NCAAF News: Buckeyes HC Ryan Day makes something clear about starting QB after Spring Game

Winning a national championship in college football is never easy — but doing it back-to-back is an even greater challenge. Ryan Day will once again captain the ship for the Ohio State Buckeyes, but with Will Howard no longer the central figure on the field, the spotlight now shifts to one key question: Who will be the starting quarterback come Week 1?

The first signs of movement began to emerge following the Spring Game, and head coach Ryan Day is slowly starting to zero in on two potential candidates to take over as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback: Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz.

“I felt like Lincoln (Kienholz) settled down after the first drive or so and made some nice throws,” Day said. “But I thought Julian (Sayin) for the most part early on was in rhythm and moved the team down the field for a couple touchdowns, which was good. Made some nice throws. There’s certainly a lot to grow from and this is why we did this. You can see it was a fairly significant emphasis on throwing the ball to see how the quarterbacks were going to respond.

“We’ll use this as another evaluation tool because right from the jump from when we got off the bus to when we just finished there, I’m glad we did this. I’m glad we did the spring game. I wasn’t sure, but it was definitely the right thing to do.”

During the Spring Game debut, Julian Sayin impressed by connecting on 17 of 24 passes for 175 yards, leading the Buckeyes to three consecutive touchdown drives to open the game. On the other side, Lincoln Kienholz also made his mark, completing 12 of 18 passes for 158 yards and adding two touchdown throws.

Progressing with every game

While Ryan Day is still far from naming a starting quarterback, the Ohio State head coach told the media he’s pleased with what he’s seen from his players so far. He expressed confidence that, with time, the team will continue to take meaningful steps forward — even if they come one small stride at a time.

“I think it’s just a matter of playing the game,” Day said. “And that’s why I think we’ve talked about this this spring. As the spring has gone on, I’ve just realized that at all positions, but most importantly at quarterback, we have to continue to play 11-on-11 football.

“And you can see the growth. You saw some growth even in the short amount of time that you guys were able to watch some of the practice this spring. We have the ability to watch them on a daily basis, see them grow.”

Will Howard sees plenty of talent in the Buckeyes’ QB room

Recent history at Ohio State has one name etched into Buckeyes lore following the team’s National Championship victory earlier this year: Will Howard. The talented quarterback is on a clear path to the NFL, but for now, he’s a voice of authority when it comes to evaluating the current quarterback situation under Ryan Day.

“I’m excited for them. They’ve got a lot of potential, a lot of young guys with a lot of talent,” Howard said to the press. “And you know, those guys are all made up the right qualities. They got the right makeup, they want to be here. And it takes, it takes something to be an Ohio State quarterback, and takes a special, different kind of dude, and all these guys got it.”