohio State‘s quarterback competition to be settled by the end of next week.

While Day said Tuesday that the competition between Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz could “go right down to the wire,” that doesn’t mean he wants the competition to go all the way up until the Buckeyes’ Aug. 30 season opener against Texas.

In an interview with Big Ten Network during its Thursday stop at Ohio State as part of its Big Ten Fall Camp Tour, Day said he hopes to pick a starting quarterback by the end of next week, as he would like to have a starter in place at least two weeks before the game against the Longhorns.

“I’d like to see them continue to compete throughout this week, maybe into next week. But you’d like to have an idea of who that guy’s going to be for at least a couple weeks heading into the first game,” Day said.

Unless one quarterback clearly separates from the other over the next couple of days, that likely means Day will publicly name Ohio State’s starting quarterback on Monday, Aug. 18, when he’s scheduled to hold a press conference. (He’ll also hold one next Monday.)

That would follow a similar timeline as last year, when Day named Will Howard the starting quarterback during his Aug. 15 press conference, 16 days before the Buckeyes’ season opener against Akron. Similarly, C.J. Stroud was named Ohio State’s starting quarterback on Aug. 21, 2021 and Justin Fields was named Ohio State’s starting quarterback on Aug. 19, 2019.

As Ohio State’s head coach, the only times Day has let a starting quarterback competition to continue until the first game week were in 2023, when Kyle McCord and Devin Brown continued to compete into the season before McCord was named the full-time starter after two games, and 2018, when Day waited until the week of the season opener before naming Dwayne Haskins the starter over Tate Martell.